A warm welcome to all of you and thank you for listening to the Fossil Huntress Podcast. We've just crossed over the one month mark and I wanted to say a heartfelt thank you and introduce you to each other. It is exciting to share my passion for palaeo in wee bite-size bits with you. It is truly wonderful to know that you share my interest in rocks and fossils — and with so many great folk around the globe. You are listening to this podcast along with paleo enthusiasts from Canada, USA, UK, Port...
Nov 13, 2020•7 min•Season 1Ep. 27
The Rocky Mountain Trench is one of the few geologic wonders we can see from space. It is known as the Valley of a Thousand Peaks or simply the Trench — a large valley on the western side of the northern part of North America's Rocky Mountains.
Nov 08, 2020•7 min•Season 1Ep. 26
The Mount Stephen Trilobite Beds now sit in the Main Ranges of the Rockies but were once at the bottom of shallow sea beds down near the edge of ancestral North America. Today, these outcrops in Yoho National Park contain wonderful Cambrian fossil goodies including the predator Anomalocaris canadensis; Trilobite species: Ogygopsis klotzi, Olenoides serratus and Elrathina Cordillerae; as well as, brachiopods and sponges. This is a hike that you can do as a family. To visit the beds virtually or t...
Nov 08, 2020•9 min•Season 1Ep. 25
Come and explore one of British Columbia's most intriguing fossil localities — the Burgess Shale. This amazing window into our ancient seas was found quite by accident and over the past 100 years has given us one of the best windows to view the Cambrian Explosion
Nov 07, 2020•12 min•Season 1Ep. 24
The Fossil Birds of the Jehol Biota have caused an international stir amongst palaeontologists. The Jehol outcrops of northeastern China has unearthed some of the most important Mesozoic bird specimens worldwide over the past two decades. This is a tale of how that all began.
Nov 01, 2020•9 min•Season 1Ep. 23
There are two species of Keuppia, Keuppia hyperbolaris and Keuppia levante, both of which we find as fossils. We find their remains, along with those of the genus Styletoctopus, in Cretaceous-age Hâqel and Hjoula localities in Lebanon. For many years, Palaeoctopus newboldi (Woodward, 1896) from the Santonian limestones at Sâhel Aalma, Lebanon, was the only known pre‐Cenozoic coleoid cephalopod believed to have an unambiguous stem‐lineage representative of Octobrachia fioroni . With the unearthin...
Oct 31, 2020•4 min•Season 1Ep. 22
A cool morning breeze keeps the mosquitoes down as we pack our kayaks and gear for today’s paddling journey. It is day four of our holiday, with two days driving up from Vancouver to Cache Creek, past the Eocene insect and plant site at McAbee, the well-bedded Permian limestone near Marble Canyon and onto Bowron Provincial Park, a geologic gem near the gold rush town of Barkerville. The initial draw for me, given that collecting in a provincial park is forbidden and all collecting close at hand ...
Oct 31, 2020•15 min•Season 1Ep. 21
Plant fossils are found coast-to-coast in Canada, from 45-million-year-old mosses in British Columbia to fossil forests on Axel Heiberg and Ellesmere islands in the Canadian Arctic. The early angiosperms developed advantages over contemporary groups — rapid reproductive cycles — which made them highly efficient, adapting well to "weedy" growth. These modifications, including flowers for the attraction of insect pollinators, proved advantageous in many habitats. Interaction between plant and poll...
Oct 29, 2020•9 min•Season 1Ep. 20
The earliest flowering plants show up in the fossil record 130 million years ago. These beauties became the dominant type of forest plant by about 90 million years ago. One of their number, the genus Crocus, is a particular favourite of mine. Crocus — the plural of which is crocuses or croci — is a genus of flowering plants in the iris family and includes 90 species of perennials growing from corms. A corm is a short, swollen underground plant stem that helps plants survive summer drought and ot...
