HEAR FROM THOUGHT LEADERS IN PALAEONTOLOGY...
VIPS SPEAKERS & FIELD TRIPS FOR 2024Sun, January 21, 2024, 11AM - 2PM PST, Vancouver Paleontological Society (VanPS) tour of the Geologic Survey of Canada (GSC) Vancouver, 605 Robson Street, Suite 1500, Vancouver, BC, V6B 5J3. Contact John Fam, Vice-Chair, VanPS, 604-787-7404 for information
Sun, February 11, 2024, 1PM PST — Vancouver Island Palaeotnological Society (VIPS) AGM, Courtenay and District Museum and Paleontological Centre, Courtenay, British Columbia
1PM - 1:30PM Renew VIPS Memberships 1:30PM - 2:00PM VIPS AGM 2PM - 3PM Dan Bowen Presentation Sun, February 11, 2024, 1PM PST — First Record of an Oligocene Chimaeroid Fish (Ratfish) Egg Capsule from Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Lecture by Dan Bowen, Chair, VIPS & British Columbia Paleontological Alliance (BCPA), Courtenay and District Museum and Paleontological Centre. (In person lecture)
Sun, March 17, 2024 — VIPS Fossil Field Trip — Boomerang Lake. We will be exploring the old sites and some new ones looking for the heteromorph Ainoceras sp. Call Dan Bowen to confirm meeting at the Gate time. 9:30AM Easy Trip. VIPS members only.
Sun, March 24, 2024, 2PM PST — Dan Bowen — Struck by Lightning: The Mary Anning Story
Learn about this history of Mary Anning from Dan Bowen, Chair of the Vancouver Island Palaeontological Society (VIPS) and British Columbia Palaeontological Alliance (BCPA). Mary Anning was an English fossil collector and palaeontologist who became known around the world for the discoveries she made in Jurassic marine fossil beds in the cliffs at Lyme Regis in the county of Dorset, Southwest England. Sat, April 6, 2024 — BCPA AGM — 1:30PM via Zoom. Link to be sent via email.
Sat, April 13, 2024 — VIPS Fossil Field Trip — Shelter Point
Shelter Point & Ocean Grove Beach. Crab Fossils & New Exposures. Low tide 2:30PM 0.8 m. Meet at Dan's at 8:30AM or on the beach. Sat, April 27, 2024 — VIPS Fossil Field Trip — Hornby Island
VIPS Fossil Field Trip to visit the 72 million-year-old sediments at Collishaw Point on the northwest side of Hornby Island, southwestern British Columbia. We will be on the 9AM ferry. Meet at Dan's at 8:15AM or at the ferry terminal at 8:45AM. Low tide 2AM 0.9 m 
Sat, May 4, 2024, 1PM PST — Jean-Bernard Caron, Lower Cambrian Cranbrook Lagerstätte in the East Kootenay region of south-eastern British Columbia, Canada
Jean-Bernard Caron is a French and Canadian palaeontologist and curator of invertebrate palaeontology at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
His will share his insights on the weird and wonderful marine fossil fauna from the many outcrops of the Lower Cambrian Eager Formation near the town of Cranbrook. His team did some extensive field work—particularly at the Silhouette Range locality—a few summers ago and we are keen to hear the results of their efforts. The fossils we find in the Eager Formation are just a shade older than those found at the Burgess Shale Lagerstätte. Burgess is Middle Cambrian and the species match the Eager fauna one for one but the Eager fauna are much less varied. The specimens we do find are wonderfully preserved and beautifully displayed in the Cranbrook History Centre. This is a Vancouver Paleontological Society talk coordinated by Dan Bowden and Guy Santucci—both of whom are deeply awesome. We will share the live Zoom link here on the day of the lecture. There is no need to preregister. Sat, May 11, 2024 — VIPS Fossil Field Trip — Hornby Island
VIPS Fossil Field Trip to visit the 72 million-year-old sediments at Collishaw Point on the northwest side of Hornby Island, southwestern British Columbia. We will be on the 9AM ferry. Meet at Dan's at 8:15AM or at the ferry terminal at 8:45AM. Low tide 1:56PM 0.4 m May 23-27, 2024 — VIPS Fossil Field Trip — Whales, Wolves & Wild West Coast Fossil Field Trip to Eocene Exposures. Wilderness Camping. Access by floatplane. (VIPS Invite Only). Tides 1.8 ft - 1.3 ft
June 8-9, 2024 — Campbell River Rock and Gem Show. VIPS will have a large fossil display. VIPS volunteers wanted to work the display, set up and break down. Call Dan or Betty to share your interest.
