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.