Oct 29, 2020•4 min•Season 1Ep. 19
Hadrosaurs or Duck-Billed Dinosaurs were a very successful group of plant-eaters that thrived throughout western Canada and around the globe during the Late Cretaceous. Hadrosaurs lived as part of a herd, dining on pine needles, horsetails, twigs and flowering plants. They are ornithischians — an extinct clade of mainly herbivorous dinosaurs characterized by a pelvic structure superficially similar to that of birds. They are close relatives and possibly descendants of the earlier iguanodontid di...
Oct 24, 2020•7 min•Season 1Ep. 18
In 2000, Mark Turner and Daniel Helm were tubing down the rapids of Flatbed Creek just below Tumbler Ridge. As they walked up the shoreline excitement began to build as they quickly recognized a series of regular depressions as dinosaur footprints. Their discovery spurred an infusion of tourism and research in the area and the birth of the Peace Region Palaeontology Society and Dinosaur Centre. The Hudson's Hope Museum has an extensive collection of terrestrial and marine fossils from the area. ...
Oct 24, 2020•5 min•Season 1Ep. 17
Say hello to Ferrisaurus sustutensis — “A new leptoceratopsid dinosaur from Maastrichtian-aged deposits of the Sustut Basin, northern British Columbia, Canada." You may recall Dr. Victoria Arbour, curator of palaeontology at the Royal BC Museum from her work on ankylosaurs & that interesting specimen from Hornby Island thought to be a pterosaur but further study revealed to be a saurodontid fish — an ambush predator with very sharp serrated teeth and elongate, torpedo-like body. Not a pteros...
Oct 24, 2020•6 min•Season 1Ep. 16
Hornby is a glorious place to collect. The island is beautiful in its own right and the fossils from here often keep some of their original shell or nacre which makes them quite fetching. At this 72-million-year-old beach site off the west coast of British Columbia, Canada, we find ammonites, gastropods, shark teeth, marine reptiles, birds, fossil crabs, baculites and other bivalve fossils. Many of the fossils found at this locality are found in concretions rolled smooth by time and tide. The co...
Oct 24, 2020•17 min•Season 1Ep. 15
Were Dinosaurs Warm-Blooded or Cold-Blooded? Let's explore the clues they left behind to see if we can solve this mystery. Dinosaurs had relatively small brains compared to their body size — a mark of a cold-blooded animal. They were also the ancestors of birds — warm-blooded animals. In this episode, the Fossil Huntress looks at posture, brain size, predator vs. prey relationships to unravel the warm-blooded vs. cold-blooded debate.
Oct 20, 2020•7 min•Season 1Ep. 14
The Fernie ammonite, Titanites occidentalis , from outcrops on Coal Mountain near Fernie, British Columbia, Canada. This beauty is the remains of a carnivorous cephalopod within the family Dorsoplanitidae that lived and died in a shallow sea some 150 million years ago. Driving to the trail base is along an easy access road just east of town along Fernie Coal Road. There are some nice exposures of Cretaceous plant material on the north side (left-hand side) of the road as you head from Fernie tow...
Oct 20, 2020•3 min•Season 1Ep. 13
The East Kootenay region on the south-eastern edge of British Columbia is a land of colossal mountains against a clear blue sky. I've been heading to the Cranbrook and Fernie area since the early 1990s. My interest is the local geology and fossil history that these rocks have to tell. I'm also drawn to the warm and welcoming locals who share a love for the land and palaeontological treasures that open a window to our ancient past. Cranbrook is the largest community in the region and is steeped i...
Oct 20, 2020•12 min•Season 1Ep. 12
If fossil fuels are made from fossils, are oil, gas and coal made from dead dinosaurs? Well, no, but they are made from fossils. We do not heat our homes or run our cars on dead hadrosaurs. Instead, we burn very old plants and algae. It sounds much less exciting, but the process by which algae and other plant life soak up the Sun's energy, store it for millions of years, then give it all up for us to burn as fuel is a pretty fantastic tale.