Wed, June 12, 2024 — 6:00-8:00PM PST — Dr. Brian Chatterton — Chasing Fossils Around Canada and the World, Eagle Eye Theatre, 38430 Buckley Avenue, Squamish, British Columbia and via Zoom.
Join Zoom Meeting: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88026427149?pwd=kQr6JzG7y3Z7FPgIX4KaeVuHxvyvcL.1 Meeting ID: 880 2642 7149 Passcode: 450377 June 22-26, 2024 — VIPS Fossil Field Trip — Wild West Coast Fossil Field Trip to Escalante. Wilderness Camping. Access by boat (VIPS Invite Only) Tides 0.9 ft - 1.1 ft.
July 22-26, 2024 — Yellow Bluff Bay — Tatchu-Jurassic Point. Expedition boat from Tahsis to YBB. Fossil Crab, cones and shark vertebrae.
Thurs, August 8, 2024 — Hornby Island Natural History Museum Fossil Faire. VIPS will have a fossil display and educational presentation. All are welcome.
Sun, August 18, 2024 — Memekay Jurassic Ammonite Fossil Field Trip to the Sayward area, Vancouver Island. Leave Courtenay 8AM. Full day. Trip is Fire Season Vulnerable (confirm day of). Bring Lunch, water & gas up prior to leaving.
Sun, August 25, 2022 — VIPS Annual Saber-Tooth Salmon BBQ
Bring a friend, food, beverage & lawn chair. Social 4PM-5PM, Dinner 5PM-6:30PM, Palaeo Auction 6:30-7:30PM. The evening will feature Jay Hawley on guitar. All VIPS members are welcome and encouraged to bring a guest. TBC 2024, 1PM PST — David Evans, Hadrosaurs & Ornithomimids from Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada
We will hear from David Evans about the first dinosaur found on Vancouver Island, a terrestrial hadrosauroid known from a selection of caudal vertebrae first thought to belong to a marine reptile. 
TBD, 2024, 1PM PST — David Rudkin — The Discovery of Isotelus, the World's Largest Trilobite & Arthropod Gigantism
Dave Rudkin will be sharing on the discovery of the largest known trilobite fossil, a virtually complete articulated dorsal shield of the asaphid Isotelus rex new species, recovered from Upper Ordovician (Cincinnatian, Richmondian) nearshore carbonates of the Churchill River Group in northern Manitoba.
At over 700 mm in length, it is almost 70 percent longer than the largest previously documented complete trilobite, and provides the first unequivocal evidence of maximum trilobite length in excess of one-half metre. Dave Rudkin works at the Department of Natural History at the Royal Ontario Museum and Lecturer in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Toronto. His interests range from palaeobiology to systematics, and taphonomy of fossil Arthropoda, particularly Trilobita. His research projects include the palaeoecology and taphonomy of Silurian reef-associated trilobite assemblages (Hudson Bay Basin); collaboration with G. Young (Manitoba Museum), R. Elias (University of Manitoba) and G. Nowlan (Geological Survey of Canada) on the palaeoecology of an exhumed Upper Ordovician rocky shoreline sequence (Churchill, Manitoba); with J.-B. Caron (ROM and University of Toronto ) on selected Burgess Shale studies, including trilobites and taphonomic thresholds VIPS SPEAKERS & FIELD TRIPS 2023Sun, March 5, 2023, 2PM PST — VIPS AGM & Year in Review via ZOOM
VIPS Election of Directors followed by a presentation of field trips, speakers & the Castle Pass Expedition by Dan Bowen, VIPS Chair Sun, March 12, 2023 — VIPS Field Trip to the Hand of Man Museum
