Paleontology

Scientists who discovered a beaked, plant-eating dinosaur in China called Limusaurus inextricabilis ("mire lizard who could not escape") say it demonstrates that theropod, or bird-footed, dinosaurs were more ecologically diverse in the Jurassic period than previously thought.  Even more, they write in Nature that it offers important evidence about how the three-fingered hand of birds evolved from the hand of dinosaurs. "This new animal is fascinating, and when placed into an evolutionary context it offers intriguing evidence about how the hand of birds evolved," said scientist James…

Some mammoths remained part of British wildlife long after they were believed (scientifically) to have become extinct, according to research published today in the Geological Journal. Analysis of both the bones and the surrounding environment in Shropshire, England provide the most geologically recent evidence of woolly mammoths in western Europe, they say. The mammoth bones, consisting of one largely complete adult male and at least four juveniles, were first excavated 27th September 1986 by mechanical digger operators, but the carbon dating which took place at the time has since been…

If we're lucky, fossils can at least tell us whether an extinct species was carnivore or vegetarian but the skull characteristics of a new species of parrot-beaked dinosaur and its associated gizzard stones indicate that the animal fed on nuts and/or seeds;the first solid evidence of nut-eating in any dinosaur. Paleontologists discovered the new dinosaur, which they've named Psittacosaurus gobiensis, in the Gobi Desert of Inner Mongolia in 2001, and spent years preparing and studying the specimen. The dinosaur is approximately 110 million years old, dating to the mid-Cretaceous Period. "The…

During the middle Eocene, 45-50 m.y.a., a number of freshwater lakes appeared in an arc extending from Smithers, through the modern Cariboo, to Kamloops, the Nicola Valley, Princeton, and Republic, WA. The faulting was followed by a period of volcanism that produced a fine-grained ash. The ash washed into the lakes and because of its texture, and possibly because of low water oxygen levels on the bottoms that slowed decay, plant, invertebrate, and fish fossils were preserved in wonderful detail.

When the 47million-year-old fossil dubbed 'Ida' was revealed to the world, attention soon turned to the anonymous German shale pit where it was first unearthed. The astonishingly well-preserved remains of the primate-like animal could prove to be the so-called 'missing link' which would help prove Darwin's theory of evolution. When the 47million-year-old fossil dubbed 'Ida' was revealed to the world, attention soon turned to the anonymous German shale pit where it was first unearthed. The astonishingly well-preserved remains of the primate-like animal could prove to be the so-called '…

Bounty draws a crowd. Fossil enthusiasts will be heading up to Cache Creek, the gateway to B.C.'s Cariboo Country for a weekend of riding, big, open fields, cowboys and the Eocene fossil beds at McAbee and Kamloops Lake where fish, insects and plant fossils abound. While the site is now an arid hillside topped with finger-like hoodoos, some 51 million years ago it was a flourishing lake. As fish and other inhabitants died, their remains settled to the bottom and were preserved in the fine-grained clay, ash and silt that would one day become shale. McAbee, named for the nearby village…

The Queen Charlotte Islands form part of Wrangellia, an exotic tectonostratiphic terrane, that includes parts of western British Columbia, Vancouver Island and Alaska. I'll be bringing my rock hammer and kayak to the mist-shrouded archipelago of Haida Gwaii next month to collect ammonites from the Middle Albian, Haida Formation. Over the years, my field work has yielded exquisitely preserved species marine specimens from the Middle Albian, including Desmoceras, Brewerikceras and Douvelliceras. This trip will be a return to some familiar sites, both because of…

If you live in California, Bakersfield is just a place where farming mega-corporations grow a lot of stuff.  If you're remotely literate, you remember it as the 'Promised Land' the "Okies" left home for in The Grapes of Wrath.  If you like pop culture, it is part of the Route 66 highway(1),  which became famous in a song first sung by Nat King Cole(2). But Bakersfield's rich central farmland was once the Temblor Sea, thanks to global warming, and  the fossil  remains tell a science tale. In the famed Sharktooth Hill Bone Bed near Bakersfield, Calif., shark teeth as…

Just heading out to Princeton to collect in some of the Eocene lakebed sites. Aside from Ginko, pine and alder, one of the most common finds here are March flies, also known as love bugs or tumble bugs. These little guys are still common today, although they are usually found in warmer climates than that of BC. During the Eocene, 40-60 million years ago, the climate in the Princeton area of British Columbia, was quite balmy... picture a sunny picnic in Mississipi... now add flies.

More than a 100 groups of mammals have been found in the early Miocene (37 – 20 mya) John Day Formation that underlies the Mascall near Kimberly, north central Oregon. I'm planning a field trip this August to collect in the fossiliferous strata along the beaches and those of the John Day that have yielded beautifully preserved speciments of many of the animals we see domesticated today. Primative dogs, cats, swine and horses are common. Oreodonts, opposums, squirrels, rabbits, sabre-tooth cats, camels, rhinoceras and rodents have also been found in this ancient deciduous forested area. Look…