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Category: Events

Symposium 2025 Reminder – Registration & Accommodations

The 2025 BC Paleontological Symposium is next month, August 22nd – 25th, and there is still time to register if you haven’t already.  The schedule is posted here:  15th BC Paleontological Symposium 2025 v2 – Vancouver Island Paleontological Society  (scroll down the page).

For those considering the Hornby Island Fieldtrip, overnight accommodation is being organized at a campground adjacent to the fossil site. Cost is $50 per person.  If you are interested, please contact Jerri Wilkins and she’ll put you in touch with the accommodation organizer.

If you haven’t been to a symposium before, it will blow your mind!  Great science, great conversations, and great displays. 

See you there!

A Summer of VicPS

The monthly VicPS meetings are on summer hiatus and the focus is on fieldtrips, public education, and the Symposium.

June 15 – Field Trip, TBD (Lead: Corbin Rolfe)

Join Corbin Rolfe as he leads his first official VicPS fieldtrip!  Please look for an email from Corbin with details of the trip, closer to the date.

June 22 – PUBLIC EDUCATION:  Cowichan Valley Nature Kids (lead:  Jerri Wilkins)

VicPS has been invited back for a second year to provide a ‘fossil field day’ for kids in the Cowichan Valley. Last year our volunteers had a blast introducing kids to the ancient marine life on Mt. Tzouhalem in Duncan. If you like participating in public education, Jerri will reach out closer to the date seeking volunteers. No experience necessary – we all learn by doing!  

July 20 –  Field Trip (lead:  Jerri Wilkins)

We’ll visit one of the most beautiful and productive sites on our annual field trip schedule, and one Jerri looks forward to visiting every year.  It’s a moderate walk and a good site for families, and for swimming (sometimes on purpose). Look for the invite closer to the date.

July 24 – PUBLIC EDUCATION: Island View and You (lead: Carol Barbon)

This is our annual opportunity to join the Capital Regional District and nature-based organizations for a day of public education focused on the past and present animals and ecosystems of Island View Beach (Cowichan Head) on the Saanich Peninsula. Closer to the date Carol will be looking for volunteers to hang out at Island View Beach for the day….tough job! If you attended the May 18th fieldtrip, this is your opportunity to test your memory by sharing knowledge with others.  Jerri know who you are… we will be in touch!

August 10 – Field Trip (lead:  Jerri Wilkins)

This site on the shore is easily accessible, and for those with patience and a good eye, it can reveal well-preserved gastropods and occasionally an ammonite.  Details will be provided in a fieldtrip guide closer to the date.

 August 21 – PUBLIC EDUCATION: Slithery, Slimy & Scaly (lead:  Carol Barbon)

For this event, we join the Capital Regional District and nature-based organizations at Elk/Beaver Lake to talk about all things slithery, slimy and scaly. VicPS brings a new perspective to this annual event, exploring with kids why we don’t see snakes and frogs and lizards in the local fossil record.  Or do we? Volunteer to help Carol, and you’ll learn the answers. She will reach out for volunteers closer to the date.

August 21-24 – BCPA-VIPS Paleontological Symposium 2025

This bi-annual meeting of paleontological researchers is four days of all things paleo as it relates to Vancouver Island and BC.  Presentations on the latest scientific research, scientific posters, workshops and fieldtrips and lots of like-minded professionals and enthusiasts to meet.  Check out the details below, and sign up today:

15th BC Paleontological Symposium 2025 v2 – Vancouver Island Paleontological Society

June 1: A Celebration of Life for Mike Trask

Mike was instrumental in advancing paleontology in BC having discovered the recently named elasmosaur with his daughter, Heather, in 1988. This transformational find precipitated the creation of the British Columbia Paleontological Alliance. Traskasaura sandrae now stands as our official provincial fossil emblem.

Michael John Trask

Jan 7, 1956 – May 15, 2025

A Celebration of Life will be held at the Courtenay and District Museum & Palaeontology Centre on June 1st at 1:30 pm.

Everyone is welcome.

VicPS monthly meeting, Wednesday May 14, 2025 @ 7:30 pm

Join your VicPS peers online this week for a pictorial tour of recent events, including

  • fossils specimens found during the April 20th field trip to Nanaimo,
  • photos and videos from a scientific field trip in Cobble Hill earlier this month with Dr. Jim Haggart, Geological Survey of Canada, and
  • an update on other ways VicPS members are supporting science and scientists.

Paid members will have recieved the link to attend via email.

APS meeting April 11: Mammoth Site Visit, and, “What Really Killed the Dinosaurs?”

The Alberta Palaeontological Society’s upcoming monthly meeting will take place on Friday, April 11, 2025 at 6:30 p.m PST at Mount Royal University, room B108. The meeting will be held in person and online through Zoom (info included below). There is both a short and a long presentation organized for April; please see abstracts and bios below.