Join us at the Hand of Man Museum near Duncan, BC. open 10AM to 5PM. $20 fee at the door. Call Dan or Betty to confirm. Sun, April 9, 2023 — VIPS Fossil Field Trip — Hornby Island
VIPS Fossil Field Trip to visit the 72 million-year-old sediments at Collishaw Point on the northwest side of Hornby Island, southwestern British Columbia. We will be on the 9AM ferry. Meet at Dan's at 8:15AM or at the ferry terminal at 8:45AM. Low tide 2PM 1.0 m Sun, April 16, 2023, 2PM PST — Dan Bowen — Wild West Coast Palaeontological Expeditions — Escalante & Yellow Bluff Bay
Sat, April 22, 2023 — VIPS Fossil Field Trip — Shelter Point
Shelter Point & Ocean Grove Beach. Crab Fossils. Low tide Noon 1.0 m. Meet at Dan's at 8:30AM or on the beach. Sat, May 6, 2023 — VIPS Fossil Field Trip — Hornby Island
VIPS Fossil Field Trip to visit the 72 million-year-old sediments at Collishaw Point on the northwest side of Hornby Island, southwestern British Columbia. We will be on the 9AM ferry. Meet at Dan's at 8:15AM or at the ferry terminal at 8:45AM. Low tide Noon 0.6 m Sat, May 13, 2023 — Hornby Island Fossil Fair — Join the VIPS at the Hornby Island Natural History Centre. Fossil Displays & Fossil IDing
Sat, June 3, 2023 — VIPS Fossil Field Trip — Shelter Point
Shelter Point & Ocean Grove Beach. Crab Fossils. Low tide Noon 0.3 m. Meet at Dan's at 8:30AM or on the beach. June 9th - 12th, 2023, 14th BC Palaeontological Symposium hosted by the Victoria Palaeontology Society along with the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences (SEOS), University of Victoria (UVic); Royal British Columbia Museum (RBCM); and, BC Fossil Management Office.
The 2023 BCPA conference is being held at the Bob Wright Centre, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC. Keynote Speakers: Dr. Jean-Bernard Caron & Dr. Charles Helm. BCPA Conference Link: https://vicpalaeo.org/events/14th-bc-palaeontological-symposium/?fbclid=IwAR3V8g5CKs9sAjcGRLFgEq3xKXT-gDUaditZlyzvI-GRZR7DJ-bszXGwfRU June 17th - 21st, 2023 — VIPS Fossil Field Trip — Whales, Wolves & Wild West Coast Fossil Field Trip, British Columbia (VIPS Invite Only)
Sun, July 23, 2023 — VIPS Fossil Field Trip — Northwest Bay & Boomerang Lake. We will be meeting at the gate at 9:30AM
Sun, August 2023 — VIPS Annual Saber-Tooth Salmon BBQ
Bring a friend, food, beverage & lawn chair. Social 4PM-5PM, Auction 5PM-6:30PM. Jay Hawley on guitar for the evening entertainment Sun, October 15, 2023, 1PM PST — British Columbia Paleontological Alliance — Annual General Meeting. All societal members are welcome
Sat, October 21, 2023, 1:30PM PST — VIPS Meeting at the Courtenay Museum with Dan Bowen — Fossiling on the Wild West Coast of Vancouver Island
Sun, October 22, 2023 — VIPS Fossil Field Trip — Boomerang Lake. Meet at Dan Bowen's at 8:30AM or at the Access Gate at 9:30AM
Sun, November 19, 2023, 1PM PST - Victoria Arbour — Royal BC Museum Fieldwork at the Carbon Creek Basin Dinosaur Tracksite
The Carbon Creek Basin site is located just west of Hudson’s Hope in the Peace River area and boasts nearly 1,200 dinosaur tracks from at least 12 different types of dinosaurs—including two dinosaur track types that have not been observed at any other site in the Peace Region
PALAEONTOLOGY / PALEONTOLOGYPa·lae·on·tol·o·gy — the branch of science concerned with fossil animals and plants. It includes the study of fossils to classify organisms and study their interactions with each other and their environments — their palaeoecology.
