The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology 66th Annual Meeting started today here in Ottawa with the field trips. I co-lead the ‘Late Pleistocene’ (Late Wisconsinan-Early Holocene) trip along the NW margin of the old Champlain Sea with Andrew Milner from the St. George Dinosaur Discovery Center in Utah. Like me, Andrew spent a lot of time in Ottawa growing up, and, unlike myself, did a LOT of collecting of vertebrate material in and around the area. Sixteen participants joined us for a full day of exploration in the Gatineau hills of Quebec in cool (9°C), grey and rainy weather.
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Looking for concretions at ‘Eardley Beach' that has produced abundant marine verts and inverts. That's Peter Dodson 2nd from the left.
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Hiking into the ‘Eardley Creek’ locality. Lots of Atlantic Capelin (Mallotus villosus) have been found in the nodules here.
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'Eardley Creek'. Stephen Godfrey is holding the bag on the left.
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Dr. Kevin Seymour of the Royal Ontario Museum picks up a bird for the comparative collections. Little Known Fact: Kevin and I were in the same home room in High School.
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Jim Kirkland in the creek.
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In the Laflèche Caverns cut out of the “Grenville Marble” of the Canadian Shield (about 1 billion yrs). Hundreds of fossil bones have been collected from the recent sediments accumulated in the caves including Arctic fox, Snowy owls, Arctic hare and many others.
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Checking out the fossil material in the Visitor Center at the Caverns.
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Part of the crew at the Luskville Falls, our lunch stop.
Some video of some glacial scour marks on vertical rock faces in a quarry in Quebec