P a l æ o n t o l o g i c a lS o c i e t y

B u l l e t i nA l b e r t aVOLUME 14 • NUMBER 2 JUNE 1999

ALBERTA PALÆONTOLOGICAL SOCIETY

OFFICERSPresident Wayne Braunberger 278-5154 Program Coordinator Dr. Kris Vasudevan 288-7955Vice-President Vaclav Marsovsky 547-0182 Curator Ron Fortier 285-8041Treasurer * (Les Adler 289-9972) Librarian Dr. Gerry Morgan 241-0963Secretary Don Sabo 278-8045 Events Coordinator Keith Mychaluk 228-3211Past-President Les Adler 289-9972 Director at Large Dr. David Mundy 281-3668DIRECTORSEditor Howard Allen 274-1858 Social Director Cory Gross 720-5725Membership Geoff Barrett 279-1838 †APAC Representative Don Sabo 278-8045

* This position is currently unfilled. Person listed is acting officer on an interim basis only.†APAC is the Alberta Palaeontological Advisory Committee

The Society was incorporated in 1986, as a non-profit organization formed to:

a. Promote the science of palaeontology through study and education.b. Make contributions to the science by:

1) discovery 4) education of the general public

2) collection 5) preservation of material for study and the future3) description

c. Provide information and expertise to other collectors.d. Work with professionals at museums and universities to add to the palaeontological collections of

the province (preserve Alberta’s heritage).

MEMBERSHIP: Any person with a sincere interest in palaeontology is eligible to present their applicationfor membership in the Society. (Please enclose membership dues with your request for application.)

Single membership $15.00 annually

Family or Institution $20.00 annually

THE BULLETIN WILL BE PUBLISHED QUARTERLY: March, June, September and December.Deadline for submitting material for publication is the 15th of the month prior to publication.

Society Mailing Address: Material for Bulletin:Alberta Palaeontological Society Howard Allen, Editor, APSP.O. Box 35111, Sarcee Postal Outlet 7828 Hunterslea Crescent, N.W.Calgary, Alberta, Canada T3E 7C7 Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2K 4M2Web: www.geocities.com/SoHo/9094/aps.html (E-mail 75272.1316@compuserve.com)

NOTICE: Readers are advised that opinions expressed in the articles are those of the author and do not necessarilyreflect the viewpoint of the Society. Except for articles marked “Copyright ©,” reprinting of articles by exchangebulletins is permitted, as long as appropriate credit is given. Requests for missing issues of the Bulletin should beaddressed to the editor.

UPCOMING APS MEETINGSMeetings take place at 7:30 p.m., in Room B108,

Mount Royal College: 4825 Richard Road SW, Calgary, Alberta

June, July, August, 1999—No meetings. See field trip announcements, Page 2.September 17, 1999—Topic to be announced. Bring your finds and photos from

your summer adventures!

ON THE COVER: Lower Jurassic ammonites; Black Ven Marls, Charmouth, Dorset, England. MainlyPromicroceras planicosta (coarse ribbed specimens); also Cymbites sp., cf. C. (Paracymbites) obsoletus(smooth sided specimens) and two unidentified specimens (bottom left, and fragment at top centre). Allmagnified 2.7x. Photo by Howard Allen.

APS Bulletin 1 June 1999

1999 Field TripsNOTE: Non-members and unaccompaniedminors will NOT be allowed to attend field trips.A $5.00 charge (per single or family member-ship, except for the Burgess Shale trip) will becollected, to offset the cost of printing fieldguides. For further information on all trips,contact Keith Mychaluk (403) 228-3211.

Field Trip 99-1: Saturday & Sunday, June19 & 20, Princess & Wolf Coulee, ABThere are currently 40 people signed up for thistrip. Details of the trip were published in theMarch Bulletin. If you need an update, please call

Keith.

Field Trip 99-2: Saturday & Sunday, July17 & 18, Korite ammonite quarry, ABMeeting time and place: Tourist information cen-tre parking lot at the corner of Mayor Magrath

Drive and Scenic Drive, in south Lethbridge, at9:30 A.M. sharp on Saturday. This will be a stagingarea only, as we will continue down to the quarrysite along several unmarked gravel roads.

Car Pooling: Due to rough road conditions andlimited space, Korite Ltd. requests that the APS useas few vehicles as possible. We are aiming for only10–15 vehicles, and we currently have over 40 peo-ple signed up for the trip. Only vehicles with good

clearance will be allowed by Korite at the quarrysite—therefore, only trucks, SUVs and vans arerecommended. Keith will be in contact with partic-ipants to help organize the car pooling.

Itinerary: The APS will be one of the first publicgroups to tour Korite Ltd.’s quarry near the St.Mary River. Korite’s operation excavates Ammo-lite-bearing rocks from the Bearpaw Formation(Late Cretaceous). Ammolite is a gemstone, origi-nally formed as ammonite shell. Opportunities to

collect will likely be limited and will certainly bescreened by Korite staff. On Sunday, we will ex-plore other nearby sites that may allow for collect-ing of bivalves, gastropods and maybe ammonites.

What to bring: Food, lots of water, sunscreen andgood footwear.

Accommodations: Lots of motels in Lethbridge.Campgrounds in Lethbridge, Magrath, St. MaryReservoir Provincial Recreation Area and Milk

River Ridge Park near Warner.

Field Trip 99-3: Saturday, August 21,Burgess Shale, Yoho National Park, BC

NOTE: Attendance for this field trip is limitedby Parks Canada to 15 persons. There are cur-rently 13 people signed up. If you wish to attend,please contact Keith immediately. Also be awarethat the $45 fee is non-refundable.

Meeting Time & Place: Saturday, August 21 at8:00 A.M. MST (not Pacific time!) at Yoho Brothers’

Trading Post, in Field, BC (TransCanada Highway& Field intersection). It is highly recommendedthat participants arrive on Friday and stayovernight. Driving time from Calgary is aboutthree hours.

Itinerary: Hike starts at 8:30 A.M. and returns toField at 6:30 P.M . Our destination is the WalcottQuarry within the Burgess Shale. Discovered in1909, the Walcott Quarry exposes Cambrian rocks

that host a variety of rare soft and hard-bodiedfossils. Our tour will be provided by Parks Canada,whose knowledgeable guides assisted a total of1014 hikers to both the Burgess Shale and MountStephen trilobite beds in 1998. The Royal OntarioMuseum has been actively quarrying the site forover 16 field seasons and is expected to be workingon the day of our trip. Dr. Desmond Collins, a

prominent Burgess Shale researcher, is also expect-ed to be present.

Are You Ready? The round trip hike is 20 km (12mi.) and includes a 980 m (3215 ft.) elevation gain.Remember, after climbing up 1000 m, you mustdescend 1000 m. At these altitudes there is consid-erably less oxygen than at sea level, therefore youmay experience exaggerated fatigue while climbing

APS Bulletin 2 June 1999

or descending. You will not enjoy the trip unlessyou are fit and acclimatized to the altitude. Re-member, you are also in bear country.

What to bring: Though our hike is in August,snow and wet-weather conditions are not uncom-mon at the quarry. Be prepared for any type of

weather (windproof/waterproof jacket and longpants, extra socks, gloves, etc.). You will also needto pack a lunch and plenty of water. Goodfootwear is essential!

No Collecting! UNESCO has designated theBurgess Shale as one of Canada’s ten World Her-itage Sites, and it is within Yoho National Park. Assuch, collecting is strictly prohibited.

Accommodations: There are several motels in

Field. Reservations are strongly recommended,well in advance of our trip. Parks Canada alsomaintains campgrounds in the Field area. TheMonarch and Kicking Horse campgrounds are offthe TransCanada highway, east of Field. (Note!these campgrounds fill up by mid-afternoon inJuly and August.) The Hoodoo Creek and Chan-cellor Peak campgrounds are in the western part of

the park. Detailed motel and camping informationcan be found, through links, on the Burgess ShaleFoundation’s web-site (www.burgess-shale.bc.ca).

Cost: The cost of the guided hike is $45 per person.Each participant will receive a year’s membershipto the Burgess Shale Foundation (expires in June2000 and can be renewed for $20 per year). Youwill also receive three issues of their newsletter, en-titled Marrella. Expect your first issue this fall, with

others in the winter and spring. ❏

Welcome New Members!Michael Collins, CalgaryKeith Gordos, CalgaryEric Gosselin, Calgary

Kathy J. Higgins, CalgaryDr. Paul Johnston, Drumheller, ABLes Krogel, CalgaryJason Lavigne, CalgaryAmanda Lockhart, CalgaryMichelle Milton, CalgaryWendy Morrison, CalgaryDr. Elizabeth (Betsy) Nicholls, Drumheller, ABDarrell Nordby, Calgary

Paul Piovoso, CalgaryCarl Savage, Grande Prairie, ABDarcy Schoff, CalgaryRobin Sweeten, c/o Pensacola, FLDr. Mark V.H. Wilson, Edmonton, AB

Program Summaryby Howard Allen

March 19, 1999Understanding fossil ammonites: frommedieval myth to current concepts, withDr. Russell Hall, University of Calgary

Russell Hall completed his early university edu-cation in Australia, where he worked on EarlyPalaeozoic fossil corals. He then came to McMasterUniversity (Ontario) to complete a Ph.D., where hewas first introduced to Jurassic ammonites. He stud-ied fossil faunas from the Queen Charlotte Islandsoff the west coast of Canada, trying to determinetheir genders and geological age. Since his arrival atthe University of Calgary in 1978, Dr. Hall’s mainresearch has continued to focus on Jurassic and Cre-taceous ammonites from Alberta and BritishColumbia as tools for dating and correlating rockstrata, but occasionally he has been diverted tostudying fossil sea stars, crinoids, and squids.

[Biographical notes provided by R. Hall.]

Dr. Hall opened his presentation witha humorous illustration of the fact thatlittle progress has been made in thepublic understanding of cephalopod molluscs inthe past few hundred years. In the town of Whitby,England—birthplace of Captain Cook—the abun-dant local ammonite fossils were explained by thelegend of 7th-century abbess St. Hilda, who mirac-

ulously turned the area’s snake population intostones. Ammonites with carved snake heads wereonce popular souvenirs in Whitby [member LesAdler brought one to the proceedings –ed.] and thetown’s coat of arms still bears three snake-headedammonites. To dash any smugness we might feelabout our modern scientific insights, Dr. Hall thenshowed us the front page of a supermarket tabloid,

displaying an excellent photograph of a swimmingNautilus, topped by the screaming headline:

ALIENS INVADE EARTH!

The cephalopods, which include the extinct am-monites, as well as the modern squids, octopi andchambered Nautilus, were much more abundant inthe past. Their origins have been traced back to theCambrian, when a group of molluscs developedtiny, cap-shaped, buoyant shells. From these hum-

ble beginnings, the cephalopods diversified rapidlyinto a myriad of forms, ranging from tiny coiled

APS Bulletin 3 June 1999

shells only a few millimetres in diameter, to mon-sters with straight shells up to 10 metres long.

Dr. Hall’s slides showed the anatomy of themodern chambered Nautilus shell, which expandsin an outward spiral, adding calcareous chamberwalls (septa) at periodic intervals, as the animal

grows. Achieving neutral buoyancy is a crucial stepin allowing the Nautilus (and by analogy, the am-monites) to move through its environment. Theweight of the shell must be balanced by carefullyregulating gas volume in the shell’s chambers. Thisis accomplished by means of the siphuncle, a tubethat runs the entire length of the shell, and allowsthe contents (fluid and gas) of each chamber to beregulated individually. The animal employs os-

motic pressure to drain or fill the chambers withfluid, maintaining neutral buoyancy as the shelland body grow.

A short video clip of live squids showed detailsof the cephalopods’ method of jet propulsion, aswell as mating behaviour—huge swarms of squidsthat come together to mate and then die soon af-terward may suggest a reason why ammonites of a

single species are often found packed together infossil beds.

Comparison of the modern Nautilus to extinctammonites (named for the ram-horned Egyptiangod, Ammon) is a matter of contention. Cladisticstudies suggest that the ammonites were moreclosely related to the squids and octopi than to thenautiloids; thus the Nautilus may not be such agood model for comparison with the extinct forms.

Sexual dimorphism in ammonites has been rec-ognized only relatively recently. Many fossil bedscontain ammonite shells of two types, formerly as-signed to different species. Studies of many ofthese shell specimens show that the innermostwhorls of both shell types are indistinguishable,and become more and more different as the shellbecomes larger. It was eventually recognized that

the two forms probably represent male and femaleindividuals. Female shells (“macroconchs”) areusually bigger than the male “microconchs,” andthe latter often have modified shell apertures, withlateral extensions called “lappets.” Careful strati-graphic studies have also shown that the macro-and microconch shells underwent evolutionarychanges in lock-step, further evidence that the twoforms belong to a single species. This recognition

of male and female shells has thrown ammonitetaxonomy into some disrepair, and reinterpreta-tion of both species and genus names is ongoing.

Ammonite fossils are an invaluable stratigraphictool. They were the first time-markers geologistsused for subdividing the Mesozoic era, and they

are still the best, for at least three important rea-sons: 1) Ammonites underwent very rapid evolu-tion during the Mesozoic, resulting in distinct shellforms that existed for relatively brief periods oftime. By carefully recording the sequence of am-monite species, rocks in some parts of Europe can

be subdivided into units representing time periodsas short as 10,000 years. 2) Ammonite species areoften widespread, allowing correlations to be madeover wide geographical areas. 3) Fossils of am-monites are often very abundant, allowing forgood statistical sample sizes.

In recent years ammonites have been put towork in reconstructing the tectonic positions ofcontinents and seas through geologic history. Am-

monite faunas were often restricted by climate andother factors, to broad “realms”; for example, theJurassic “boreal realm” hosted a fauna that lived inthe northern seas, and was distinct from a moresoutherly/equatorial “Tethyan realm.” The bound-aries between these realms are characterized bynarrowly overlapping margins, where faunas of thetwo realms mixed. One such realm boundary, in

Early Jurassic time, existed just to the north of Cal-gary. Dr. Hall and his colleagues have found amixed boreal/Tethyan fauna in the rocks west ofSundre. This same boundary has been pinpointedin a number of the “accreted terranes” that makeup much of British Columbia, Yukon and thewestern US. From the position of the boundary ineach terrane block, the arrangement of the terranesin Jurassic time can be reconstructed. It shows that

the terranes progressively moved into positionfrom the south and west, prior to colliding with thewestern edge of the North American plate.

April 16, 1999Horned dinosaurs from the North AmericanWestern Interior: new research and taxa,with Michael Ryan, University of Calgary

Michael Ryan is a native of Ottawa, Ontario.This allowed him to spend his formative years wan-dering the famous Dinosaur Hall at the CanadianMuseum of Nature before moving to Alberta tostudy dinosaurs. He holds undergraduate degrees inboth biology (Carleton) and Education (Alberta), aMasters degree in zoology (Calgary) specializing invertebrate palaeontology, and is currently a Ph.D.student in Calgary working on the biogeography ofceratopsids from the Campanian of Alberta andMontana. At various times he has taught junior andhigh school science; built dinosaurs with PrehistoricAnimal Structures (PAST) in East Coulee, Alberta(most notably the Brachiosaurus on display in the

APS Bulletin 4 June 1999

Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago); run ex-peditions to locate the “lost” Star Wars localities forLucasfilm; and held positions at the Royal TyrrellMuseum of Palaeontology, including: Coordinatorof Public Programs, Head of Public Excavations,and Scientific Advisor to the Department of Educa-tion. His research interests include Late Cretaceousecosystems with an emphasis on ceratopsian(horned) dinosaurs, which he has been digging upsince the early 1980s.

[Biographical notes provided by M. Ryan]

Michael Ryan outlined the four maingroups of horned, or ceratopsian dino-saurs recognized by palaeontologists:

• Chasmosaurs— “long-frilled” • Centrosaurs— “short-frilled,” with a large

nose horn.

• Protoceratopsians— an early group, with asmall neck frill and no horns.

• Psittacosaurs— the probable precursor groupof the ceratopsians: bipedal, with no frill, but acharacteristic beak common to all ceratopsians.

The geographical origin of the ceratopsians iscurrently a topic of debate. The earliest forms inAsia have been found in the Turonian rocks (early

Late Cretaceous age) of Uzbekistan; however, an-other Turonian animal, Zuniceratops, has beenfound in the southern United States. Later formslived in both Asia and North America, right up tothe end of the Cretaceous Period, and the extinc-tion of the dinosaurs.

In North America, ceratopsians appear to havelived in the relatively narrow strip of land that ex-isted from Alaska to Texas, between the emerging

Rocky Mountains and the inland sea that occupiedthe centre of North America.

With few exceptions, the horned dinosaursseem to have been very endemic to local areas: fos-sils of a particular species are seldom found out-side of a restricted geographical range. They ap-parently did not migrate very much. Even Pachy-rhinosaurus, which occurs in both Alaska and Al-

berta, is represented by different species in each re-gion. Some ceratopsian species probably lived inupland areas, where fossils are only rarely pre-served. For example, the protoceratopsian Lepto-ceratops is very rare in Alberta and Montana,where lowland deposits are preserved; but in theGobi Desert, a preserved upland/desert environ-ment, Leptoceratops is much more common.

Many genera are known from only a handful of

specimens. Only one complete skull of Styraco-saurus, from Dinosaur Park in Alberta, has been

found to date. This patchy fossil record, combinedwith recently-recognized variation in skull shapefrom juvenile to adult individuals, has kept cer-atopsian taxonomy in a state of flux. For example,the genus Monoclonius, known from a single skull(also from Alberta), may represent the juvenile

form of some other genus, possibly Styracosaurusor Centrosaurus.

Though restricted geographically, some cer-atopsians were extremely abundant locally. OneCentrosaurus bone bed in Dinosaur Park is esti-mated to contain the remains of 25,000 individualanimals—and there are some 30 known Centro-saurus bone beds in the Park. These mass graveswere probably the result of drowning of herds of

animals trying to cross rivers at flood stage.Recent work by Michael Ryan and his col-

leagues has resulted in a number of interesting de-velopments. Study of bone textures has revealedthat some ceratopsian bones have an extensive pat-tern of radiating lines on their surface. It is nowthought that this pattern is diagnostic of juvenilebone material, and probably applies to all types of

ceratopsians. As previously noted, ceratopsianskulls were apparently subject to much variationthroughout the life of an individual animal. Juve-niles of some genera had orbital (over the eye)horns which were gradually reduced with maturity,often disappearing entirely in adults, or replacedby pits in the surface of the skull. Other changes inskull shape include modification of the frill mar-gins in some of the frilled ceratopsians (e.g. Chas-mosaurus, Centrosaurus). The margins of juvenilefrills are studded with bumps that grew into thevariously-shaped spikes or hooks characteristic ofadult frills.

Recent discoveries in the Judith River Group ofAlberta include a new chasmosaur (found byWendy Sloboda) having a frill margin that curvesforward; this is probably a new species, and possi-

bly a new genus. Another new form resembles typ-ical Chasmosaurus, but the frill spikes are replacedwith spiky clusters, like maces. Two other possiblenew species are represented by fragmentary mate-rial. As well, a possible new species has been recov-ered from the older Foremost Formation. ❏

Reporters wanted!The editor would like one or two “contingency

volunteers” to take notes and write a few para-graphs about any programs, lectures or field tripsthat the editor is unable to attend. Talk to me at a

meeting, or email HowieAllen@compuserve.comor phone 274-1858. —Howard Allen, editor

APS Bulletin 5 June 1999

The Wollemi Pine:“Dinosaur Tree”by Vaclav Marsovsky

n 1994 a new tree was discovered in aremote area of Wollemi National

Park, 150 kilometres northwest of Sydney, Aus-tralia. [Bulletin, March 1995, p. 6.] The Wollemipine,Wollemia nobilis, is a new genus and speciesin the ancient conifer family Araucariaceae. This“living fossil” is being compared to Wollemi pine-

type fossil leaf imprints found in New SouthWales, Australia, which date to the Early Creta-ceous. The location of the trees is kept secret.

Thirty-eight adult individuals of this tree sur-vive in two groves. New South Wales NationalParks and Wildlife Service have implemented aspecies management plan and a commercial nurs-ery has been assigned to propagate the species forworldwide distribution. The little pines are expect-

ed to go on the market in 2004 and are expected tocost about CDN$20 each.

The author, “Gulliver” Marsovsky, with a BrobdingnagianBunya-Bunya pine cone. Photo by Mona Marsovsky.

Wollemi pine cones. Copyright © Royal Botanic Gardens,Sydney. Reproduced with permission.

The araucarias are native to the southern

hemisphere and tropical islands. The bark of theWollemi pine has a ball-bearing (bubbly) textureand the pine needles are blade-like, very similar tothose of the Bunya-Bunya pine. Two other arau-caria pines are native to Australia, the hoop pine(Araucaria cunninghamii) and the Bunya-Bunyapine (Araucaria bidwillii), the latter bearing conesthe size of watermelons every three years. ❏

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I

Fossils in the NewsThe National Post, February 23, 1999Fossils prove to be a new species ofsabretooth catKANSAS—Fossils uncovered a decade ago, byamateurs in Florida, have provided evidence of a

previously undocumented group of sabre-toothedcats. University of Kansas palaeontologist LarryMartin made the discovery after examining askeleton owned by a private collector in Arizona.At first glance, Martin thought the skull was mis-matched to the rest of the skeleton; but a closerlook revealed that the skeleton belonged to a newgenus of sabre-tooths, which he has tentativelycalled “Xenosmilus.” Prior to this discovery, two

groups of sabre-toothed cats were recognized: the“dirk-tooths” (e.g. Smilodon), with narrow sabresup to 17 cm long, and a short-legged, bear-likebody; and the “scimitar-tooths” (e.g. Homother-ium), with shorter, wide canines and a long-leggedbody like a cheetah. The new type of cat had short,broad canines, like the “scimitar-tooths,” but astocky, powerful body, like the “dirk-tooths.”

These features were combined in a large, powerfulanimal which, according to Martin, “at the time itwas living [about a million years ago]…kickedSmilodon anywhere it wanted to.”

The National Post, March 3, 1999French find relative of first identifieddinosaurPARIS—The mayor of Conteville, Normandy, hasfound the remains of a dinosaur that may help to

resolve a 160-year-old controversy. Four years ago,while walking in a field, André Dubreuil found astone containing teeth of a carnivorous dinosaur.Palaeontologists from the French Natural HistoryMuseum subsequently excavated the well-preserved remains of the large, Jurassic (165 ma)theropod. “The cranium, above all, is half com-plete and that’s very rare because most Europeandinosaur skeletons have no heads,” says museum

palaeontologist Ronan Allain.The newly discovered bones belong to a close

relative of Megalosaurus, the first-ever describeddinosaur from southern England. A similar set ofbones found in France in 1835 caused a differenceof opinion between William Buckland—whonamed Megalosaurus, and assigned the Frenchbones to that genus—and their discover, Jacques

Eudes-Deslongchamps who erected a new genusand species, Poekilopleuron bucklandii. Unfortun-ately, the original French bones were destroyed inWorld War II, and only casts remain.

Allain is currently comparing the new boneswith the French casts, and the English Megalo-saurus. Says Allain: “If [the new specimen is] thesame as the others, for the first time, Europe willhave a nearly complete carnivorous dinosaur.”

The Calgary Sun, March 25, 1999

Feds to up security near fossil site

FIELD, B.C.—Dr. Desmond Collins, palaeontolo-gist at the Royal Ontario Museum, and one of theforemost authorities on the Burgess Shale fossils,

reports that Burgess fossils have appeared recentlyon the U.S. collectors’ market. This news hasprompted Parks Canada to increase vigilance atthe UNESCO World Heritage Site. Although Dr.Collins isn’t certain the commercial material hasbeen poached, he thinks that the recent appear-ance of Burgess fossils suggests that they may notjust come from the sale of an old collection.