Palaeontology lies on the border between biology and geology, but differs from archaeology in that it excludes the study of anatomically modern humans. Yes, they are fossils but not the fossils we are generally looking at. It uses techniques drawn from a wide range of sciences — biochemistry, mathematics, and engineering. Advances in techniques and the use of technology like CT scans has enabled palaeontologists to tease answers from rock and share with the world many of the secrets of the evolutionary history of life. We are Canadian, so it's palaeontology. Our US friends are paleontologists... And you, of course, are awesome! |
15th BCPA Symposium, Courtenay 2025 15th BCPA Symposium, August 22-24, 2025 in Courtenay, British Columbia
We have the honour of having Kirk Johnson, Sant Director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History where he oversees the world's largest natural history collection as our Keynote Speaker and artist Ray Troll as our dinner speaker. KEYNOTE SPEAKER: KIRK JOHNSON Kirk became the Sant Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in 2012, hot on the heels of his stint as a paleontologist at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. During his time there he led expeditions in eighteen US states and eleven countries — including Ellesmere Island in the Arctic to the far reaches of the Amur-Heilongjiang region of China on the Chinese-Russian border and back again to find some of the first fossil plants in the badlands near Drumheller. Kirk is often asked why he studies plants and not something more spectacular. It is important that you know that plants are THE MOST SPECTACULAR fossils and his fossil plants would throw any theropod remains to the mat. He's found many exciting fossil finds (including some spectacular very un-plant-ish) Canadian fossils. DINNER SPEAKER: RAY TROLL Ray Troll is an American artist based in Ketchikan, Alaska. Ray Troll, draws inspiration from the fossil record and pays homage to the familiar and bizarre in stunning portrayals of lost worlds. He is best known for his scientifically accurate and often humorous artwork. His most well-known design, "Spawn Till You Die," pops up in the most unexpected places—including the film Superbad worn by actor Daniel Radcliffe. WHOSE WHO LINE UP OF INTERESTING SPEAKERS We will also be joined by vertebrate paleontologist F. Robin O'Keefe, Associate Professor in the Biology Department at Marshall University sharing on marine reptiles of the Comox Valley including a new exciting new genus and specias, Ruth Stockey delighting us with insights on the many Fossil Seeds found on Vancouver Island, plus Ruth Stockey, Victoria Arbour, Sandy McLaughlan, Torrey Nyberg, Jim Haggart. Marji Johns will be sharing an update on the fossil ratfish egg capsule found on Botanical Beach along the shores of Juan de Fuca Provincial Park on Vancouver Island. It is shaping up to be a whose-who of palaeo world class event not to be missed. Friday, August 22nd: Shelter Point Sunday, August 24th: Trent River & Fossil Prep Workshop Monday, August 25th: Hornby Island, Collishaw Point We look forward to seeing all of you at the 15th BCPA Symposium, August 22-24, 2025 in Courtenay. Additional conference information coming soon! CUE THE CONFETTI—THE PUNTLEDGE ELASMOSAUR ANNOUNCED AS BC'S NEW PROVINCIAL FOSSIL
Sound the horns, beat the drums and stomp your feet—it's official! The Puntledge Elasmosaur is now British Columbia's Provincial Fossil.
The photo you see here is the cast that graces the home of Mike Trask who boasts some of the best finds ever from our west coast. He found the first elasmosaur in 1988 while exploring the Puntledge River with his daughter. He found the first terrestrial dinosaur remains from Vancouver Island and coined the term "sabre-toothed salmon" of legendary fame. It was Mike's twin brother Pat Trask, who led the excavation of the juvenile elasmosaur from the Trent River back in August 2020. The photo below is a pictture of the famed duo from December 2023. He was joined by many talented souls from the Vancouver Island Palaeontological Society and Courtenay Museum. A huge thank you to the many souls who have been canvassing for this happy outcome for years and who have contributed so much to west coast palaeo! 
Pat Trask & Mike Trask, December 2023
THE PUNTLEDGE ELASMOSAUR
This lengthy beauty above is an elasmosaur—a large marine reptile now housed in the Courtenay and District Museum on Vancouver Island.
