VanPS Talks & Field Trips Schedule 2025
Events Field Trips Past Events Past Field Trips
Upcoming Talks and Events:
Next VanPS Talk:
Date and Time: April TBC
Speaker: TBC
Topic: TBC
Location: TBC and on Zoom
Please consider getting or renewing your membership.
The VanPS membership fee is $30 and covers immediate family members. Membership is valid for the calendar year.
A membership is required to attend field trips and also gives you access to the BC Paleontological Alliance (BCPA) journal, which can be found on the BCPA website.
Individuals and families with paid VanPS memberships are allowed to participate in VanPS field trips and other BCPA society field trips.
You can purchase or renew your membership through our website: https://vanps.vcn.bc.ca/membership/
If you have any questions or would like to receive our membership form, please contact Perry Poon, VanPS Chair, at [email protected]
15th British Columbia Paleontological Symposium
Date: August 22 to 25, 2025
Location: Florence Filberg Centre, Courtenay, BC
Mark your calendars for the next BC Paleontological Symposium, hosted by the BCPA and the Vancouver Island Paleontological Society (VIPS).
Four days of insightful presentations, engaging discussions, workshops, field trips and networking opportunities. Whether a seasoned professional or an avid citizen scientist, Symposium 2025 offers something for everyone. Don’t miss this chance to connect with like-minded individuals and expand your knowledge of all things paleontology in and related to BC. Secure your spot today!
For more information and to register, visit http://vips-fossils.com/.
Upcoming Field Trips:
Date: Sunday, April 27
Meeting time: 10:00 am
Location: Harrison Lake – Meet outside the Chehalis Band Store – 1001 Morris Valley Road, Agassiz, BC
The next VanPS field trip is to the west side of Harrison Lake. We will be visiting Middle Jurassic marine outcrops of the Mysterious Creek formation just off the forest service road and nearby creek.
Level of difficulty
Easy to Moderate.
Equipment required
- Geological or Brick Layers Hammer
- 3-4 lb mini sledge hammer
- Cold flat chisels
- Eye protection
- Work / gardening gloves are recommended.
Type of fossils
Marine invertebrates such as ammonites, belemnites, bivalves, gastropods and fossilized wood.
The logging road is gravel and generally well maintained. It has some pot-holes and bumps but cars can be driven on it. A vehicle with high ground clearance is recommended but not required. The main site that the VanPS will collect is just off the road so there is minimal walking required. John is planning to explore the nearby creek as well and members can join him. This creek is in a gully and is a challenge because it will require climbing down the steep slope and walking on the creek bed. This portion of the trip is optional as you can choose to stay close to the road and collect.
Please meet at 10:00 AM outside the Chehalis Band Store (1001 Morris Valley Road, Agassiz, BC).
https://maps.app.goo.gl/JqvvNZGAnKa3bNqW6
This is a members only event. You must be a member of one of the societies of the British Columbia Paleontological Alliance (BCPA) such as the VanPS, VicPS, VIPMS, or VIPS to attend this event. You can sign up on our website at https://vanps.vcn.bc.ca/membership/ or join in person.
Please contact John Fam at [email protected] by Friday, April 25 if you are interested in attending.
Please note: Participation in our field trips requires a paid membership and a signed waiver form.
Younger members, accompanied by a responsible adult, are welcome on our field trips.
Pets are not allowed as they complicate our insurance coverage. Also bringing pets on our field trips, including dogs, poses a safety risk as they can attract dangerous wildlife, such as bears.
All VanPS members are bound by our Code of Ethics and the BCPA fossil collecting policies.
A reminder to VanPS and BCPA members that all paleo finds should be collected and catalogued appropriately, and that all finds of scientific interest should be brought forward and offered to the professionals working in the area. Please keep accurate records so that data is not lost to science because of an oversight
If members have fossils they have not been able to prep, label, and store in a way that will make them easily accessible to science, they should ask for help so that this can be done in a reasonable amount of time. We will gladly help you with labelling and organizing your finds from VanPS field trips so that important data is not lost.
Past Talks and Events
BC Rock and Gem Show 2025
Date: April 11-13, 2025
Location: Chilliwack Heritage Park, 44140 Luckakuck Way, Chilliwack, BC
The Vancouver Paleontological Society once again participated in the BC Rock and Gem Show, hosted by the British Columbia Lapidary Society.
