Canada
Monthly Archive: December Cana
From the Field: Farewell Churchill
July 27
The weather forecast was pretty much on the money, and a dismal dawn yields to thunder-squalls rolling across the tundra. But, after breakfast and a second cup of coffee, the rain eases and we are a shade more optimistic about our flight out later this morning. Time for one last walkabout of our temporary home.
From the Field: Last day before departure
July 26
From the Field: Hudson Bay’s Ancient Treasures
July 25
From the Field: Ancient Sea Scorpion Fossil Found
July 23
Clear skies at last! Down to the coast to catch good morning lighting and a fortuitously low tide, so we can see in detail how fossil-bearing Upper Ordovician carbonate deposits (445 million years old) at our main locality “lap” against the elevated flanks of a much more ancient rock mass. This highly resistant Proterozoic (about 2500 million-year-old) quartzite body is the remnant of a small island that formed part of an archipelago in shallow Ordovician subtropical seas.
From the Field: Digging for Fossils in Churchill’s Trenches
July 22
Cod and Caribou – good management, natural resiliency or media headlines
From the Field: Searching for Early Life in Churchill, MB
July 20
From the Field: Arrival in Churchill, Manitoba
July 18, 2011 – Welcome to Churchill!
We arrive from Winnipeg by twin turboprop early this evening, after the usual minor delays and frustrations,… pick up our 4×4 vehicle, get settled in at the wonderful new Churchill Northern Studies Centre facility and spend a few hours showing two novice crew members some of the nearby tundra features, including a splendid extended sunset (officially at 10:07 PM, but with a beautifully long prelude).
From the Field: Southern Alberta Dinosaur Project 2011 – Prospecting for new dinos!
July 10-12: More Surprises from the South Side
Changing of the guard – Schad Gallery welcomes North America’s largest land animal
A long awaited addition to the Royal Ontario Museum was installed today in the Life in Crisis: Schad Gallery of Biodiversity. Our new North American Plains Bison (Bison bison bison) wears his shaggy winter coat and munches on grass, a key component of his vegetarian diet. Weighing about 360 kg (or 800 lbs) today, this large specimen was prepared for the ROM by the same taxidermist who prepared the White Rhino also on display in the Schad Gallery.