This specimen was found by Mike Trask and his daughter in the winter of 1988 while fossil collecting along the Puntledge River. While he couldn't have known it at the time, it was this discovery and those that followed that would spark a renewed interest in palaeontology on Vancouver Island and the province of British Columbia. Mike had foraged ahead, adding chalk outlines to interesting fossil and nodules in the 83 million-year-old shales along the riverbank. His daughter, Heather, was looking at the interesting features he had just outlined when they both noticed some tasty blocks and concretions in situ just a few meters away. Taking a closer look, they were thrilled to discover that they held the bones of a large marine reptile. Unsure of what exactly they'd discovered but recognizing them as significant, Mike reached out to Dr. Betsy Nicholls at the Royal Tyrell Museum. It was Betsy who'd written up the incomplete specimen of fossil turtle, Desmatochelys cf. D. lowi — Reptilia: Chelonioidea — found by Richard Bolt, VIPS, in the shales of the Trent River Formation along the Puntledge River in the early 1990s. Dr. Nicholls wrote up the paper and published in the Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences in 1992. At that time, it was the first documented account of a Cretaceous marine vertebrate from the Pacific coast of Canada, which shows you how much we've learned about our Pacific coast in the past thirty years. The Desmatchelys find inspired the 1999 BCPA Symposium conference logo. Every second year, the BCPA hosts a symposium. The 1999 conference at UBC was the first time the Vancouver Paleontological Society had hosted a BCPA conference. The conference abstract was graced with a trilobite embedded within a turtle, celebrating that recent significant contributions to Canadian palaeontology. When Mike showed her the bones he had found, Betsy confirmed them to be that of an elasmosaur, a large marine reptile with a small head, razor-sharp teeth and a long neck—and the first discovery of an elasmosaur west of the Canadian Rockies. It was one of those moments that lights up and inspires a whole community. CAMPBELL RIVER ROCK & GEM SHOWSat & Sun, June 8-9, 2024 — The VIPS will have a large fossil display on view to the public at the Campbell River Rock & Gem Show. The VIPS is looking for volunteers to help with set-up, tear-down and to work the display over the weekend. If you are interested in being a Fossil Ambassador, contact Dan Bowen or Betty Franklin, VIPS, Courtenay.
PAST VIPS PALAEO TALKS...Sun, February 13, 2022, 2PM PST — Danna Staaf — Cephalopods are the New Dinosaurs. Come & hear from the Cephalopodiatrist and author of Squid Empire & Monarchs of the Sea.
Sunday, March 20, 2022, 2PM PST — Kirk Johnson — A Lucky Paleontologist & the Tale of Three Splendid Canadian Fossils. Join us for a talk with the Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History & Paleontologist who has led expeditions in eighteen US states and eleven countries
Sunday, April 24, 2022, 2PM PST — John-Paul Zonneveld
Brave New World: Recovery from the Permian-Triassic Mass Extinction & the Significance of Marine Faunas in Northeastern British Columbia Sunday, May 22, 2022, 2PM PST — Russell Shapiro — Stromatolites, Methane Seeps & Metamorphosed Fossils on Mars. Learn about his work as a paleontologist exploring fossils from the present day to over three billion years ago & searching for fossils on Mars for NASA
Sun, September 25, 2022, 1PM PST — Joe Moysiuk — The Weird & the Wonderful: Lessons from the Cambrian
Sun, October 23, 2022, NOON PST — Phil Hadland, Collections & Engagement Curator of Natural Sciences at the Hastings Museum & Art Gallery, UK — 101 Fossils of Folkstone, Kent, UK.
The Fossil Cabinet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZE_40tw1Vg Fossils of Folkestone, Kent https://siriscientificpress.co.uk/products/fossils-of-folkestone-kent BGS iGeology App / https://www.bgs.ac.uk/igeology/ Kent Coal https://www.dovermuseum.co.uk/Exhibitions/Coal-Mining-in-Kent/History/The-Discovery-of-Coal-in-Kent.aspx http://www.gaultammonite.co.uk/ References
Sun, November 20, 2022, 2PM PST — Derek Larson — A New Species of Helochelydrid Turtle from Late Cretaceous outcrops on the Trent River, Vancouver Island
Sun, January 15, 2023, 2PM PST — Dr. Grant Zazula — Woolly Mammoths Remains from the Yukon & Extinct Arctic Mammals
Sun, February 19, 2023, 2PM PST — Sandy McLachlan — Dinoflagellate Cysts — Serendipity & British Columbia's first K-Pg Boundary Interval
DID YOU KNOW? The oldest rocks on Vancouver Island are Devonian in age (ca. 370 my) and include sea-floor and terrestrial volcanic rocks as well as some limestones of the Sicker and Buttle Lake Groups
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NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUBLISHED...
