A reminder of this week’s online presentation, “Marine Phytoplankton: Diversity, Ecology and Ecosystem Services in Changing Oceans“, by Shea Wyatt, Graduate Student Department of Biology, University of Victoria.
Wednesday, Nov 9th, from 7:30 – 9:00 PM
To attend, VicPS members please check your email for connection details. Non-members, please contact vicpalaeo@gmail.com ASAP requesting access to this presentation.
Another online event to add to your calendar this week, “Mosasaurs, Great Sea Monsters of the Cretaceous”, will be presented by Brennan Martens, VANPS member, PaleoDude and palaeontologist-in=training.
Thursday, Nov 10th, from 6:30 to 8:30 PM.
To attend, VicPS members please check your email for connection details. Non-members, please contact vicpalaeo@gmail.com ASAP requesting access to this presentation.
Professor Shahin Dashtgard, P. Geo of SFU now has a blog at www.whattherock.ca to make geology more accessible to those who are interested in it. This was undertaken in response to his recent talk to the VPS and several emails he’s received recently asking geological and palaeontological questions.
With only three posts so far, he’s just getting started. With two of those posts about Vancouver Island, and plans to add a few on the Nanaimo Group, his writings should be of interest and instruction to our VicPS members.
A reminder for VicPS members that the planned October 17th field trip has been cancelled. Please see the email from Jerri Wilkins on this topic.
Many of our fieldtrip sites are on the margins of shallow seas. Some are turbidite flows associated with landslides in offshore submarine slopes and canyons. Might evidence of ancient storms also be captured in the strata?
Studying the present can provide clues to the past. On Wednesday evening please join VicPS as we welcome Dr. David Atkinson, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, University of Vitoria, who will share with us how storms impact coasts.
Drawing from his work in the Arctic, Dr. Atkinson will demonstrate how the nature of the coast – water depth, type of beach material, coast shape – affects storm impact, and how features like sandbars and rip-currents work.
The presentation will be followed by a Q&A of Dr. Atkinson’s work, and a discussion of what the fingerprints of ancient storms might look like in the strata we encounter on our fieldtrips. I will share photos from several of our recent field sites to supplement the post-presentation discussion.
Paid VicPS members will have received an email with the Zoom meeting connection details. Non-members may request attendance by emailing vicpalaeo@gmail.com well in advance of 7:30 pm October 12th 2022.
Also, Oct 12th is National Fossil Day USA, and to recognize the occasion you are encouraged to reach into your collections and bring forward your favourite find to share with the group. National Fossil Day was established in 2010 by the USA National Parks Service to promote the scientific and educational value of fossils.
Joe Moysiuk is a paleontologist and evolutionary biologist at the Royal Ontario Museum & University of Toronto.
“Joe Moysiuk’s ongoing research of the many exciting fossils from the Burgess Shale has opened up and transformed our view of the Cambrian.”
— Fossil Huntress
As part of the 2022 Vancouver Island Paelontological Society lecture series we are excited to invite you to this upcoming Zoom presentation.
This Sunday, September 25th 1:00 pm PST
You may find more info here http://fossiltalksandfieldtrips.com/index.html, and read backgrounder for Joe Moysiuk. Then link to the VIPS Zoom talk on the day of the presentation. Or simply use the VIPS meeting connection details below.
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 996 527 0007
Passcode: 10Bb14
When: Sunday, August 21, 2022, 9 am departure
Travel: Meet at Helmcken Park & Ride at 9 am to arrange carpooling.
Exposure: Please see the email sent to paid VicPS members for details.
Exposure: Please see the email sent to paid VicPS members for details.
Equipment: Geological hammer, chisel and safety equipment (gloves, goggles, safety helmet advisable) and footwear suitable for wading. Bring water, snacks/lunch and sunscreen.
Please RSVP to Jerri Wilkins if you plan to participate
When: Sunday, July 17th, 2022, 7 am departure
Travel: We are going a little further afield on this trip, so set your alarm clock! Meet at Helmcken Park & Ride at 7 am to arrange carpooling. Or meet us outside the Courtenay Museum at 10 am.
Exposure: Please see the email sent to paid VicPS members for details.
Exposure: Please see the email sent to paid VicPS members for details.
Access: This site is not as easily accessible as other sites; some hiking and scaling of the riverbank is required and current water height in that section of the river is unverified. Good mobility, alertness and care required.
Equipment: Proper footwear for hiking and riverside collecting. Basic hammer and chisel (like equipment used on shales at Mt. Tzouhalem and Chemainus River). Bring the usual daytrip essentials: hat, sunscreen, insect spray, jacket, lunch, water and an endless supply of curiosity!
Please RSVP to Jerri Wilkins if you plan to participate
Mark your field trip calendars!
When: Sunday, June 26, 2022
Travel: Meet at Helmcken Park & Ride at 9 am to arrange carpooling.
Paid members will have received the field trip destination description via email. Any others may plead your case to VicPS President Jerri Wilkins.
Access/Equipment: Site suitable for collectors of all ages and activity levels, although productivity of the site varies due to its protected nature. Parking is within a few meters of the start of a fifteen-minute walk on mostly flat ground to the site. This is an intertidal site, so expect slippery rocks. Fossils are found in the rock and in concretions, so small chisels and even a sturdy jackknife for the mudstones and a good hammer or sledge, chisel, and protective eyewear are required for the harder rock. Bring jacket hat, sunscreen, water and a lunch.
The next VanPS meeting is May 18 (Wednesday) at 7 pm, on Zoom, and you are invited to attend and participate.
Title: Talking Rocks: Paleontology Meets Sociology in the Anthropocene
Abstract: In this talk, Dr. Rebecca Yoshizawa will share perspectives as a sociological interloper entering the world of paleontology. From a gruelling trek to the Burgess Shale, to finding a fossil in her backyard, exploring paleontology’s thorny involvement in colonialism, and analyzing the promise of paleontology for saving the world, Dr. Yoshizawa reflects on the personal and the political when it comes to paleontology.
Bio: Dr. Rebecca Yoshizawa is an instructor in Sociology at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. She teaches the sociology of science, gender, health, technology, nonhumans, and families. Her research has concerned reproductive sciences and politics as well as developmental origins biology, with publications in Body & Society, Social Theory and Health, Feminist Theory, and the scientific journal Placenta. Her current research focuses on paleontology and its role in contentious conversations about deep time, place, and the Anthropocene.
VicPS members, please look to your email inbox for a missive that includes the Zoom info.
