Jump to content

Some Fossils From The Nanaimo Group


palaeopix

Recommended Posts

Here are a few photographs of some typical macro fossils from the upper Cretaceous Haslam Formation (Nanaimo Group) of Vancouver Island.

The first three are from the Nanaimo area.

post-2629-12630792912384_thumb.jpg Hauricerus gardeni: This is a fairly common find in the Nanaimo area. This specimen is 12cm in diameter.

post-2629-12630792937398_thumb.jpg Canadoceras yokoyami: These are fairly common in the Nanaimo area. This specimen is 8cm in diameter.

post-2629-12630792964586_thumb.jpg Inoceramus vancouverensis: These are very common and usually very large but often just fragmentary. This specimen is 9cm in length.

The next two are from the Sidney area.

post-2629-12630792886451_thumb.jpg Eupachydiscus perplicatus: This is the largest ammonite (21cm in diameter) I have found on southern Vancouver Island.

post-2629-12630792986888_thumb.jpg Hoploparia tshudyi: This is the first and most complete Hoploparia I have ever found. The carapace is 2.5 cm in length.

I would love to see any other fossils you have collected from the Nanaimo group of Vancouver Island and the surrounding Gulf Islands.

I will post more photos soon.

Edited by palaeopix
  • I found this Informative 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Palaeopix: You have quite a range of neat looking fossil spanning from the Cretaceous to Cambrian... BC has very unique diverse fossil deposits. PL

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey Paleopix. I cant say exactly where some of these fossil came from, but when I was last up in Vancouver Island my freinds took me to a museum by shelter point to show me their specimens that they have for display for a few months. I was flabbergasted by the super nice fossils they had! This 3rd photo is of a gastropod that to this day I have dreams of!!! If only I could find one!!!??? Check out this starfish in the 4th photo!!! Im speachless!!! 5th photo is of a crab I found, but ive got several more to prep someday. Nice stuff youve got. I just hope that I can get back there someday.

RB

post-171-12630837965316_thumb.jpg

post-171-12630838666675_thumb.jpg

post-171-12630840032032_thumb.jpg

post-171-12630841149327_thumb.jpg

post-171-12630842232688_thumb.jpg

  • I found this Informative 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Palaeopix: You have quite a range of neat looking fossil spanning from the Cretaceous to Cambrian... BC has very unique diverse fossil deposits. PL

Yes British Columbia is blessed with numerous fossil localities ranging from the early Cambrian to the Pleistocene. We have ammonites, trilobites, ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, mosasurs, Triassic fish, insects, flowers and Mammoths to name but a few. You could spend an entire lifetime exploring the province for fossils and only scratch the surface.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have something, not from the Haslam Fm., but the Northumberland Fm. (Hornby Island), if that's close enough; a 3/8" (9.5 mm) bird phalanx (toe-bone):

post-423-12630847951157_thumb.jpg

  • I found this Informative 2

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey Paleopix. I cant say exactly where some of these fossil came from, but when I was last up in Vancouver Island my freinds took me to a museum by shelter point to show me their specimens that they have for display for a few months. I was flabbergasted by the super nice fossils they had! This 3rd photo is of a gastropod that to this day I have dreams of!!! If only I could find one!!!??? Check out this starfish in the 4th photo!!! Im speachless!!! 5th photo is of a crab I found, but ive got several more to prep someday. Nice stuff youve got. I just hope that I can get back there someday.

RB

post-171-12630837965316_thumb.jpg

post-171-12630838666675_thumb.jpg

post-171-12630840032032_thumb.jpg

post-171-12630841149327_thumb.jpg

post-171-12630842232688_thumb.jpg

It looks like you were at the Vancouver Island Paleontological Museum at Quallicum Beach. I have never been to the museum but it is well known in the fossil collecting community on Vancouver Island. If you get another chance to get to the Island you should check out the Courtenay Museum to see their Plesiosaur!!