In 1987, Wesley Wehr, a paleobotanist (and dear friend) who specialized in the fossil plants of the Okanagan Highlands of British Columbia and Republic, Washington published a paper with Jack Wolfe on Middle Eocene dicotyledonous plants from Republic.
In it, they named a new species of early Eocene fossil linden leaf for Kirk Johnson, now Director of the Smithsonian, but then a young man with a keen eye for fossils. The species is Tilia johnsoni and it lives now at the Burke Museum in Seattle, Washington. Kirk had found the leaf at the corner lot fossil site in Republic, Washington and generously given it to Wehr and Wolfe. The duo named the specimen for Kirk both because of his generosity and because he was someone they much admired. Me, too!
In the early 2000s, Wes Wehr was working on his last book, The Accidental Collector: Art, Fossils, and Friendship. In it, he weaves together all of the polite mentions briefly noted in his published papers into their larger stories and contexts. His tale in meeting Kirk is included.
Wes was an extraordinary human being and delightful orator who knew how to tell a good story. Ours were over dinner and in the field, cherished because they are now lost in time. He could thrill you with a tale or tidbit about art, history, music or fossils. He had an inordinate fondness for the Ginkgo Petrified Forest near Vantage, Washington and could work tales of his exploits there into any conversation — and we loved him deeper for it.
We lost him in the Spring of 2004. He touched many and will be sadly missed. If you didn't have the pleasure of meeting him or hearing him speak, I do recommend reading his works. While these talks were originally intended for the Vancouver Island Palaeontological Society in Courtenay, British Columbia, they have now been opened up to the general public. One of the reasons for sharing them with the world is to ensure that those we love and admire are shared with all of you.
So many great talks, knowledge and passion could be shared, should be shared... for everyone... for all time. This is also a forum for staying in touch with one another, sharing updates and planting the seeds of friendship and collaboration.
In it, they named a new species of early Eocene fossil linden leaf for Kirk Johnson, now Director of the Smithsonian, but then a young man with a keen eye for fossils. The species is Tilia johnsoni and it lives now at the Burke Museum in Seattle, Washington. Kirk had found the leaf at the corner lot fossil site in Republic, Washington and generously given it to Wehr and Wolfe. The duo named the specimen for Kirk both because of his generosity and because he was someone they much admired. Me, too!
In the early 2000s, Wes Wehr was working on his last book, The Accidental Collector: Art, Fossils, and Friendship. In it, he weaves together all of the polite mentions briefly noted in his published papers into their larger stories and contexts. His tale in meeting Kirk is included.
Wes was an extraordinary human being and delightful orator who knew how to tell a good story. Ours were over dinner and in the field, cherished because they are now lost in time. He could thrill you with a tale or tidbit about art, history, music or fossils. He had an inordinate fondness for the Ginkgo Petrified Forest near Vantage, Washington and could work tales of his exploits there into any conversation — and we loved him deeper for it.
We lost him in the Spring of 2004. He touched many and will be sadly missed. If you didn't have the pleasure of meeting him or hearing him speak, I do recommend reading his works. While these talks were originally intended for the Vancouver Island Palaeontological Society in Courtenay, British Columbia, they have now been opened up to the general public. One of the reasons for sharing them with the world is to ensure that those we love and admire are shared with all of you.
So many great talks, knowledge and passion could be shared, should be shared... for everyone... for all time. This is also a forum for staying in touch with one another, sharing updates and planting the seeds of friendship and collaboration.
FANCY GIVING A TALK? LET US KNOW!
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DEAD SEXY SCIENCE...
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“Nature has a habit of placing some of her most attractive treasures in places where it is difficult to locate and obtain them.”
― Charles Doolittle Walcott |