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Category: Meetings

VanPS meeting invite for November 17, Wednesday at 7 pm

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.

Early Cambrian trilobite from Fort Steele/Rifle Range

Next Online Zoom Meeting: Wednesday, Sept 22, 7:30 pm

If any member is aware of a speaker, please reach out to them.  Otherwise, Jerri Wilkins will share photos and samples collected on VicPS summer fieldtrips, as well as Symposium fieldtrips to Princeton and Ashcroft.  

The 40 minute limitation on Zoom – free version – appears to have been reinstated, and we are unsure of the limitation Zoom may now impose on the number of participants. We may need to work around these limits. Watch your emails for a message on meeting connection details.

Vancouver Paleontological Society Meeting – May 19 (Wednesday), 2021

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

Thunder Beasts, Hellbenders and Tiny Horses: A Safari Through the Cypress Hills Formation of Saskatchewan

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.

Under the Influence at Dinosaur Park – A Free Artist Talk with Heidi Bergstrom

WhenMar 14, 2021 02:00 PM PST
WhereZoom 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.

First VicPS General Meeting Online: Jan 21, 2021

On Thursday, January 21, at 7:30pm PST, VicPS will host its first online meeting. We’ll be using the Zoom platform. Paid up VicPS members will receive the Zoom meeting details via email before the meeting time.

In this first meeting, Carol Lowen and Jerri Wilkins will share their experiences exploring some private properties on the Saanich Peninsula, including site photos and a virtual show-and-tell of the few specimens collected.  If you have specimens from the Peninsula or nearby islands, or you’re aware of published papers on that area, bring them along, contribute to the show-and-tell…we welcome your participation!

We all expect this initial use of Zoom for a general meeting to go smoothly. After all, most people have been using some form of videoconferencing since March of 2020, if not earlier, for work and to keep in touch with friends and family. That said, please be patient should we experience delays helping any participant who experiences a technical hiccup.

CANCELLED: Canadian Society of Vertebrate Palaeontology 2020 Meeting

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.

AGM March 18: Cancelled Due to COVID-19

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.