The first photo looks like the heteromorphic ammonite Eubostrychoceras elongatum. The second photo is of a raninid crab (on the left) and the Oligocene crab Zanthopsis vulgaris from the Hesquiat Formation. The third photo is of the weird gastropod Tessalorax distorta. The fourth photo looks like the star fish that was collected on Hornby Island. And the fifth photo is of Longusorbis cuniculosus form Shelter point (Spray Formation). I haven't been to Shelter Point but I do have a specimen or two from there.

Thanks for the photos they bring back great memories. I will have to make trip down to the coast in the spring.

Edited by palaeopix
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have something, not from the Haslam Fm., but the Northumberland Fm. (Hornby Island), if that's close enough; a 3/8" (9.5 mm) bird phalanx (toe-bone):

post-423-12630847951157_thumb.jpg

The Northumberland Formation is still Part of the Nanaimo Group. I haven't had the pleasure of visiting Hornby yet. It was one of the must see and collect places but I never made it there.

Thanks for the photo.

Edited by palaeopix
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Also from Hornby Island, my one and only Canadian shark tooth

post-77-12630907966666_thumb.jpg

  • I found this Informative 1

There's no limit to what you can accomplish when you're supposed to be doing something else

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pseudoschloenbachia umbulazi Haslam Formation Nanaimo

Eupachydiscus perplicatus Haslam Formation Courtenay

Nanaimoteuthis jeletzyi lower jaw (Vampyroteuthis ancestor) Pender Formation Courtenay

Nitotacarcinus canadensis Eocene Appian Way site Campbell River

Edited by fossisle

Cephalopods rule!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For Dan

Baculites from Lambert formation Hornby Island

Glyptoxoceras subcompressum Pender Formation Courtenay,B.C.

Eubostrychoceras japonicum Pender Formation, Courtenay B.C.

Cephalopods rule!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For Dan

Baculites from Lambert formation Hornby Island

Glyptoxoceras subcompressum Pender Formation Courtenay,B.C.

Eubostrychoceras japonicum Pender Formation, Courtenay B.C.

Thanks!!!!

I knew you had some good heteromorphs to show us.

That Gyptoxoceras subcompressum assemblage blows me away everytime I look at it. And that Eubostrychoceras japonicum is amazing as well.

Thanks again

Edited by palaeopix
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You do have some great Sea Stuff# from B.C., as we from Alberta call it (LOL)
Great photo's keep them coming.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

OK here are some more photographs of fossils from the upper Cretaceous Haslam Formation of Vancouver Island.

The first two fossils are from near Duncan, British Columbia.


post-2629-12631595675429_thumb.jpg Cretacoranina harveyi (raninid crab): The carapace is 2.5 centimeters in length.
post-2629-1263159576558_thumb.jpg Hoploparia tshudyi (lobster): The carapace is 3.5 centimeters in length.



The next three are from Courtenay, British Columbia.

post-2629-12631595725105_thumb.jpg Eutrephoceras campbelli (nautiloid): The specimen is 7.5 centimeters in length.
post-2629-12631595811405_thumb.jpg Linuparus vancouverensis (lobster): The carapace is 5 centimeters in length.
post-420-0-53705600-1451188744_thumb.jpg Sphenoceramus schmidti (bivalve): The specimen is 5 centimeters in length.



and the last one is from Central Saanich. This was found in a glacial erratic along the beach approximately 15 kilometers from the nearest Cretaceous outcrop.

post-420-0-61923800-1451188743_thumb.jpg Sphenoceramus elegans (bivalve): The specimen is 5 centimeters in length.

  • I found this Informative 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great some lobsters! I've been asking for pictures of them for a long time.

You have a very impressive collection, thanks for sharing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great fossils, and some excellent preservation of delicate organisms too! Very quiet sea floor there.

-Dave

__________________________________________________

Geologists on the whole are inconsistent drivers. When a roadcut presents itself, they tend to lurch and weave. To them, the roadcut is a portal, a fragment of a regional story, a proscenium arch that leads their imaginations into the earth and through the surrounding terrain. - John McPhee

If I'm going to drive safely, I can't do geology. - John McPhee

Check out my Blog for more fossils I've found: http://viewsofthemahantango.blogspot.com/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you to everyone who posted photos.

