Collections & Research Staff
Brian Iwama
Collections Technician
Palaeontology
B.Sc., Geology, University of Toronto, 1982
Brian Iwama is a collections technician in the palaeobiology division of the Department of Natural History at the ROM.
Born and educated in the Toronto region, Brian enrolled in the palaeontology specialist program of the Geology Department at the University of Toronto. During his studies, he began his career at the ROM, working as a summer student, volunteer, and contract employee in the departments of Invertebrate Palaeontology and Vertebrate Palaeontology. In 1982, he joined the Exhibit Design Department working on the renovation of the previous Dinosaur Gallery, and in 1984, he moved to the Department of Vertebrate Palaeontology as a technician.
Brian has spent many summers engaged in fieldwork. He has assisted in the collection of vertebrate fossils from the Chihuahua desert of northeastern Mexico, and the Badlands of Alberta. Many collecting seasons were spent in the fossil-rich Upper Triassic age deposits of northern British Columbia. His work has been diverse, and includes: the Maiasaur Preparation Lab on Level 2; recovering recently deceased animal skeletons; as well as the preparation of Upper Triassic ichthyosaurs, dinosaurs from Alberta and Africa, and extinct “giant armadillos” from south-central America and southern North America.
In addition to fossil preparation, Brian is involved in molding and casting of specimens. He also teaches firearms safety to Museum staff working in wilderness areas. These two areas of interest have led to his involvement in invertebrate fossil fieldwork in Churchill, Manitoba. Other duties involve assisting with the palaeobiology collections database, working on cataloguing recent additions to the collections, and assisting in the inventory and reorganization of various segments of the collections. He was part of the team conserving, and in some cases, remounting fossil specimens for the new Reed Gallery of the Age of Mammals and the Jim and Louise Temerty Galleries of the Age of Dinosaurs. Brian was also part of the team involved in the installation of the fossil specimens in both galleries.
Recent Publications
| 2002 | Iwama, B. "Accelerated, cold temperature field molding of large fossils." Abstracts and Short Papers from the Canadian Palaeontology Conference, 2002 Ottawa, No. 12: 16-17. |
| 1994 | Tiffany, M. and B. Iwama. "Cast Painting." In Vertebrate Paleontology Techniques, edited by P. Leiggy and P. May. Cambridge University Press, pp 271-284. |
| 1993 | Iwama, B. "Approaches to mold design and construction." Collection Forum, 9(1): 47-60. |
Podcast
Constructing the Barosaurus
January 4, 2008
Watch the construction of Gordo, the Barosaurus skeleton mounted in the James and Louise Temerty Galleries of the Age of Dinosaurs. The real fossil specimen is the largest dinosaur ever to be mounted in Canada at almost 27.5 metres (90 feet) in length.
Widescreen Video Podcast (4.2MB, 2m 04s)
Written Transcript (PDF)
Galleries
Reed Gallery of the Age of Mammals
Jim and Louise Temerty Galleries of the Age of Dinosaurs
ROM Images
Dinosaurs
Vertebrate Fossils
Prehistoric Animals
Contact Information
Royal Ontario Museum
Department of Natural History
100 Queen's Park
Toronto, ON
M5S 2C6
Tel: 416.586.5594
Fax: 416.586.5553
E-mail: briani@rom.on.ca
Molding an Ordovician age giant trilobite trackway in the intertidal zone, Churchill, Manitoba, 2002. Photo credit: D. Rudkin.
Working in the Vertebrate Palaeontology Preparation Lab on the large Upper Cretaceous fish fossil Xiphactinus for display in the new galleries.
