Menu Close

Month: May 2026

VicPS meeting: Tuesday, May 19, 2026

The VicPS May monthly meeting will be held on the evening of Tuesday, May 19. Our Zoom meetings are open to the public; please share this info and link with your friends:

Speaker:  Edward Davies, Branta Biostratigraphy Ltd.

Topic: Fossil Assessments and Recoveries During 15 Years of Consulting on Major BC Development Projects

Time: May 19, 2026, 07:30 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Zoom Meeting Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81587554448?pwd=X25mPhaumv163NT1nstmyOV6xGwr0S.1

Meeting ID: 815 8755 4448 Passcode: 325872

Since 2009, Branta Biostratigraphy has been engaged in the paleontological assessments of numerous industrial development projects across British Columbia, including electrical dam and transmission lines, pipelines, aggregate, gold and copper mines and urban development.

Through it all, numerous fossil sites have been discovered and investigated, and where appropriate, an extraordinary number of fossils have been recovered.  All of these have been documented and located as precisely as possible and subsequently deposited at the RBCM.

One of the most interesting aspects of this is the diversity of forms encountered over a broad range of ages and terrains. From Ordovician to Triassic, Jurassic through the Cretaceous, Eocene, Pleistocene and Holocene. Marine invertebrate faunas including giant clams, large and small ammonites of all life stages, trace fossils, insects often displayed in beautiful fossil-scapes.  Also, vertebrates including whole fish skeletons, dinosaur traces, marine reptile bones, bird bones, mammal bones including muskrat, mammoth, deer, bison, elk, and ground sloth.  

Exquisite plant fossils were especially prominent in new Eocene and Pleistocene deposits, with a variety of leaves, flowers and seeds, opalized tree trunks and in situ stumps sometimes thought of as our “glass forests’.  The variety and beauty of fossils to be found in BC seems to have only scratched the surface.

We look forward to Edward’s at this meeting.

May 2026 Activities

May is planned to be quite busy for VicPS activities. Please update your calendar for the events that fit your schedule and interests, or add the vicpalaeo@gmail.com calendar to yours from here.

Please note the change in date of our monthly meeting moved to Tuesday, May 19 from May 13 to accommodate our speaker.

Also note that BC Wildfire Service is predicting a dry and active season, which may impact access to some of our sites.  At the time of this post, there are already (thankfully under control) wildfires near Bowser and Ladysmith. We will monitor conditions as event dates approach.

May 3

On a fieldtrip to Cowichan Head (Island View Beach), we examined what the winter managed to wash from the cliffs. Fieldtrip leader was Jerri Wilkins. 

Sunday, May 17

Off to the Sooke area to take advantage of a negative tide. 7:30 AM start. Fieldtrip leader, John Kitson.

Tuesday, May 19

Monthly meeting, where we welcome our host, Edward Davies, Branta Biostratigraphy Ltd., to share the types of materials emerging through fossil recovery in various regionals of BC. 7:30 PM start.

Sunday, May 31

Fieldtrip up island to a site that is accessible via logging roads and fire gates, so there is always a chance of interruption from this year’s early fire season. If all goes well, it’s a 9 AM start. Fieldtrip leader, John Kitson.

Notable Fossil Find

Congratulations to John Kitson for the ammonoid found at the Nanaimo motocross site during the April 12 fieldtrip.  It may be a juvenile Eutrephoceras, which are uncommon anywhere in the Nanaimo Group. The well-preserved specimen is currently with Dr. Jim Haggart, Geological Survey of Canada, for examination.

We look forward to seeing you in May.