Calgary Herald, April 17, 1999Mass extinctions linked to enormouscosmic blasts

CHICAGO—Astronomers with NorthwesternUniversity and the University of Illinois have an-nounced evidence of a stupendously powerful typeof explosion, dubbed a “hypernova,” which, theysay, may be related to extinction events on Earth.Though the cause of these explosions is open tospeculation, some ideas include the collision of a

super-dense neutron star and a black hole, or thecollapse of a very large and rapidly spinning star.These hypernovas are about 100 times bigger thanthe relatively common supernovas, which occurwhen a large star collapses into itself. The effectson anything in the galactic vicinity would be catas-trophic: a hypernova occurring within 3000 light-years of Earth would produce radiation 100 times

greater than the lethal dose for humans. “You’d beroasted,” says Illinois U. researcher You-Hua Chu.It is estimated that hypernovas might occur in ourown galaxy perhaps once in a million years.

Calgary Herald, May 2, 1999

Hey, T-rex, move over

BUENOS AIRES—Another enormous meat-eating dinosaur has been unearthed in Argentina,

this one (as yet unnamed) touted as being biggerthan either the North American Tyrannosaurus rex

APS Bulletin 7 June 1999

or the South American Giganotosaurus. The re-mains of at least five individuals were found by agoatherd, in Cretaceous rocks (90 ma) in thePatagonian desert. Palaeontologist Rodolfo Coriasurmises that the cluster of bones, deposited on anancient sand bar, provides evidence that the enor-

mous predators hunted in packs—possibly prey-ing on the giant sauropod Argentinosaurus, whoseremains have been found nearby.

Calgary Herald, May 8, 1999

Fossils surface in lakebed

CARDSTON, ALBERTA—Draining of the nearbySt. Mary Reservoir for dam construction has re-sulted in the discovery of a rich trove of fossils,

footprints and native artifacts. Cardston schoolteacher Shayne Tolman found the site and report-ed it. Researchers from the University of Calgary(including geologist Dr. Len Hills and archaeolo-gist Dr. Brian Kooyman) and the Provincial Muse-um have been scouring the lake bed before waterlevels rise again.

Finds include bones of extinct horses, muskox-en and bison, and more amazingly, tracks of

muskoxen, camels and woolly mammoths. Alongwith the animal remains have been found spearand arrow points, including Clovis points— toolsmade by people of the oldest undisputed culture inNorth America, dated to about 11,000 years ago.Other human artifacts include scrapers, knives,flakes and a stone-lined fire pit.

Scouting and excavation of the site was to end

in early May, when water levels were expected torise, and funds to dry up. Further dam construc-tion in the fall will require re-draining of the reser-voir, by which time Drs. Kooyman and Hills hopeto have secured funding to resume excavation.❏

Thinking aboutEvolutionby Cory Gross

ll areas of science are fraught withmisunderstanding and error.

Physics, astronomy and palaeontology, amongstthe countless many disciplines are the victims ofmisinterpretation and misrepresentation. Mostpeople know what they know about science notfrom what they remember from any formal educa-tion, but from the media, popular works, and thespectre of “common knowledge.” In my experi-

ence, I have found “common knowledge” could bemore accurately described and labelled as a “com-mon lack of knowledge”; “common knowledge” isalmost invariably wrong.

A hot-button topic and one of the greater vic-tims of the popular misunderstanding is the theoryof evolution. Even from the use of the term “theo-ry”—whose colloquial definition and scientificdefinition differ greatly (the popular use of the

term equates to a derogatively biased version of“hypothesis”)—on down, evolution is one of theleast understood and appreciated discoveries ofscience.

The “common knowledge” version of evolutionis an odd monster indeed. Many complaints centrearound the false notions that evolution happens toindividuals within a generation, and that the de-

scendants aren’t exactly the same as their ances-tors; not to mention the misconception that evolu-tion is simply about “getting better.”

Evolution, as it is understood by scientiststoday, never affects the individual. Individual ani-mals will not suddenly sprout wings if they want tofly or fur if they move to colder climes, and cer-tainly not grow extra appendages as they may needthem for answering the phone, typing on a com-

puter, and sipping a cup of coffee. Once a being isborn, its genome (i.e. the set of genes it was bornwith) is fixed—save from the effects of radioactivemutation or whatever. It cannot do anything orsprout any appendages that its genes aren’t pre-pared to do or sprout. Again, with the exception ofmutation or disease which may affect the genes,what happens to an individual in its lifetime, suchas physical injury, will not be passed down to its

descendants. Scars will not be passed down, nor

APS Bulletin 8 June 1999

A

will artificially clipped tails, but as can be seen withthe children of Hiroshima or AIDS babies, somethings can. What is passed down are those featureswhich enabled the parents to survive and breed.Lets look at a hypothetical “trees down” model ofhow birds evolved from dinosaurs: no amount of

physical scale-fraying or learning how to flap itswings will be passed genetically to our imaginarydinosaur’s children. However, if this same dino-saur was born with a larger and thicker covering ofhair-like proto-feathers and stronger “flapping”muscles, it may be less likely to die when it falls outof a tree than its bald, weak neighbour. This imagi-nary dinosaur proceeds to breed with anotherhairy muscle-bound dinosaur and produces even

hairier offspring who can flap even better, and theprocess continues.

That the descendants of certain creatures aren’texactly the same as their ancestors is an answer toits own quandary. I was once asked that if ele-phants evolved from roughly the same or similarancestors as woolly mammoths, why didn’t theyhave thick heavy coats of hair too. The answer to

this is obvious: because elephants evolved andaren’t mammoths. If elephants were exactly thesame as mammoths, then they would be mam-moths and not elephants. It may seem academicand even silly to point this out, but it is a conceptthat escapes some people.

The previous point also touches upon a basichuman misinterpretation, of not only palaeontolo-gy and evolution, but of the natural world in its en-

tirety. The apparent differences between elephantsand mammoths, which may seem obvious, are ac-tually false. The differences between any species’ancestors and descendants are false. Human classi-fications of nature are exactly that: human. Ourdistinctions of kingdoms, phyla, genera, andspecies are attempts by humans to place natureinto handy, manageable little boxes. These classifi-

cations do not truly exist in nature. Someone maybe able to point to a T. rex and say “that’s a T. rex,”or point to a Homo erectus and say “that’s a Homoerectus,” but those designations are based on any-thing from one to a handful of specimens fromspecific times. Every specimen that is found is la-belled, categorized, and made distinct from its rel-atives, but really, these are false distinctions. Eachorganism we find is not a distinct individual with

genuinely clear features that make it distinct; it ispart of a continuity of life where the line betweendifferent species is as clear as the line betweennight and day. You can easily tell the difference be-tween night and day, but can you clearly pinpointwhere night ends and day begins? This is the myth

of the “missing link.” Looking at our friend andforefather Homo erectus, it has been asked wherethe “missing link” between it and Homo habilis orbetween it and Homo sapiens neandertalensis is.What is not realized is that Homo erectus itself is a“missing link”; it is part of a continuity between

what came before it and what came after it. Thereis no distinct line between modern humans (Homosapiens sapiens) and all our ancestors where eachone suddenly came into being. It is all a process.

Even so, if humans evolved from chimps, thenwhy are chimps still around? Isn’t evolution aboutgetting better? First of all, humans didn’t evolvefrom chimps, we evolved from the same ancestor,but that’s beside the point. By what stick is “better”

measured? Who can objectively define this “bet-ter” destiny awaiting the animal which evolves thefastest? Previously, naturalists believed that hu-

manity was the pinnacle of evo-lution to which all life was aim-ing, and this is still the popularmisunderstanding about whatscientists think. This view had

been challenged by the fact thatsome of the most successfulforms of life to have ever existedon earth are at the simplest levelof biological organization (this

is, was, and always will be the “Age of Bacteria”).Ever since Stephen Jay Gould co-proposed themodel of punctuated equilibrium and gave us histhoughts on the contingent nature of evolution

and the fortuitous events which allowed us toevolve, evolution has been seen less as having anultimate goal, and simply as survival. Of course,this part of the discussion begins to delve into the-ology, be it saying that “the human soul is the aimof God,” or that “there is no such aim.” What “bet-ter” is, whether you think it exists or not, is reli-gion, but it cannot be denied that evolution is

about surviving. Chimps and bacteria are stillaround because they are surviving adequatelywithout being human.

Evolution, like any aspect of science, can be adifficult subject to fully comprehend and appreci-ate. This goes double for me because I’m the foolwho has no idea what he’s talking about but whoinsists on writing stuff anyway. However, for all ofus, there is little excuse not to take it upon our-

selves to learn what evolution is about from asmany sources as close to the original one as possi-ble. Taking any information, be it scientific, reli-gious, economic, or political, from “commonknowledge” is a dangerous game and destined onlyto obfuscate instead of clarify. ❏

APS Bulletin 9 June 1999

Isn’tevolution

aboutgettingbetter?

How I Spent MyWinter VacationSearching for Sunshine,Warm Temperatures…and Fossils

by Robin Sweeten

ecember 24, 1998 was our startdate. Getting our motor home

(which we live in permanently) road-ready is a difficult task but I was on schedule. The

alarm was set to ensure a 10:00 A.M. departure.Overnight an ice storm had hit,making final preparationsfor take-off difficult at best.The biggest challenge wasloading our Harley-Davidsons onto the ice-coatedtrailer. With time and someneighbourly help, we were load-

ed and ready to go. Normally(per husband) we have a strictitinerary. Fossiling time is seldom,if ever, scheduled into our plans.Our final destination was Savan-nah, Georgia andwe weren’t ex-pected untilDecember 29. A

leisurely trip was planned. I wasecstatic! The southern coastline of-fers a wealth of fossil material.

Information from my resource library and theinternet for hunting spots proved somewhat fruit-less. Only Edisto Island in South Carolina lookedpromising. Since we travel the back roads,Edisto is convenient. It lies off Route 17,

which we planned to take from Maryland to Flori-da. We set out in search of sunshine, warm tem-peratures and fossils.

Our first official stop was Myrtle Beach, SouthCarolina. The weather was ghastly with 5°C, asteady downpour and blustery winds. I would notbe deterred. As my husband and cat leisurelywatched TV in the motor home, I braved the ele-ments. My numbing hands managed to pick up

three nice Carcharias sp. teeth and some prettyseashells including Anadara sp., Argopecten sp.,and beautifully coloured pieces of various other

clam, scallop, and cockle shells. There was alsosome fossilized sediment and two pieces of bone.The bone turned out to be asphalt.

Willie drove, I thawed.Our next stop was Edisto Island, South Caroli-

na. It was still raining and although the tempera-

ture had risen to 11°C, the wind chill made it con-siderably colder. The first beach turned up no fos-sils, but beautiful shells littered the sand. I quicklygathered a bucketful. Approaching a small store, Iinquired about where one could find fossils. Alocal flatly answered, “anywhere.” The beachseemed too open; perhaps a more sheltered spotwould be better. With the sweetest smile possible, Iapproached another equally tight-lipped local, ob-

taining two bits of information: there was indeed amore sheltered spot down the road; and an old-

timer had a makeshift fossilmuseum in his home,

that was open inthe afternoon. Un-fortunately ourstay was too brief

to make the muse-um, but we didhead for the sec-ond beach. Myluck was no better—plus it hadbegun to pouragain. Trudgingback to the motor

home, my husbandunhappily eyed yetanother bucket ofseashells.“Don’t you have

enough of those?” hemoaned. Off we went, in

search of sunshine, warm

temperatures and fossils.We crossed into Georgiaas I surveyed the map forpossible target sites.Fearful of pushing myluck I sheepishly asked,“how about JekyllIsland?”

“Sure,” he replied, and with no sign of irrita-

tion! Next stop, Jekyll Island, Georgia!A group of wealthy families purchased the is-

land as an exclusive retreat in 1886. They called it—appropriately—The Jekyll Island Club. Themembers included the Rockefellers, Vanderbiltsand Morgans, representing over one-sixth of the

APS Bulletin 10 June 1999

D

world’s wealth. The club closed in 1942 and theState of Georgia purchased it in 1947.

The lady in the Visitor Centre said she hadfound some shark teeth a little further north at St.Simons Island. That didn’t help; we were headedsouth.

The rain finally ceased as we approached JekyllBeach. There were moons and other brightlycoloured pieces of shell but no fossils. With mypockets bulging, we returned to the motor homeand headed inland toward Tampa, Florida. Wouldwe find sunshine, warm temperatures and fossils?

The next day was sunny and 22°C . We unload-ed the Harleys and did some riding. The lowbridges offered sightings of dolphins, flocks of

both brown and white pelicans and numerousother waterfowl. However, while waiting to go tothe beach, I discovered I had made a major strate-gic error: Tampa lies approximately forty milesnorth of the shark tooth capital of the world,Venice Florida! Why hadn’t I referredto a map? We could have gone toVenice!

Surely there would beshark teeth near Tampa. Inthe afternoon my friends sug-gested hunting at Indian RockBeach. Shells were inabundance—Glycymeris pectinata, Argopectengibbus, Plicatula gibbosa, and Donax variabilis toname a few. Sadly, no one found a shark tooth,ancient or otherwise. Desperation was setting in.

What about my article for APS?The next day we drove back across Florida to

Daytona Beach. The weather had deterioratedagain but riding our motorcycles in Daytona ismandatory. Donning leathers, we ignored thechilly drizzle, riding a good five miles on the sand.After warming our shivering bodies, we loaded themotorcycles and headed for Savannah, Georgia.

One final Florida stop was allowed at OrmondBeach. I picked up more shells, which by now weretaking over our living space. We drove along theocean for a while and then headed inland. Stilllacking sunshine, warm temperatures and fossils.

As we passed Jekyll Island, I remembered St.Simons. My request for a fossil stop was grantedand one tiny tooth, a Myliobatis sp. dental plateand two pieces of bone turned up. A meagre take,

but by this time it was like finding a treasure.Fossils at last!

The remainder of the trip to Savannah was un-eventful so I began fantasizing about fossiling atthe Moon River. My last article told about the tidalpool, which is a popular fossiling spot. With such

bad luck thus far, perhaps this outing would yield amonster Carcharodon megalodon tooth.

Surprisingly, large pieces of fossilized bone werelying in the riverbed. Gathering a box full was easywork. With chilly weather abbreviating my visit, Iwas anxious to return the next day.

The evening tide exposed more bone in a cir-cumference of approximately four feet by six feet.Possibly the fragments all derived from the sameanimal, perhaps a whale or a large terrestrial mam-mal. Currently, I have no means of identification,but some of the pieces may reveal their origin.

Along with bone, Pogonias sp. tooth plates, tentiny shark teeth, and stingray dental plates turnedup. I also found the partial crown and various

other pieces of what once were large Carcharodonmegalodon teeth. The best was yet to come.

Arranging the pieces for cleaning, I noticed onebone fragment contained something un-usual.Across the width were markings made by an an-

cient hatchet. The Savannah area isQuaternary in age and it is notunusual to find artifacts. This

type of artifact is rare.Our last day in Savannah in-

cluded our annual “Let’s-Go-Look-At-Alligators” ride. The chilly weather

lingered and we saw only two. Then, re-gretfully, it was time to leave.

We made the twelve-hour trek back to Mary-land without incident. By evening, husband, cat,hundreds of shells, numerous boxes of bone and I

were deposited back in the campground we tem-porarily call home. The trip was wonderful. Fossilswere sparse, but the Moon River once againproved a lucky hunting ground.

One final note. If you read my last article, youwill recall I spoke of carrying long sticks to wardoff snakes and alligators at Moon River. Since Ihave never seen either at the Moon River, I made

my recent excursions without a stick. It was onlylater that I learned about the large ’gator that hastaken up residence near the fossiling site. Enoughsaid.

If you are interested in corresponding with meor trading fossils, you can reach me atgsussaves@worldnet.att.net, or write me at mymail forwarding address: MSC#6843, P.O. Box2428, Pensacola, Fl. 32513. I would love to hear

from you! ❏

APS Bulletin 11 June 1999

Bookmark the APS web page!www.geocities.com/SoHo/9094/aps.html

A Reminder to Collectors

s the collecting season is already wellunderway, the APS executive thought

it timely to remind collectors of our responsibilityto adhere to the laws of Alberta, in particular theHistorical Resources Act.

The following notes are mainly from thebrochure Finding Fossils, a publication of the RoyalTyrrell Museum and the Alberta Ministry of Cul-ture and Multiculturalism:

Definitions…

Surface collecting—gathering isolated fossilswhich are clearly on the surface of the ground.

Excavating—digging, prying or somehow extract-ing a fossil buried or embedded in the ground orrock face.

Keeping Fossils…Surface collecting is permitted on Crown land,

and on private land with the landowner’s permis-sion. You may keep surface finds as a custodian,but ownership resides with the province ofAlberta, making it illegal to sell or take such fos-sils out of the province without an approved Dis-position Certificate. Excavating fossils requires apermit. Application forms are processed throughResource Planning at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of

Palaeontology. Procedures outlined in the Histori-cal Resources Act must also be followed before anypart of the collection can be retained. All applica-tions are reviewed by the Alberta PalaeontologicalAdvisory Committee to the Minister of Cultureand Multiculturalism. It is illegal to remove fos-sils from provincial and federal parks in Alberta.

Owning FossilsAll fossils collected in Alberta since July 5, 1978,

and all fossils still in or on the ground, are ownedby the province. The province may transfer owner-ship of fossils identified by a Control List estab-lished in 1987 to private parties. This list allows forresponsible trade of certain fossils that are abun-dant within the province and thus have limited re-search and display value.