Oct 19, 2020•8 min•Season 1Ep. 11
A bright, beautiful young mind asked the question, "does Earth's mass decrease when we burn fossil fuels? And if it does, is it measurable? Do we know how much of the Earth’s mass has been lost so far?" Well, Melaina, the Earth’s mass does decrease when fossil fuels are burnt. But not in the sense you were probably imagining, and only to a very, very small degree. Hear more about the geeky science of fossil fuels on this episode.
Oct 18, 2020•7 min•Season 1Ep. 10
The Fossil Huntress shares her passion for palaeontology. Fueled by curiosity and a love of the natural world, she shares about growing up looking for rocks, minerals and trading beads. This led to many years of collecting solo before meeting the folk at the Vancouver Paleontological Society and then becoming Chair of that society for more than a decade.
Oct 17, 2020•11 min•Season 1Ep. 9
Learn about the paleontological history of British Columbia, Canada. While the province holds fossils that span the full spectrum of the geologic time scale, arguably the true beginnings of our passion for paleontology begin with the 1988 find of a large marine reptile along the banks of the Puntledge River near Courtenay, BC. The find was a first for the province and for Mike Trask who has gone on to bring us our first dinosaur — a hadrosaur found not far from his elasmosaur discovery. That fin...
Oct 17, 2020•7 min•Season 1Ep. 8
We sometimes find fossils preserved by pyrite. They are prized as much for their pleasing gold colouring as they are for their scientific value as windows into the past. Sometimes folk add a coating of brass to increase the aesthetic appeal. Though this practice is frowned upon in paleontological communities. Pyrite is a brass-yellow mineral with a bright metallic lustre. It has a chemical composition of iron sulfide (FeS2) and is the most common sulfide mineral. It forms at high and low tempera...
Oct 17, 2020•4 min•Season 1Ep. 7
Ammonites / Ammonoids — Ammonoids are a group of extinct marine mollusc animals in the subclass Ammonoidea of the class Cephalopoda. These molluscs, commonly referred to as ammonites, are more closely related to living coleoids — octopus, squid, and cuttlefish — than they are to shelled nautiloids such as the living Nautilus species. The earliest ammonites appear during the Devonian, and the last species vanished in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. If you fancy a read or would like to ...
Oct 17, 2020•5 min•Season 1Ep. 6
Are you ready to head out Fossil Collecting and wondering where to go? There are likely fossils beneath your feed or within a few hours of where you are right now. If you are out fossil hunting, look for fossils in sedimentary rock — sandstone, limestone and shale — where the surface has been eroded away or scraped clean by a glacier, cleaved by road cuts, construction sites, rivers or the ocean. You may want to join a local paleontological or geological society. Some groups offer field trips wi...
Oct 16, 2020•4 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Are you planning on heading out on a fossil field trip? Hear what the Fossil Huntress like to bring with her out in the field. From eye protection to filing a trip plan, this will get you started on your fossil field trip plan of awesome. For resources and suggestions on fossil field trip gear, visit www.fossilhuntress.blogspot.com. Head to the section on Paleontological Essentials in the right-hand column (it shows up in desktop view) and see examples from the American Museum of Natural History...
Oct 14, 2020•8 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Learn about Fossil Collecting and the law. You can find a link to BC Fossil Resources on the Fossil Huntress Blog at fossilhuntress.blogspot.com What are the laws around collecting and ownership? Fossil collectors are considered custodians of the fossils they find and collect. Fossils found on Crown land are the property of the Crown; they cannot be sold or exported outside of British Columbia without prior authorization. In some cases, fossils located on privately owned land also remain the pro...
Oct 13, 2020•6 min•Season 1Ep. 3
Just what is a fossil and how do they form? How old does something need to be to be considered a fossil? Trees, insects, snails and dinosaurs can all become fossils. Sometimes it is the remains of the living organism we find — as teeth or bones. Sometimes it is footprint or scuff mark — a trace they have left behind.
Oct 13, 2020•5 min•Season 1Ep. 2
If you love paleontology, you’ll love this stream. Ammonites, trilobites, dinosaurs — you’ll find them all here.
Oct 12, 2020•28 sec•Season 1Ep. 1
