In the Globe and Mail newspaper this morning (August 9, 2013) is an article written by Carrie Tait on the findings of a NEW fossil bed found in Kootenay National Park, at the foot of Stanley Glacier:
Fossil hunters Jean-Bernard Caron and Robert Gaines walk through the
wreckage of a forest fire, cross a creek by balancing on logs, hike up
loose mountain rocks and lateral moraines above the treeline – all to
reach the bottom of an ocean.
Snipped
Sounds like they are pretty prudent, respectful, of their surroundings, eh?
They chisel, chisel, chisel the length of the middle of a rock until
they see a fracture. Then they do the same at the fracture until the
grey rock splits in two. The researchers inspect the face of the split
rock, and if nothing excites them, they toss it aside and repeat the
process. The repetition can be dull until they find new shapes – forms
of life last spotted half a billion years ago.
“Usually there is a swear word and everyone turns around,” Prof. Caron says.
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Profs. Caron and Gaines are even more keen on another new fossil
find. This new discovery, however, makes them cagey. They won’t reveal
its location, save for hinting it is near the Stanley Glacier site. The
newest Burgess Shale-like discovery further increases diversity in this
neighbourhood of the animal kingdom, they say, and the quality of the
preservation makes them giddy.
Even at the Stanley Glacier site
there is plenty more work to do. A German adventurer found the first
fossil here in 1996 and reported it to authorities. Preliminary
scientific legwork followed in 2007, and the first expedition, led by
Prof. Caron, started chiseling away here in August, 2008.
Snipped
Profs. Caron and Gaines believe that expedition only scratched the
surface. They did not have permission to camp near the site, so they had
to trek to the fossil find, about two hours each way. The daily hike
meant they returned home with fewer fossils, and fewer inches around
their waists – they dubbed it the Burgess Shale Workout.
Next time
they are allowed back to the field – they need Parks Canada’s
permission to search for and remove fossils – the scientists would love
to trade their chisels for jackhammers to get further inside the
mountains. Prof. Gaines, who conducted his PhD research in western Utah,
puts the potential in perspective.
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UNESCO World Heritage Centre
World List UNESCO long list
Canadian Rocky Mountains UNESCO short list
Now here's the rub, with the Globe and Mail story, because of an earlier story on the same "Chisels", in 2010. In the report above, the scene is set whereby the scientists are using hard labour to get to and from the site AND not leaving anything behind at their campsite .... that might damage the environment.... nothing foreign to taint the high standards expected from a UNESCO billing...
Pomona College
New Fossil Bed Discovery by Royal Ontario Museum/Pomona College Team Challenges Assumptions
About Famous Fossil Site By Cynthia Peters 4:09 pm September 2, 2010 Research, Faculty
Robert Gaines, professor of geology at Pomona College, is part of an
exploration team that discovered a new fossil deposit whose existence
challenges long-held assumptions about the Burgess Shale, which is
famous for its exceptional preservation of soft-bodied fossils of the
Cambrian-era, during the dawn of animal life.
The discovery, “A new Burgess Shale-type assemblage from the ‘thin’
Stephen Formation of the southern Canadian Rockies,” was reported in the
September 2010 issue of Geology. (Abstract)
“The classic Burgess Shale deposits,” explains Gaines, “are found at
the base of a large underwater cliff. What is preserved there is
extraordinary: We find eyes, antennae, guts and other soft body parts
that normally stand no chance of fossilization. The cliff was thought to
be important in producing mudslides that transported the organisms from
their living environment to a habitat that was hostile but great for
preservation. The new locality challenges that assumption.”
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| Chisel, Chisel, Chisel |
If you've clicked on the link to "Pomona", the article is all fine and dandy.... for Kootenay National Park... but the two bottom images included with that article and copied here...above..... are from Yoho National Park! Beyond and below the helicopter, the valley bottom, is the Kicking Horse River, that flows out of Wapta Lake, which is hemmed in to the east, by the Continental Divide. The "loop", down below, to the left of the helicopter, on the other side of the river, is the road for the overflow camping area of Kicking Horse Campground.
Now contrast all of the above to what we observed on a trip into Lake O'Hara this past month: No transportation (no bikes either) except for two shuttle Private buses managed by Yoho National Park staff, on a Private road owned by a Private Lodge in a Public park, with a Jasper National Park like
quota system on visitors, 42 day timers not including overnighters (campers/lodge and bungalow guests).
Once a week scientists billeted in Canmore, take the bus up to Lake O'Hara, with all their gear.... then backpack all of their computer equipment, cables, inflatable 2 person zodiac, oars too, up to Lake Oesa, take their readings from the depths, and then cart all of their equipment back down again. one way = 3.2 Kilometers (2 Miles); 240 Metres (787 feet) .... A helicopter carting the fossil spoils would be fine... but.... this isn't Kootenay National Park.
The scientists are NOT permitted to leave any of the equipment on site. They're not even permitted to STAY in the Park because of the Quota system.... which is great... for the environment.
Helicopters are a No go. Outboard engines..... are a No go.
The apparent difference between Yoho/Kootenay Park's fossil beds and Yoho's Lake O'Hara is that the Lodge owner has it in writing that their pristine surroundings remain out of bounds for airborne equipment, ...... a no-fly-zone.
Google Search Criteria:
Jean-Bernard Caron and Robert Gaines
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By Alexandra Witze, Science News August 30, 2010 | 5:28 pm |
Categories: Biology, Earth Science
Image:
http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2010/08/4885667304_776be41489_b1-660x493.jpg
One of paleontology’s most revered fossil sites now has a baby brother.
Scientists have discovered a group of astonishing fossils high in the
Canadian Rockies, just 40 kilometers from the famous Burgess Shale
location.
A paper describing the find appears in the September issue of Geology.
Since its discovery in 1909, the Burgess Shale has yielded many
thousands of fossils dating to 505 million years ago — a period often
called “evolution’s big bang,” when animals were exploding in diverse
body plans.
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....the creatures unearthed also include eight taxa previously unknown
to science. They include an unnamed worm; Stanleycaris hirpex, a
segmented shrimp-like critter known as an anomalocarid; and an arthropod
with big eyes dangling on stalks from its head shield.
Until now, paleontologists had thought one reason the Burgess fossils
were so well preserved was because they settled in thick deposits at the
bottom of an ancient ocean protected by a submarine cliff. But the
Stanley Glacier fossils weren’'t formed in the presence of such a cliff,
suggesting that creatures can be fossilized in amazing detail in other
environments.
Snipped
In May, after studying new Burgess fossils from one of the original
sites, Caron and colleagues reported new details on a creature that may
be one of the earliest known relatives of octopuses, squid and other
cephalopods.
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Walcott Peak
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Parks Canada
Yoho National Park
The Burgess Shale
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