Evolution and Phylogeny of Altingiaceae: Anatomically Preserved Infructescences from Late Cretaceous Deposits of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada

2020 ◽  
Vol 181 (4) ◽  
pp. 452-463
Author(s):  
Alex R. Scharfstein ◽  
Ruth A. Stockey ◽  
Gar W. Rothwell
2018 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew J. Vavrek ◽  
Donald B. Brinkman

Trionychid turtles were widespread throughout much of the Western Interior Basin of North America during the Cretaceous, represented by a wide variety of taxa. Despite their widespread abundance east of the Rocky Mountains, they have not previously been reported from Cretaceous deposits along the Pacific Coast of North America. We report here on an isolated trionychid costal from Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The fossil was recovered from the Late Cretaceous (Turonian to Maastrichtian) Nanaimo Group, on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. While the fossil is generically indeterminate, its presence adds an important datapoint in the biogeographic distribution of Trionychidae.  


IAWA Journal ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan A. Jud ◽  
Elisabeth A. Wheeler ◽  
Gar W. Rothwell ◽  
Ruth A. Stockey

Fossil angiosperm wood was collected from shallow marine deposits in the Upper Cretaceous (Coniacian) Comox Formation on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The largest specimen is a log at least 2 m long and 38 cm in diameter. Thin sections from a sample of this log reveal diffuseporous wood with indistinct growth rings and anatomy similar toParaphyllanthoxylon. Occasional idioblasts with dark contents in the rays distinguish this wood from previously knownParaphyllanthoxylonspecies and suggest affinity with Lauraceae. The log also includes galleries filled with dry-wood termite coprolites. This trunk reveals the presence of tree-sized angiosperms in what is now British Columbia, and the association of dry-wood termites with angiosperm woods by the Coniacian (89 Ma). To understand the significance of this discovery, we reviewed the record of Cretaceous woods from North America. Our analysis of the distribution of fossil wood occurrences from Cretaceous deposits supports the conclusion that there was a strong latitudinal gradient in both the size and distribution of angiosperm trees during the Late Cretaceous, with no reports of Cretaceous angiosperm trees north of 50°N paleo-latitude in North America. The rarity of angiosperm wood in the Cretaceous has long been used to support the idea that flowering plants were generally of low-stature for much of the Cretaceous; however, large-stature trees withParaphyllanthoxylon-like wood anatomy were widespread at lower–middle paleo-latitudes at least in North America during the Late Cretaceous. Thus, the presence of a largeParaphyllanthoxylonlog in the Comox Formation suggests that Vancouver Island has moved significantly northward since the Coniacian as indicated by other geological and paleobotanical studies.


1975 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 464-471 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. E. Rouse ◽  
W. H. Mathews ◽  
R. H. Blunden

Sediments bordering Burrard Inlet in Greater Vancouver are described as the Lions Gate Member of the Burrard Formation. This new member, comprising the lowest part of the previously defined Burrard Formation, rests nonconformably upon deeply weathered granitic rocks of the Coast Plutonic belt, and dips southwards into the Whatcom Basin. Four sedimentary units are recognizable, comprising a basal unit of conglomerate with minor sandstone lenticles; a sandstone–siltstone unit; a shale unit; and an upper coarse arkose. The upper contact with overlying sandstone and shales of Tertiary age occurs on the south shore of Burrard Inlet. Palynomorphs from both surface and borehole samples are of Late Cretaceous (Campanian) age, suggesting correlation of the Lions Gate Member with the Extension-Protection Formation of eastern Vancouver Island.


2020 ◽  
Vol 295 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-147
Author(s):  
Torrey Nyborg ◽  
Alessandro Garassino ◽  
Richard L.M. Ross

We report Sabellidromites lanae n. sp. (Crustacea, Decapoda, Dromiidae) from the Late Cretaceous (late Campanian) of Hornby Island, British Columbia (Canada). Sabellidromites lanae n. sp. is the first report of a dromioid crab from Nanaimo Group of Vancouver Island and the first report for the genus in North America, enlarging its palaeogeographic range.


2002 ◽  
Vol 39 (11) ◽  
pp. 1591-1603 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth L Nicholls ◽  
Dirk Meckert

A new fauna of fossil marine reptiles is described from the Late Cretaceous Nanaimo Group of Vancouver Island. The fossils are from the Haslam and Pender formations (upper Santonian) near Courtenay, British Columbia, and include elasmosaurid plesiosaurs, turtles, and mosasaurs. This is only the second fauna of Late Cretaceous marine reptiles known from the Pacific Coast, the other being from the Moreno Formation of California (Maastrichtian). The new Nanaimo Group fossils are some 15 million years older than those from the Moreno Formation. However, like the California fauna, there are no polycotylid plesiosaurs, and one of the mosasaurs is a new genus. This reinforces the provinciality of the Pacific faunas and their isolation from contemporaneous faunas in the Western Interior Seaway.


1974 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 280-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard J. Stewart ◽  
Richard J. Page

Laumontite and heulandite are extensively developed as metamorphic minerals in sandstones of the Late Cretaceous Nanaimo Group, Vancouver Island and Gulf Islands, British Columbia. Major post-depositional changes in the sandstones also include widespread carbonate cementation and replacement, alteration of plagioclase and biotite, and development of a phyllosilicate matrix. The sequence apparently is depth-zoned, with heulandite present only in the upper 1000 m of section, and laumontite developed in the upper 2500 m. The zeolite assemblages probably were developed during burial metamorphism, as subject to controls of permeability and suppression by a high chemical potential of CO2. Comparable assemblages should be expected in similar clastic sequences found in other portions of the Cordillera, particularly the thick Mesozoic successions of the Intermontane and Insular Fold Belts.


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