fossil of the weekend! #19

an anomalocaris claw i found on mt. stephen in 2003.

the end of THIS thing

okay need to check out the field visitor center so i know what i'm talking about when i ask them for a job.

i'm thinking though what better way to attract people to a fossil display then with a dinosaur... even if they don't technically find us around here normally.

well for some reason there's a cowboy statue in front of the center. trilobite wrangler?

heading inside there was a bunch of fossil displays, and i figured best thing to do was check them out, and demonstrate my superior knowledge of the burgess shale

yeah no big surprises. they had a whole cabinet full of trilobites from mount stephen

a cool selection on other critters from fossil ridge. like the iconic marrella...

one of my favs though is the tentacled football leanchoilia...

they had a pretty small, but good selection of burgess shale fossils. all ones i knew about. so it would be easy to sell myself as both a palaeo attraction, but also expert.

there was only one problem when i went around the corner and bumped into their alberta and BC tourism displays...

there was a dinosaur in the center. not just that she was there from the tyrrell to promote the museum! now considering the circumstances we were both pretty civil. however this struthiomimus was very set on this job staying HERS!

well so much for that idea...

i guess i'm meant to goto drumheller. what awaits me there i'm not sure. hopefully a second chance.

all these attempts at first chances haven't been suiting me so well...

beginning of ALL things...

okay people of the innerweb i'm back into familiar territory. hopefully no more of that crazy BC type stuff can happen to me here. even though technically i'm still in the province, field is pretty much on the border with alberta, and even more important i know ALL about this area.

the reason. this is one of the most important palaeontologic places in the world!

the tyrrell has a huge display on this place called the burgess shale. they are among the OLDEST complex creatures known. these fossils are so good that we don't just get hard parts, we also get the soft ones!

once i get back to drum i'll have to check out the display again. though i'm getting an idea related to my future after i've found my past at drumheller. maybe i could come back here and get a job. i'm qualified. i know a LOT about the burgess shale cause i spent a lot of time in the display when i lived in the tyrrell. that and one of the six big books i've ever read was one called wonderful life by stephen gould... don't let the fact that he is a scary monster stop you from reading the book. it's very good and ALL about the burgess shale.

actually being here in field and seeing all the famous places is really cool!

over on one side of field is mount stephen famous for it's trilobites. i've heard from people at the museum who've been up there that there are so many fossils up on the top of that hill that every second rock has a trilobite in it!!!

on the other side opposite the highway is the burgess pass and it's famous fossil ridge. an exposure of really really early cambrian fossils of the cathedral escarpment. my buddy dan used to do a play at the museum about looking for fossils up there.

you'll also see in that photo the visitor center here in field. i was going to check in there about a possible job after i looked at all the signs they had outside.

man the signs were cool. it was like having a museum outside!

this was a really awesome sign all about the famous palaeontologists who explored this place for the first time. included in there was charles dolittle walcott, though don't let his middle name fool you. he in fact did alot!

the sign showing how the burgess shale looked when all the critters was alive was really cool. just like the vancouver aquarium only instead of fish it would be funky arthropods!

hey that gives me another idea! with my new work experience at the aquarium i could totally work IN the tyrrell's burgess shale display! combo that with my knowledge of the place, and i'd be a show in for educating the public about this place, and be able to take care of the critters in the display!

well okay it seemed like a good idea till i read this sign... now i like adventure, and all... but getting buried alive. when was that ever fun?

well scratch that working in the museum's burgess shale idea. time now instead to see if i can work at the real thing!

blockade

if it isn't one thing it's another in my attempt to get out of BC...

i'm nearly on the border of alberta, and with it a return to friendly soil!!!

of course it's not that simple... AGAIN!... because up ahead of me on the road is yet ANOTHER obstacle!



a herd of elk blocks my progress...

now i know how elk typically work. honk your horn and they'll get their horns out of the way.

not these ones...

turns out these ones aren't just casually wandering onto the road. no. their here to stop just ME...

seems these guys are buddies with mountain sheep, and their really mad at how i humiliated the king of the rams last month. hearing that i was coming back through this area (they read it on my blog... have to remember to keep things a little more secretive in the future) their here to stop me...

well it looked kinda bleak. i couldn't get past them, and they weren't going to let me through. they were letting other cars through. just not me.

after spending the afternoon on the BC side of their imposed line i was really worried i'd have to back track into BC to try and find an alternate route. however as the sun began setting and it got darker i noticed something.

i couldn't recognize individual elk anymore. they all looked the same. why with those conditions maybe they won't recognize my car anymore...

to make sure they lost track of me i pretended to goto bed in my car. though what i really did was hop in and roll the window down. this way i could crawl out my window without opening the door and turning on the cabin light. once outside my car i threw some towels over my headlights so they won't be visible once my car was on. i then waited for a different car to come by to start my engine so that it's noise didn't seem out of place.

when that car finally showed up i drove down the highway away from them as fast as i could. getting around a bend i then pulled a u-turn. i then turning on my high beams. with these on i then casually drove back toward the blockade... but was it casual enough?

reaching the line my heart nearly stopped as the elk didn't move forcing me to slow down... getting within mere feet of them time seemed to cease as they looked at my car. it wasn't till i realized they were squinting in my high beams, and unable to see me that i relaxed.

then they parted, and let me through! can you believe that people of the innerweb i outsmarted someone!!!

now sadly this whole episode cost me a day, and it's late. i'm going to push on a few more kilometers to field BC and sleep there over night. however there is a slight treat for me there. you field is home to one of the coolest palaeontologic sites in the world!!!

catch you there people of the innerweb!