February 19, 2025
Speaker: David Moore, Burgess Shale Geoscience Foundation
Topic: The Burgess Shale: Dawn of Animal Life
The Victoria Palaeontology Society and the Vancouver Paleontological Society jointly presented:
The Burgess Shale: Dawn of Animal Life
The Burgess Shale is both the most famous and most important fossil site in the world. Very rarely, the Earth offers us a tantalizing glimpse, the briefest moment of clarity, of what life was like at one instant in the distant past. The Burgess Shale is one such rarity of immense scientific importance, a snapshot in time over 500 million years old.
The Burgess Shale fauna occurs near the first appearance in the fossil record of complex metazoans. Today, the fossils are on the side of a mountain in Yoho National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Burgess Shale continues to illuminate dark corners of our distant past even over 100 years after its initial discovery.
It is not only the age which makes these fossils so important, but the preservation of the creatures themselves. Unlike most fossils from other localities and time periods, the Burgess Shale creatures were the beneficiaries of an improbable series of events that exquisitely preserved the most delicate and perishable animals and structures.
About the speaker:
David Moore’s lifelong fascination with paleontology and evolution began at an early age – as a child, he collected rocks and fossils in eastern Canada. After several years pursuing a career far removed from the rocks, David returned to his first love, moving to Alberta to study geology at the University of Calgary. While undertaking his M.Sc. in geology in 1996, he began guiding for the Burgess Shale Geoscience Foundation. Working for several energy companies in Calgary, David has enjoyed a successful career exploring for unconventional gas in Canada and around the world. He has taught popular courses on paleontology, evolution and unconventional gas in Canada, has presented at numerous technical conferences and has lectured on Earth and Life History to academic and general audiences. His engaging style and sense of humor have introduced many people to the wonders of geology, paleontology and to scientific exploration. David has been a guide to the Burgess Shale for almost 30 years and is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Burgess Shale Geoscience Foundation and the Chair of the Education and Outreach Committee. David currently works in science education for Telus Spark in Calgary.
January 29, 2025
Speaker: John Fam
Topic: VanPS AGM and 2024 Field Trips Part II (August to October)
December 5, 2024
Speakers: John Fam and Perry Poon
Topic: Vancouver Paleontological Society Year End Meeting & 2024 Field Trip Season Recap
John Fam and Perry Poon presented a recap of some of the Vancouver Paleontological Society’s field trips in 2024, including trips to the GSC Vancouver, Burke Museum, Lytton, Harrison Lake (April and September), SW Washington, and Slesse Creek.
We also celebrated the life of VanPS member Quinn Weiman who passed away in July, 2024 with a display of fossils he had collected, including a giant Lytoceratid ammonite that he found in Ashcroft in 2023.
November 17, 2024
Speaker: Dr Liam Herringshaw
Topic: Jurassic Gems of the Yorkshire Coast
Palaeontologist Dr. Liam Herringshaw took us on a virtual fieldtrip to explore the Jurassic rocks and fossils of England’s Dinosaur Coast. The Yorkshire coast is one of the best places in the world to explore Jurassic environments.
Dr. Herringshaw is a freelance palaeontologist based in York, UK. He is a co-organizer of the York Fossil Festival. He works with schools, museums and universities across northern England. Dr. Herringshaw also leads fossil, geology, and history walks in York and North Yorkshire. Before going freelance, Dr. Herringshaw worked as a lecturer and researcher at the universities of Hull, York, Durham, Newfoundland, Aberdeen, and Birmingham.
View the recording here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQPSYs-6XTQ
June 12, 2024
Speaker: Dr. Brian Chatterton
Topic: Chasing Fossils Around Canada and the World
Dr. Brian Chatterton, Professor Emeritus and former Chair of the Geology Department at the University of Alberta (UofA), shared some of the highlights of his academic career in paleontology. His academic career spans nearly 70 years during which he has travelled to 6 of the 7 continents, excluding Antarctica because it was “too cold”. The majority of his career was spent at the UofA, where he studied a variety of fossils, including trilobites, conodonts, radiolarians, sponges, corals, brachiopods, cephalopods, bivalves, insects, fishes, birds, and dinosaurs.
BC Rock and Gem Show
Date: May 10 to 12, 2024
The VanPS had fossil displays at the BC Gem Show, hosted by the British Columbia Lapidary Society.
May 4, 2024
Speaker: Dr. Jean-Bernard Caron, Richard M. Ivey Curator of Invertebrate Palaeontology, Royal Ontario Museum (ROM)
Topic: The lower Cambrian Cranbrook Lagerstätte of British Columbia
Dr. Jean-Bernard Caron discussed the history, geological background, and fauna of the Lower Cambrian Cranbrook Lagerstatte and highlighted its significance for research and outreach.
Discovered over a century ago, the lower Cambrian (Series 2, Stage 4) Cranbrook Lagerstätte of southeastern British Columbia’s Eager Formation is one of the oldest Burgess Shale-type deposits in North America. This Konservat-Lagerstätte is rich in olenelloid trilobites, but also yields a very low-diversity soft-bodied fossil assemblage including Tuzoia and Anomalocaris, and a low-diversity ichnofauna. Its scientific study, however, remains limited. A 2015 field-based investigation by the Royal Ontario Museum has revealed new information about the site’s biota, depositional environment and taphonomic conditions. Not only is the Cranbrook Lagerstätte significant for early Cambrian biostratigraphy and comparisons with other Burgess Shale-type deposits, it also reveals some of the little-known diversity of life in a distal outer shelf environment during the Cambrian period.
January 24, 2024
Speaker: Perry Poon, VanPS Chair
Topic: Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) Marine Reptile at the Geological Survey of Canada
December 13, 2023
Speaker: Perry Poon, VanPS Chair
Topic: The Dinosaur World Tour: The Greatest Show Unearthed (1993 and 1995)
The Dinosaur World Tour began in Edmonton, Alberta, and the exhibit was titled, “The Greatest Show Unearthed”. The exhibits were the scientific results from excavation done by a group of Canadian and Chinese paleontologists from the Canadian Museum of Nature (Ottawa, Ontario), Institute of Vertebrate and Paleoanthropology (Beijing, China), and the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology (Drumheller, Alberta) working in the field in the Gobi Desert, Northern China; Canadian Arctic, Baffin Island; and Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta. The key researchers were Dr. Dale Russell (Curator of Fossil Vertebrates at the Canadian Museum of Nature), Professor Dong Zhiming (Institute of Vertebrate and Paleoanthropology) Professor Zhao Xijin, and Dr. Philip Currie (Head of Dinosaur Research, Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology).
This presentation showed some of the dinosaurs and discoveries from China, Alberta, and the High Arctic that were seen in the exhibit in Edmonton, Alberta (1993) and Vancouver (1995).
June 28, 2023
Speaker: Dr. John Clague, Professor Emeritus, Department of Earth Sciences, SFU
Topic: Metro Vancouver Tsunami Hazard
April 19, 2023
Speaker: Guy Santucci
Topic: Recent Fossil Discoveries in the East Kootenays
This presentation covered Marble Canyon, the Bull River Ordovician, Koocanusa Mesoproterozoic, and Crown Mountain Jurassic.
March 15, 2023
Speaker: Dr. George Mustoe
Topic: Paleontology of The Chuckanut Formation, Northwest Washington
February 15, 2023
Speaker: John Fam, VanPS Vice-chair
Topic: Fossil hunting at Penn Dixie Fossil and Nature Park , New York
In the summer of 2022, John Fam (Vice chair of the Vancouver Paleontological Society) and his family visited the Penn Dixie Fossil & Nature Park in upstate New York. This park is managed by the Hamburg Natural History Society and encourages the public to learn about paleontology through collecting of fossils. Here anyone can find and keep a variety of fossils such as trilobites, brachiopods, corals, crinoids, bryozoans, bivalves and gastropods. The fossils are all from the Devonian period approximately 380 million years ago.
January 18, 2023
Speaker: Perry Poon, VanPS Chair
Topic: Fossils from Harrison Lake
The West Side of Harrison Lake is a well known popular fossil collecting site for the VanPS. Numerous specimens of small ammonites (Cadoceras sp.), large belemnites, and clams (bivalves – Buchia sp.) have been found in these Jurassic and Cretaceous fossil localities. Over several years, these fossil sites have had drastic changes including road construction, mineral claim, clear cuts, and forest fires. Perry Poon has visited these fossil sites over several years and has documented the changing faces of the West Side of Harrison Lake fossil sites.
December 14, 2022
Speakers: VanPS members (see below)
Topic: VanPS Mini Talk Series – short presentations by VanPS members
Brennan Martens – Update on his publication: “First Record of a Tylosaurine Mosasaur for the Latest Cretaceous Phosphates of Morocco”
Ji Ai Cho – “Visit to the Jurassic Coast of Dorset, England”
John Fam – “My summer visit to Penn Dixie Fossil Park & Nature Reserve in New York State”.
November 10, 2022
Speaker: Brennan Martens, VanPS Director
Topic: Mosasaurs, Great Sea Monsters of the Cretaceous
Brennan Martens explored the diversity and history of mosasaurs through the Cretaceous period. Brennan is an undergraduate student at the University of Alberta and a long-time VanPS member. He has named a new species of mosasaur, a gigantic marine reptile from the age of the dinosaurs. He presented a close look at current research in the field and adaptations of this great prehistoric lineage of aquatic super predators.
Vancouver Gem and Mineral Show
Date: August 5 to 7, 2022
Western Canada’s largest Gem show is featuring 80+ of the best gem, mineral and jewellery vendors from across Canada. We’re bringing you unique gems, fine crystals, rare fossils, handmade jewellery, fancy beads and findings, lapidary art, and more! For more details, visit https://vancouvergemshow.com/
June 22, 2022
Speaker: Pat Trask, Curator of Natural History, Courtenay Museum
Topic: Adventures of the Long Necked Plesiosaur
Pat Trask is the Curator of Natural History at the Courtenay Museum. His twin brother Mike discovered the remains of an 80 million year old elasmosaur on the banks of the Puntledge River on Vancouver Island in 1988. It was the first of its kind found West of the Canadian Rockies. Since that time, many other wonderful discoveries have been made. Most recently a juvenile elasmosaur was found and recovered in 2020.
May 18, 2022
Speaker: Dr. Rebecca Yoshizawa, Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Topic: Talking Rocks: Paleontology Meets Sociology in the Anthropocene
Dr. Rebecca Yoshizawa shared perspectives as a sociological interloper entering the world of paleontology. From a gruelling trek to the Burgess Shale, to finding a fossil in her backyard, exploring paleontology’s thorny involvement in colonialism, and analyzing the promise of paleontology for saving the world, Dr. Yoshizawa reflected on the personal and the political when it comes to paleontology.
March 16, 2022
Speaker: Brennan Martens, VanPS
Topic: Burgess Shale Sponge That Was NOT a Sponge: Chancelloriids, a Dive Into The Odd History of Cambrian Sponge Lookalikes
Chancelloriids were originally interpreted as sponges by Walcott due to dermal coelosclerites being mistaken for embedded spicules seen in sponges. This led to three distinct taxa becoming lumped into a single species, Chancelloria eros Walcott, 1920. We now know the two other taxa are Allonnia tintinopsis n.sp. and Archiasterella coriacea n.sp all three belonging to the Family Chancelloriidae Walcott, 1920.
February 16, 2022
Speaker: Perry Poon, VanPS Chair
Topic: Fossil Displays and Exhibits from the Lower Mainland – Fabulous Fossils and Where to Find Them
January 26, 2022
Speaker: Ken Pugh
Topic: Field and Laboratory Techniques For Non-Marine Paleontology
Past Field Trips
Date: Sunday, March 23, 2025
Location: Fraser Canyon near Lytton, BC
On this field trip, we searched for rare hetermorph ammonites from the Lower Cretaceous (Aptian), Jackass Mountain Group along the Fraser River. There are also examples of fossilized wood at this location.
Date: Monday, March 17, 2025
Location: Pacific Museum of Earth and Beaty Biodiversity Museum, UBC
The Vancouver Paleontological Society visited the Pacific Museum of Earth and the Beaty Biodiversity Museum at the University of British Columbia. We started by visiting the Pacific Museum of Earth and then went on a curator’s tour led by Dr. Bruce Archibald of the museum’s fossil collections.
