As an alternative to our cancelled field trip of Nov 21, VicPS President Jerri Wilkins has had Dino Lab offer to give VicPS members a tour at 4 PM tomorrow, Sunday Nov. 21, for $32 a person. That price is a 20% discount from their standard entrance fee. We can take up to 10 people.
Anyone who wants to go will need to pay their own fee and RSVP Jerri in advance by email.
Dino Lab contact details are:
ph: 778-966-3466
The planned November 21 field trip is cancelled, or possibly postponed to another date. Malahat traffic is presently one-way alternating, 24/7, and is intended for essential travel.
Instead, we are planning a VicPS tour of local fossils, for members only, with details to be announced. Stay safe, and stay tuned!
The next VanPS meeting/presentation will be on November 17 (Wednesday) at 7 pm, and Perry Poon of VanPS has graciously invited us to attend. VicPS members will find virtual meeting details in an email on this topic.
Guy Santucci will present – “A Brief History of the Fort Steele/Rifle Range Early Cambrian Trilobite Site”.
An abstract of the presentation:
The renowned “Rifle Range” early Cambrian site, despite its Burgess shale type fauna in Cranbrook, B.C. has long been overlooked until recently. Early studies were fragmentary and superficial. However, it does have a colourful history. A number of characters along with numerous newspaper articles over the years add to the mystique, confusion, and attraction to the site. The deposition and assemblage of fossils date to 513 million years old making it at minimum 5 million years older than the Burgess shale, hence a definitely long enough span for evolutionary change. As well it is one of the oldest articulated fossil sites in North America. These factors prompted Dr. Jean-Bernard Caron of the Royal Ontario Museum to conduct a long overdue study in 2015. A total of 1500 specimens were collected in roughly 7 days work, revealing some new species and better understanding of the site.
