Fossil hunting (with camera) in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada

[digit]

Tammy and I spent our anniversary in Churchill, Manitoba (Canada) this year in an effort to see both Polar Bears by day and the Aurora Borealis by night. We succeeded in the first half of this mission but cloudy skies that had Churchill socked-in for the duration of our stay occluded any views we had of the nighttime sky (actually, the daytime sky as well--we never saw the sun while we were there).

 

We had learned about Isotelus rex (the world's current record holder for most enormous species of trilobite) and were able to visit the specimen collected in Churchill when we visited the Manitoba Museum in Winnipeg:

 

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/78783-manitoba-museum-winnipeg/

 

We knew that the beaches would have some nice outcrops of Late Ordovician fossils where the giant trilobite was discovered and we looked for an opportunity to pay homage to I. rex with a pilgrimage to the type locality on our trip. Walking the beaches during Polar Bear season requires some caution and some extra preparation--like some sled dogs to help alert us to the presence of bears and a guide (Gerald, the owner of our B&B in Churchill--Blue Sky Bed & Sled). There are large boulders of Precambrian metagreywacke (aka "Churchill Quartzite") that are big enough for Polar Bears to hide among and pop-out with little notice and these limited sight lines make it necessary to take extra precautions when fossil hunting (bear dogs and shotguns are not normally required fossil hunting gear).

 

       

 

It didn't take us too long poking around the lighter colored Ordovician limestone cobbles to start spotting fossils. Surfaces with dense deposits of bivalves were pretty easy to spot. There are apparently both similar looking bivalves and brachiopods occurring in this outcrop and we didn't inspect the fossils closely enough (it was quite chilly out with the stiff breeze) to decide which we were seeing. I'm not familiar enough with these types of fossils to be able to quickly distinguish.

 

   

 

 

   

 

We also saw some evidence of gastropod steinkerns but they were not nearly as common as the bivalve/brachipod type of fossils. We also saw an interesting patterned rock that may be a fossil, ichnofossil, or maybe simply something geological and abiotic. It was pretty wild looking whatever it was.

 

   

 

We didn't spot any rugose (horn) corals but did see what appeared to be some tabulate corals and one colonial coral that forms a tessellated pattern of what look like chain links--quite distinctive.

 

   

 

We saw many occurrences of this finely patterned honeycomb-like fossil which I assume is a colonial (tabulate) coral and not something like a bryozoan or a Receptactulites. I need to do a bit more research online to see if I can't narrow down what types of fossils we were seeing.

 

       

 

       

 

A little searching netted some of the sightings of the chambered linear fossils of some orthoconic cephalopods. These seem to catch the interest of most of the locals and several of them have nice specimens of these fossils (though few have any idea what they actually are/were).

 

 

I tried to look around for some of the in situ slabs of limestone where trilobite fossils or the ichnofossil trails of the same might be found. I did spot some nice flat pavements after a bit of searching but could not locate any of the (very rare) giant trilobites for a photo.

 

       

 

Pictured above are our Polar Bear alert dogs Sony and Gracie enjoying a visit to the beach to run around and splash in the frigid waters.

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

 

 

 

[Monica]

Hi Ken!

 

Thanks for sharing some of your fossil finds from Churchill!  Just like the locals, I really like the orthoconic nautiloid that you found - the wavy pattern is really pretty!  Did you keep any of your finds, or did you just keep the photos?  I don't know what the rules are for fossil-collecting in Manitoba...

 

Your story of having to be careful due to the possible presence of polar bears reminded me of when I traveled up north for a university job I had during the summer of 1999.  For that trip, we spent five weeks in Resolute on Cornwallis Island and one week in the Truelove Lowlands of Devon Island.  While on Cornwallis Island, we didn't really have to worry about bears because there is a hamlet there with many people who would be able to deal with any bear that might have been around.  While we were on Devon Island, however, we were on our own since that island was(is?) uninhabited, so the five of us each had to take shooting lessons before we headed up north, and we took turns carrying the gun around with us as we hiked the terrain.  In the end, we only had one sighting of a polar bear, and it was while we were on Cornwallis Island - it was slowly floating towards Resolute Bay on an ice floe, and since it had the attention of so many (i.e. the entire hamlet), we were in little to no danger there.  One of the five of us had a bit of a scare while on Devon Island, though.  While we were sleeping, Dave apparently woke up because he heard scratching on the door to our "tent" (these were structures set up in the area back in the 1970s, I believe, when there were many researchers in the area) and was obviously worried that it was a bear so he grabbed the gun and got ready to use it.  When he opened the door and he saw what had been making the scratching noise he laughed - it was an adorable young Arctic fox, probably hoping to get some food.  Poor Dave.  The experience nearly gave him a heart attack, and then we teased him about it for the rest of the trip.  I was glad that he was on the ball, though - if it had been a bear, he was the best person to deal with it since he was a hunter and was much more comfortable using a gun than the rest of us.

 

Thanks for sharing!

 

Monica

[Fossildude19]

Great pics and report, Ken. 
Thanks for posting this.  

 

[Ludwigia]

Thanks for sharing this , Ken.

[jpc]

Nice report, Ken.  And cute dogs.  

[digit]

9 hours ago, Monica said:

Did you keep any of your finds, or did you just keep the photos?  I don't know what the rules are for fossil-collecting in Manitoba...

Took only photos and left only footprints.

 

We had ample suitcase space and we were even offered some nice specimens by some of the locals when they heard that we were so interested in their local fossils. I took a look at the actual regulations and, though unclear (government regs), it seemed to imply that fossils were cultural heritage of the providence and could not be legally removed (especially from public property). There may be a loophole that allows the quarry owner to ship the fossiliferous Tyndall Stone abroad. Possibly, because the fossils are secondary to the stone used to face buildings that may be the way they can get around export regulations.

 

It would have been nice to have kept a specimen or two form the type locality of the world's largest trilobite (especially if it was a trilobite fossil), but we were happy to just take back some photos to remember this excursion.

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[ynot]

Nice report Ken. Wonderful pictorial.

Sorry You missed the big trilobite in situ shot.

[Kane]

Thanks, Ken! This and your museum thread made for some great reading. The barren landscape is certainly awe-inspiring.  

[ranitomeya]

Amazing!  Thanks for providing a glimpse of such an iconic locality.