Date: Sunday, January 26, 2025
Location: Western Washington University, WA, USA
The Geology Department at WWU is home to one of the largest display collections of minerals, rocks, and fossils in the region. Exhibits feature specimens from the Pacific Northwest but also include materials from around the world. The Vancouver Paleontological Society visited with Dr. George Mustoe who led us on a tour of the Western Washington University Geology Museum.
https://geology.wwu.edu/geology-museum
Date: Sunday, October 20, 2024
Location: Ashcroft, BC
John Fam led a field trip to fossil localities near Ashcroft, BC. We visited a fossil site of the Upper Triassic, Nicola group. Types of fossils found at this location include marine invertebrates such as ammonites, bivalves, gastropods and belemnites.
Date: Sunday, September 22, 2024
Location: Harrison Lake
John Fam led a field trip to the west side of Harrison Lake. We visited Middle Jurassic marine outcrops of the Mysterious Creek formation just off the forest service road and nearby creek. Fossils found at this location include ammonites, belemnites, bivalves and gastropods.
Date: August 25-29, 2024
Location: Cranbrook (Bull River Valley)
Chris Jenkins and John Fam led a nearly week-long field trip to the Bull River Valley of Southeastern British Columbia to visit several trilobite localities. We also spent a day collecting in the Middle Devonian, Harrogate Formation, and visited the Cranbrook Museum to view their fossil collections.
Type of fossils: The Upper Cambrian McKay Group is world famous for its well preserved and diverse trilobite fauna. The Harrogate Formation contains a Middle Devonian fauna of corals, stromatoporoids, brachiopods, cephalopods, echinoderm fragments, trilobites, conodonts, gastropods, clams, and sponge spicules.
Date: Sunday, June 23, 2024
Location: Chuckanut Formation, near Deming, WA, USA
Dr. George Mustoe (Research Associate, Western Washington University) and John Fam (VanPS Vice-chair) led this trip. We visited two sites of the Eocene, Chuckanut formation of Northwestern Washington state. Fossils that can be found at this site include plant fossils and other ichnofossils such as tracks and burrows. A fossil fish (Phareodus) was also recently found at Racehorse Creek.
Date: Sunday, May 19, 2024
Location: Lincoln Creek formation, Washington State.
This field trip was led by local Washingtonian and citizen scientist, Scott Guthrie, and John Fam, VanPS Vice-chair.
We visited two sites of the Oligocene, Lincoln Creek formation of Southwestern Washington State.
Types of fossils: marine invertebrates (crabs, gastropods (snails), bivalves (clams), scaphopods (tusk shells), and nautiloids.
Date: Sunday, April 21, 2024
Location: Harrison Lake
John Fam led a field trip to the west side of Harrison Lake. We visited Middle Jurassic and Cretaceous marine outcrops just off the forest service road. Fossils that can be found at this site include ammonites, belemnites and bivalves.
Date: Sunday, March 24, 2024
Location: Fraser Canyon, near Lytton, BC
On this field trip, led by John Fam, we searched for rare heteromorph ammonites from the Lower Cretaceous, Jackass Mountain Group along the Fraser River. The site also includes fossilized wood.
Date: Sunday, February 18, 2024
Location: Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, Seattle, WA
Date: Sunday, January 21, 2024
Location: Geological Survey of Canada, Vancouver office
Date: Sunday, October 22, 2023
Location: Ashcroft
John Fam, VanPS Vice-chair, led this field trip to visit two localities near Ashcroft, including a quick stop at a Lower Jurassic site that contains the bivalve Weyla, and an Upper Triassic locality.
Date: September 23 to 24, 2023
Location: Princeton
Date: Saturday, August 19, 2023
Location: Kanaka Creek, Maple Ridge
Date: Saturday, May 27, 2023
Location: Slide Mountain, Washington
Date: Saturday, April 29, 2023
Location: Western Washington University – Geology Laboratory
John Fam, VanPS Vice-chair, led this field trip to visit the geology laboratory of Dr. George Mustoe at the Environmental Studies Building, Western Washington University, Bellingham. The purpose of the field trip was to learn about the experience of working in a real geology/paleontology laboratory, and to look at the fossil collections and the discoveries.
Date: Saturday, April 15, 2023
Location: Harrison Lake
John Fam (VanPS Vice-chair) led this field trip to Cretaceous sites around Harrison Lake.