Short Presentation by Dr. Leslie Eliuk

Title: Visit to Mammoth Site at Hot Springs, South Dakota

A sneak peak and prelude to the presentation by expert Dr. Chris Jass, rescheduled for November 2025.

Eliuk 2025 April Short Presentation – The Mammoth SiteDownload

Main Presentation by Dr. François Therrien

Title: What really killed the dinosaurs? A look at the latest developments

April 2025 Dr Therrien Presentation Abstract and BioDownload

Zoom Meeting Information:

Alberta Palaeontological Society is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: APS April Meeting
Time: Apr 11, 2025 07:30 PM Edmonton
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88073894464?pwd=LPU3vkLSSOzZQxC0AcOCo0qDyX23fh.1

Meeting ID: 880 7389 4464
Passcode: 252138

Local April 2025 VicPS Events

With no speaker scheduled for the April 9th meeting, our President will report out on recent activities – we did just host a Fossil Fair! – and catch us all up, as well as introduce new members to our Society. 

The meeting link will be sent via separate email to paid members. 

We are in the final stages of determining which workshop will take place on April 12th, and details of the April 20th fieldtrip will be circulated a week in advance. Look to your email for further details.

Burgess Shale: Dawn of Animal Life Feb 19th 2025

If you’re planning to hike the Burgess Shale this year, don’t miss this joint VIC/VAN PS presentation.  Hear about the extraordinary life represented in BC’s Burgess Shale from David Moore, a professional geologist, seasoned communicator and Burgess Shale hiking guide. Join David for deep knowledge, breathtaking photos and practical advice for how to prepare for this physically challenging and intellectually inspiring adventure.

The Burgess Shale Foundation is a not-for-profit society with an education mandate similar to our own and it’s exciting to welcome David to present to our BC paleontology societies.

This event is ZOOM only, and open to anyone, so invite your friends. Note the early start (6:00 PM Pacific Time).  A big shout out to David Moore for being generous with his time, John Fam for the great social media exposure for this presentation, and to Dan Bowden for his stellar poster skills! 

Meeting ItemDetails
WhenWednesday, Feb 19th, 2025 06:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Zoom linkhttps://us06web.zoom.us/j/83960218157?pwd=VHLicHFPysGjJg1AaaN2wguf4ij71d.1
Meeting ID839 6021 8157
Passcode765964

Sep. 4, 6:45 pm: “Spirit Whales and Sloth Tales: Fossils of Washington State”

Courtesy of the North America Research Group, you may attend and enjoy listening to Liz Nesbitt, author of “Spirit Whales and Sloth Tales: Fossils of Washington State.” Dr. Nesbitt recently retired from her Curator position at the Burke Museum in Seattle. She will talk about her book and experiences in paleontology.

VicPS members will have received the Zoom meeting link details via email. If you have not received this info, please contact vicpalaeo@gmail.com ASAP.

July 10th presentation – Understanding ontogeny in Deep Time: 29-million-year-old grasshopper ootheca (egg pod)

On Wednesday, July 10th, at 7:30 pm PDT the Victoria Palaeontology Society presents Jaemin Lee, PhD Candidate, Department of Integrative Biology, UC Museum of Paleontology, University of California, Berkeley, who speak on the topic

Understanding ontogeny in Deep Time: 29-million-year-old grasshopper ootheca (egg pod).

VicPS members should check the email they’ve received about this event for virtual meeting connection details, or join us IN PERSON at the Uptown Community Room.

About the presentation:

Reproductive ecology and ontogeny play a critical role in insect dispersal which shapes their biogeographic patterns. Ontogenetic strategies, such as holometaboly, are some of the most important traits contributing to the evolutionary success of insects. However, understanding the non-adult life history traits in Deep Time is challenging due to their ephemeral and soft-bodied nature.

I described a grasshopper egg pod using microtomography from the Oligocene John Day Formation, Oregon, together with Nick Famoso (NPS Paleontologist at John Day Fossil Beds National Monument) and Angela Lin (X-ray imaging core Director at University of Oregon). The specimen, preserving ~50 slightly-curved elliptic eggs and also the ovipositional strategy of laying an underground ootheca, represents the oldest fossilized grasshopper ootheca and also the first known orthopteran eggs in the fossil record. Due to the rarity of fossil insect eggs, systematic praxis have yet been established to systematically study them. However, the number of described fossil insect eggs has rapidly increased in the past decade, and is likely to continue increasing. So we proposed to apply an ootaxonomic system when studying fossilized insect eggs, to establish a standardized systematic practice, which is already practiced in fossil amniote eggs; and an ichnotaxonomic system that describes the ootheca-laying behavior, which has convergently evolved several times among insects.

Check out the research article or this CNN article to learn more!