Alberta Palaeontological Society

For this Fossil Friday we have the claw bone (ungual phalanx) from a small theropod from the Dinosaur Park Formation in southern Alberta. It’s not clear exactly what species this bone is from, but there are a number of candidates, including Troodon and Saurornitholestes (a cousin of Velociraptor). In life this bone would have been covered in a sheath of keratin, making it much larger!

This specimen was found by Hope Johnson and is APS 2006.071. Photo credit Howard Allen.

Happy Fossil Friday! This fossil is the feeding appendage of Anomalocaris canadensis. When originally discovered it was thought to be the headless body of a shrimp, but was later discovered to be part of one of the Middle Cambrian’s largest predators.

This fossil was found at the Mt. Stephen trilobite beds in Yoho National Park. This site features spectacular soft-body preservation and an enormous quantity of trilobites.

This week’s Fossil Friday is a Late Cretaceous sea star from Alberta (APS 1987.038). It was found in the Cardium Formation, which formed along the shallow margin of the Western Interior Seaway. This seaway bisected North America, connecting the Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. This sea star would have lived in the warm, shallow waters along that margin.

It was found by Harvey Negrich and Don Sabo. Photo credit Howard Allen.

Another video posted! This time it's Dr. Leslie Eliuk discussing Canadian fossil reefs which you can reach by car.

https://youtu.be/qXqOIl4DHrQ

This was the main presentation at our May 8 monthly meeting. These meetings are free and open to the public!

Reefs by the Roadside – a preliminary guide to easily accessible Canadian fossil reef localities Canada is blessed with many fossil reefs. Most are not easily accessible but a fair number are close enough to roads to be easily walked to or viewed. Surpri...

The final video of Paleo 2026 has been posted! Dr. Emily Bamforth, curator of the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum, presents the history of Triceratops and how Canadian specimens have been vital in learning about them!

https://youtu.be/QWexKRtTwvw

Three-Horned Faceoff: A Tale of Canadian Triceratops and Why They Matter Triceratops is one of the most popular dinosaurs of all time. The largest of all known ceratopsians (horned dinosaurs), Triceratops is known for its eponymou...

This week’s Fossil Friday is a tooth of Sandalodus, a Carboniferous shark. This animal was swimming in the tropical seas that covered Alberta roughly 350 million years ago. At that time, much of Alberta lay under a warm, shallow sea - more like the Bahamas today than the prairies we know now!

This specimen was found near Bragg Creek in southern Alberta. It is APS 1985.020 and was collected by Geoffrey Barrett.

The penultimate video from Paleo 2026 is now posted! Kano Sasaguchi explains how a new imaging method, Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI), provides new insights into insect fossils!

https://youtu.be/Aj2-o8gBzVY

Alberta's Paleocene Insects: New Insights from a Fossil Legacy The global Paleocene insect fossil record remains sparse and is often regarded as a “gap” in the fossil record. In central Alberta, the Paskapoo Formation pr...

Another video from Paleo 2026 has been posted! Dr. Jon Noad explains different often-overlooked trace fossils and uses comparison with living traces to show how these fossils are more numerous than we think - we just need to know what to look for.

https://youtu.be/p0nbgKmYcbo

Left Behind: Previously Unrecognized Trace Fossils with Stories to Tell Trace fossils provide a valuable tool in the interpretation of depositional settings. They can also be used to show the presence of ancient creatures that ot...

This week’s Fossil Friday is the preserved cast of a late Cretaceous crayfish, Eryma ornatus, found in Southern Alberta.

It was found by Lawrence Halmrast and is APS 1990.011. Photo credit Howard Allen.

Our last monthly meeting before we break for the summer is happening this Friday! We'll be learning about easily accessible fossil reef locations with Dr. Leslie Eliuk.

Friday, May 8, 7:30 - 9pm: May Monthly Meeting: May 2026 @ Mount Royal University, Calgary, Alberta (Alberta Palaeontological Society)

For more information: see https://albertapaleo.org/events/calendar