14TH BC PALAEONTOLOGICAL SYMPOSIUM

You will be delighted to know that it is time for the next BCPA Symposium, June 9th - 12th, 2023. 

This is the 14th BC Palaeontological Symposium and it will be hosted by the Victoria Palaeontology Society along with the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences (SEOS), University of Victoria (UVic); Royal British Columbia Museum (RBCM); and, BC Fossil Management Office.

The 2023 BCPA conference is being held at the Bob Wright Centre, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC. I'll post a wee map here to make finding all this goodness a wee bit easier. The Bob Wright Centre (BWC) is just a short walk from Bento Sushi and SciCafé near UVic Parking Lot B.

Keynote Speakers: Dr. Jean-Bernard Caron & Dr. Charles Helm

The Burgess Shale Fossil Deposit of Marble Canyon in Kootenay National Park: Retrospective of the Last 10 Years of Research. In Southeastern BC, the Burgess Shale is the internationally renowned site that keeps on giving.  Symposium 2023 welcomes you on a journey through the past decade, featuring the field research and expertise of:

Dr. Jean-Bernard Caron, Richard M. Ivey Curator of Invertebrate Palaeontology at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto.

Dr. Caron leads regular fieldwork activities to the Canadian Rockies primarily to study how the Burgess Shale biota changed through space and time in response to ecological, evolutionary and environmental factors. Field-based research is an important aspect of his work and his research lab primarily focuses on fossilization processes, ecology, phylogeny, and diversity of Burgess Shale animals.

Tracking vertebrates from two eras on two continents—Northern BC is home to our second keynote speaker, Dr. Charles Helm, who is trekking two continents in search of tracks. 

Dr. Charles Helm, Research Associate at the Tumbler Ridge Museum and at the African Centre for Coastal Palaeoscience, Nelson Mandela University, South Africa is currently pursuing his PhD in paleontology in the Department of Geoscience, Nelson Mandela University, South Africa.

His paleontological research interests are in Pleistocene vertebrate tracks in South Africa (including hominin tracks and traces) and Cretaceous vertebrate tracks in northern British Columbia.  

Many of you will know Dr. Helm as founder of the Tumbler Ridge Museum Foundation in 2002. He developed the proposal that led to the creation of the Tumbler Ridge UNESCO Global Geopark in 2014, and was its first President.

BCPA Conference Link: https://vicpalaeo.org/.../14th-bc-palaeontological.../...

BCPA Website: www.bcfossils.ca

Here is a handy dandy map for easy reference: