News coverage of the succesful Fossil Fair held by VicPS at Swan Lake can be found at the Saanich News website here. Congrats to all the volunteers and VicPS members who contributed their time and effort to this educational and fun event!
Our local Times-Colonist carried advance notice of the event, and followed up after the event with a photo of VicPS member and fossil expert Tom Cockburn at the Fossil Fair.
We’re excited to be holding a post-pandemic Fossil Fair on March 26, 2022. Check out the poster below for details!
Please register for this event at Eventbrite.
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 VANPS continues to include us in their meetings (thank you, Perry Poon).
Paid members will have received an email with details on attending virtually. VicPS is working on securing access to a video platform to enable us to return to regular presentations.
We’ve received an invitation to join the Vancouver Paleontological Society (VanPS) for their next VanPS meeting via ZOOM, on May 19, (Wednesday), at 7 pm where George Gough will present “Ancient Horses: Their Story From 55 Million Years Ago to the Present”.
George Gough’s presentation summary:
Presentation Summary: Ancient Horses: Their Story From 55 Million Years Ago to the Present
In this one hour, colorfully illustrated, lecture, George covers the little known and fascinating story of the rise of horses out of the northern hemisphere 55 million years ago, their highly successful evolution in North America, and their migration to other continents before finally going extinct in North America following the last great ice age. The story concludes with the reintroduction of horses to North America by early Spanish explorers and the spread of horses by Indigenous peoples and later European settlers.
George Gough Bio:
George Gough is a retired Environmental Safety Professor from the Lower Mainland of British Columbia who joined the California State Paleontology Society in Borrego Springs as a volunteer several years ago where he trained for several hundred hours to become a Certified Paleontology Volunteer. During one field survey, he uncovered a fossil horse tooth that triggered him to investigate the origin of horses. He became so fascinated with his findings that he was compelled to turn the story into a one hour presentation to share with other paleontologists and the public.
Meeeting and Zoom link:
Topic: George Gough presents, Ancient Horses: Their Story From 55 Million Years Ago to the present
Time: May 19, 2021 07:00 PM Vancouver
Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/95603911520?pwd=WGsvcGkvTDZHS2hUbnA5dWlwSThjUT09
Members of VicPS have been graciously invited to a meeting hosted by the Alberta Palaeontological Society. Please read the invitation below, and register by May 12th if you’d like to attend and are prepared to pay the $10 charge. Note that annual membership in the APS is $20 for an individual and $25 for a family, something to consider should you wish to make a habit of attending their presentations.
The May 14, 2021 Alberta Palaeontological Society meeting will feature a keynote presentation followed by the Annual General Meeting. APS members are encouraged to stay on-line for the AGM following the keynote presentation so that we can achieve quorum and proceed with the meeting.
The May 14 keynote presenter will be Dr. Emily Bamforth, Royal Saskatchewan Museum, T. rex Discovery Centre, Eastend, Saskatchewan. The title of her presentation is “Thunder Beasts, Hellbenders and Tiny Horses: A Safari Through the Cypress Hills Formation of Saskatchewan.” Her abstract and biography can be viewed by opening the attachment in this email or viewing the information on either the APS or CSPG website.
We will be having online monthly presentations until further notice. Our cosponsor, the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists (CSPG), has graciously agreed to assist us with managing E-Technical talks using GoToWebinar. If you are a CSPG or APS member, there will be no charge for electronically attending the presentations. If you are not a member of one of these organizations, there will be a $10 charge per presentation to help with registration expenses.
To register for the online presentation, click on this link: https://cspg.org/CSPGIMIS20/Events/Tech_Divisions/PalaeontologyDT/Palaeontology.aspx
Alternatively, you can go to the CSPG website and click on Events, Division Talks, and Palaeontology. You will see a tab labelled “View Abstract”, where you can view information about the May 14 presentation. To register, read carefully and follow the instructions. If you have not created an account for one of the previous presentations then the first step is to create an account. This account will be used for all the presentations. When it asks you about the organization you belong to, enter APS. Once you have created an account, you can register for this month’s session. The closing date for registering in this month’s session is Wednesday, May 12 at 12:00 pm (noon) Mountain Time. Once you have registered for the May session, you will need to complete the payment requirements. If you are an APS or CSPG member there is no charge. If you are not a member of either organization, you will be asked to make a payment of $10 using one of the payment options provided. When you have completed the registration, you will be sent an email that provides your CSPG Order Confirmation/Receipt. If you do not receive a confirmation email, your registration has not been successful. Finally, one or two days before the session begins, you will be sent an email from GOTOWebinar providing an E-talk link for joining the presentations. At 7:30 on May 14, you will click on this link to join the session.
Dr. Bamforth will provide her topic using PowerPoint. Participants will have the opportunity to submit written questions to her during the presentation. Dr. Bamforth will address the questions at the end of the talk.
| When | Mar 14, 2021 02:00 PM PST |
| Where | Zoom call – register here |
The Victoria Palaeontology Society with Studio H Canada International Artist Residency and Xchanges Artists’ Gallery and Studios present a Free Artist Talk with Heidi Bergstrom.
Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta is one of the most important UNESCO World Heritage sites in Canada, and the largest late Cretaceous (75 million years ago) find in the world (so far). They say, “if you drop your hat and don’t find a fossil, then you’re not in Dinosaur Park”. The bioreserve is the source of bones and fossils for the Royal Tyrell Museum in Drumheller, some 170 kms north west of the park, but bones from this area have been collected since the late 19th century and can be found in several major museums in the USA.
While the park provides great interest for dinosaur and fossil hunters, palaeontologists, and all kinds of scientific and geologic researchers, some contemporary artists are also fascinated by this place. Heidi Bergstrom is one of those artists who, after discovering the Drumheller region in the early 1980’s has been deeply influenced by this land and its history in her art since then.
In this talk, Heidi will share her knowledge of the park, her creative work and plans for artistic and cultural research in the park.
Please note: this event will be streamed on Facebook live and recorded for future sharing and viewing on social media such as YouTube and websites.
A Zoom account is not required to attend the talk.
COVID-19 update: Meeting Cancelled. This June’s meeting at the RBCM has been cancelled because of Covid-19. We hope to have an update in the fall about next year’s symposium, and people should check https://csvp.ca/ or follow our CSVP’s social media channels for updates.
The 2020 meeting of the Canadian Society of Vertebrate Palaeontology will be hosted by the Royal BC Museum (RBCM), located in downtown Victoria, BC. This event will take place June 6-8, 2020. Please see this circular for details about the event.
Please note that student registration costs have been reduced since the first circular was published.
Oral presentations will be held in the museum’s Newcombe Conference Hall, with poster sessions and breaks in the newly renovated Learning Centre.
Registration deadline is March 15, 2020. You must be registered to submit a presentation or a poster abstract. Full details are in the circular linked above.
UPDATE: Like the Fossil Fair, our AGM and monthly meeting has now been cancelled due to the COVID-19 precautions. No plan to reschedule the meeting until things improve health-wise. The AGM may be held online or via email to meet Society Act rules; more news when we know for certain.
There is no field trip scheduled for March. Stay healthy and practice “social distancing”!
Our Fossil Fair has been postponed/cancelled due to COVID-19.
Our AGM is scheduled for March 18 and it is important that we have a good turnout for election of officers. Our meeting numbers and the relatively large classroom in which we meet suggest we may all keep the health-maintaining recommended “social distance” from each other.
Please respond by email to Tom Cockburn regarding whether or not you will attend the meeting.
Following our AGM, our speaker is Grant Keddie, Archaeology Curator, RBCM. Grant’s topic is to be announced.