For more information, contact the Royal TyrrellMuseum, (403) 823-7707, or see their web site:www.tyrrellmuseum.com/hrahome.html ❏

Reviewby Les Adler

On Embryos and Ancestors by Stephen JayGould. Natural History, July/August 1998,pages 20–22, 58–65

efore the 1950s fossils more than 2 billionyears old had not been found because

palaeontologists had been looking in the wrongplaces, in conventional sediments that rarely pre-serve the remains of single-celled bacterial organ-isms without hard parts. It was not realized that lifehad remained simple for over a billion years or that

ordinary sites for good fossil records could notpreserve such organisms.

Elso Barghoorn and Stanley Tyler searchedchert deposits and found a rich fossil record ofearly life 3.5 to 3.6 billion years old in rocks fromAustralia and South Africa, which had not beensufficiently altered by subsequent heat and pres-sure to destroy all anatomical evidence of life.

Two charts are provided, one of which shows a

time period of 3.5 billion years to the present, withthe oldest bacterial fossil life, then to algae andthen to animals. The other chart, 600 million to520 million years ago, shows the Ediacaran fauna,embryos of tripoblast animals at 568 million yearsago, the Manakayan small shelly fauna at 543 mil-lion years ago and the Tommotian and Atdabanianstages, 530 to 520 million years ago, representing

the Cambrian explosion of life.Fossils are found in many modes and styles,

such as bones, shells, or casts and moulds. Originalorganic materials may be replaced by percolatingminerals (petrifaction). Phosphatization works indetail only for tiny objects up to 2 mm in length.Klaus J. Müller and Dieter Walossek found tinyarthropods (mostly larvae of crustaceans) inUpper Cambrian Orsten beds in Sweden.

Walossek and Müller’s techniques have led tofinds in 1994 by Xi-guang Zhang and Brian R.Pratt of presumably embryonic cells measuring0.30 to 0.35 mm in diameter, of possibly the earli-est stages of adult trilobites, in the same Orstenbeds. Even earlier phosphatized embryos frombasal Cambrian strata in China and Siberia traceprobable growth series from embryos to adults of

conulariids and a probable segmented worm. YunZhang of Beijing and Andrew H. Knoll have re-ported the oldest tripoblastic animals of southern

APS Bulletin 12 June 1999

AB

China at 570 million years ago, of phosphatizedmulticellular complex algae.

It may now be possible to reconstruct the earli-est history of modern animals before the Cambrianexplosion; thus palaeontology will shake handswith evolutionary theory in the finest merger of

talents ever applied to the resolution of a historicalenigma. G.A. Wray, J.S. Levinton and L.H. Shapiroused differences in the molecular sequences ofseven genes in living representatives of majorphyla to derive an estimate of roughly 1.2 billionyears for the divergence time between chordatesand arthropods, annelids and molluscs, and 1 bil-lion years for the later divergence of chordatesfrom echinoderms.

Gould discusses the examples of mammals wait-ing for 100 million years for dinosaurs to becomeextinct and tripoblasts waiting for the Ediacaranfauna to become extinct by stating that incumben-cy offers powerful advantages to a competentgroup waiting for an external stroke of good luckto pick up the reigns of power, versus the myth ofthe inevitability of its necessary rise to power by

gradually improving every day and in every way. ❏

Coming EventsJune 5–August 15, 1999China’s Feathered Dinosaurson display at the Royal TyrrellMuseum

Less than a year ago, Dr. Philip Currie, together

with scientists from China and the US, announceda landmark discovery: dinosaur fossils with feath-ers had been found in northeastern China.Now, China’s Feathered Dinosaurs are coming tothe Royal Tyrrell Museum. Opening June 5, thisexhibition of rare specimens and artists’ modelsdepicts a critical period in dinosaur evolution.

The Royal Tyrrell Museum is the final stop on

the exhibit’s North American tour, organized bythe National Geographic Society, and will be theonly place in Canada where these amazing fossilscan be seen. Also check out the new Ice AgeMammals exhibit, which should be open by thetime you read this.

For more information: www.tyrrellmuseum.comor phone (403) 823-7707.

June 12–13, 1999Southern Alberta RockhoundsShow and SaleSoccer Building, Lethbridge ExhibitionGrounds, Lethbridge, AB.Displays will include fossils, minerals, etc.Admission: Adults $3, Students $2, Children under8 free if accompanied by an adult. Free parking.

July 25–31, 1999“Great Norman Wells Fossil Hunt”

Norman Wells, a small town located inCanada’s Northwest Territories (65° 17' N, 126°51'W) has a rich and varied geology. In thecanyons located just outside town fossils can befound in their hundreds, just lying in the wilder-ness, undisturbed. Mammoth bones have beenfound close to town; and along the banks of thegreat Mackenzie River prospectors have foundgold and emeralds. Other minerals and interesting

geological specimens, such as perfectly sphericalgeodes can be found around the town. NormanWells is an undiscovered Rock Hound Heaven.

Between July 25 and July 31, 1999 the Town ofNorman Wells would like to extend a warm wel-come to Rock Hounds wherever they may be, andinvite one and all to the Great Norman Wells FossilHunt. Throughout the week participants will havethe chance to contribute to the mapping of our fos-

sil and mineral heritage; hunting for fossils andminerals to their heart’s content under the mid-night sun. The event will culminate in a great out-door community barbecue, at which the RockHound who has contributed the most, will be hon-oured by the award of the coveted, engraved, Nor-man Wells Rock Hound Hammer.

For more information, contact info@nor-manwells.com, or check out our Web site atwww.town.normanwells.nt.ca or write to:Town of Norman Wells, Box 5, Norman Wells,NT, X0E 0V0.

Sept 10–12, 1999B.C. Gem and Mineral ShowAg-Rec Building, CFV Fairgrounds,32470 Haida Drive, Abbotsford, BC.Show will feature elasmosaur and other displaysfrom the Courtenay Museum and PaleontologyCentre.Admission: Adults $5, Children & students $2,children under 5 years free. ❏

APS Bulletin 13 June 1999