Well I might as well start at the beginning. The word fossil comes from a Latin word "fossilis" which means "something dug out of the ground". A fossil then is the remains, trace or impression of an ancient animal or plant naturally preserved in sedimentary rock. Areas like Vancouver Island where mountains have been created by a folding action are often good places to find fossils since the sedimentary rock from different geological periods has been pushed up and exposed.
It is not often that a paleontologist (a scientist who studies fossils) finds a large well preserved specimen like the elasmosaur that Kiwi described. Smaller fossils though are quite common. In sedimentary rock small fossils of bones, teeth, shell and plants can often be found by the collector who will take the time to look carefully. Some of the fossilized remains that can be found look like those of present day creatures. The ancestors of the clams, snails and crabs of today lived back in Cretaceous and Cenozoic times (140 to 25 million years ago.) Other fossils which can be found have no modern day equivalent and are of species that have since become extinct.
On my more geology page I explained that Vancouver Island is a terrane that was transported to its present location from its birth place somewhere south of the equator. An examination of fossils was one of the things that led scientists to adopt this theory about the formation of Vancouver Island. In any area where there is rock built up during a particular period you can expect to find fossils of the animals and plants that lived in the location at that time. The fossils on Vancouver Island are similar to those which have been found in lands on the far side of the Pacific Ocean or around the Indian Ocean. They differ markedly from those found in the rest of Canada. It was this discovery that led scientists to conduct tests from which gave rise to the present theories that have been advanced to explain the geological formation of this island.
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AMMONITES. | ![]() |
BELEMNITES. | ![]() |
BIVALVES. |
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BRACHIOPODS. | ![]() |
CORAL. | ![]() |
CRINOIDS. |
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CRUSTACEANS. | ![]() |
ECHINOIDS. | ![]() |
GASTROPODS. |
UP DATE: I have just
read Ludvigson's new book (see note below) and they have found a fossilized
tooth in the Trent Formation that they think is that of a dinosaur.
For the more adventurous, the book West Coast Fossils, by Rolf Ludvigsen and Graham Beard, contains a field guide describing the location of good fossil digging sites on the island. A new revised version has recently been published and can be ordered from:
© 1998 vanisle@oocities.com
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