Also thanks to those of you that viewed the post and made comments.

Anyone else got something they want to show?

Come on don't be shy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great photos everyone. For anyone interested, there is a book on Vancouver Island fossils, "West Coast Fossils: A Guide to the Ancient Life of Vancouver Island" by Rolf Ludvigsen and Graham Beard. My copy is dated 1994 but amazon.com has a more recent edition listed but I don't know the extent of the update/revisions for that one. In any case the 1994 edition features numerous decent photographs though some are little washed out. Many are of cephalopods and arthropods.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Also from Hornby Island, my one and only Canadian shark tooth

Nice sixgill. Years ago, there was a guy who sold teeth and crabs at shows but I haven't seen much in recent years. The thing about the shark teeth is that a lot of them, including Hexanchus, indicate a deepwater environment - taxa not often seen because such rocks are rarely accessible (what happens at the greater ocean depths tends to stay there). I have seen Echinorhinus (one as large as some Miocene-Pliocene teeth), Heptranchias, Squalus, Chlamydoselachus (the frilled shark) and a squaloid I'm not sure of but similar to Cretasymnus. A few of the occurrences may be the earliest known or among the earliest known. A publication reviewing the Northumberland (formerly known as the Lambert) Formation sharks has been in the works for years. David Ward was working on it for a while. I don't know what's going on with it right now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great photos everyone. For anyone interested, there is a book on Vancouver Island fossils, "West Coast Fossils: A Guide to the Ancient Life of Vancouver Island" by Rolf Ludvigsen and Graham Beard. My copy is dated 1994 but amazon.com has a more recent edition listed but I don't know the extent of the update/revisions for that one. In any case the 1994 edition features numerous decent photographs though some are little washed out. Many are of cephalopods and arthropods.

I have both the first and second (revised) editions of this book. The second edition is dated 1997. There are several new additions to the book including the first Triassic fish from Vancouver Island and the Cranberry Arms Site (a site world renown for its Cretaceous plant fossils including flowers). Either one of these books is essential and highly recommended reading if you are interested in fossils from Vancouver Island.

So much new material is being discovered every year by local collectors that the book could easily be revised three to five years. I have not heard whether a new book is on the way but it is certainly overdue.

The photographs in the book may appear washed out because they are photographed in a tradition used by most if not all scholarly paleontological journals. That is to say that the fossils are usually painted with a matte black pigment and then coated with a fine dusting of sublimated ammonium chloride salts. This method is used to accentuate the fossil's shape and surface texture while eliminating surface gloss and colouration. Of course this is covered in both editions of the book.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Im going to do an allout search for my double coniculosis concretion today. I found it while hunting shelter point with skippy, jay and bonedigger? Very late in the day. Sun going down fast making for some very long shadows and making it difficult to hunt for concretions. Walking back to car and saw a rock that was elongated. Skippy joked that it was a 'double'. Jay said not to waste my time, but waste my time I did and WOW!!! If I can find it today, I will post a photo. It will be one of the first things I prep with my newly redone and newly outfitted garage. YeeeeeeeeeeeeHaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!

And speaking of lobsters, from above,,, check this out!!!

post-171-12633909881908_thumb.jpg

Next photo will hopefuly be a double crab in a rock.

RB

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Here are some photos of the small Irregular Echinoid (possibly Hemiaster sp) that comes from the Upper Cretaceous Haslam Formation of Vancouver Island.

post-2629-12642887327746_thumb.jpg post-2629-1264288735021_thumb.jpg post-2629-1264288730557_thumb.jpg

Edited by palaeopix
  • I found this Informative 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Her are my Echinoids from Vancouver Island

First two are from Highway construction North of Courtenay,last is from Haslam creek

Cephalopods rule!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

Here are my latest finds from last Monday

Both Nitotacarcinis canadensis Eocene Vancouver Island

Edited by fossisle

Cephalopods rule!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here are my latest finds from last Monday

Both Nitatocarcinis canadensis Eocene Vancouver Island

Hey Rick those are great crabs. Haven't been to that site either. "Wink. Wink. If you know what I mean."

Edited by palaeopix
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...