Abstract During Late Ordovician and Early Silurian time, from 450 to 428 million years ago, stromatoporoid sponges were some of the most common and abundant fossils in shallow water tropical settings of the Anticosti Basin (Gulf of St Lawrence). They formed dense, massive coralline skeletons of calcium carbonate, some up to a meter or more across, especially in reef environments, but also in deeper waters of the Anticosti shelf, down to the margins of the photic zone, where light faded. The Anticosti Basin reveals one of the most fossiliferous carbonate sequences worldwide for rocks of this age, straddling a global mass extinction boundary, and thus revealing not only those taxa that became extinct, but also how the seas were repopulated in an equatorial setting after the mass extinction.

Abstract This book deals with an important group of Frasnian (Upper Devonian) rugose corals from western Canada, the colonial disphyllids. The genera Disphyllum, Pantophyllum, Argutastraea, Hexagonaria, Whittakeria (new genus), and Kuangxiastraea are considered, with 16 species (4 of which are new) studied in detail.

Abstract October 1, 2008, Philip J. Currie, Wann Langston, Jr., and Darren H. Tanke unveiled for the first time the name of a newly discovered horned dinosaur species. In the first monographic treatment of a horned (ceratopsid) dinosaur in almost a century, this monumental volume presents one of the closest looks at the anatomy, relationships, growth and variation, behavior, ecology and other biological aspects of a single dinosaur species. The research, which was conducted over two decades, was possible because of the discovery of a densely packed bone bed near Grande Prairie, Alberta. The locality has produced abundant remains of a new species of horned dinosaur (ceratopsian), and parts of at least 27 individual animals were recovered. This new species of Pachyrhinosaurus is closely related to Pachyrhinosaurus canadensis, which is known from younger rocks near Drumheller and Lethbridge in southern Alberta, but is a smaller animal with many differences in the ornamental spikes and bumps on the skull. The adults of both species have massive bosses of bone in the positions where other horned dinosaurs (like Centrosaurus and Triceratops) have horns. However, juveniles of the new species resemble juveniles of Centrosaurus in having horns rather than bosses. Skull anatomy undergoes remarkable changes during growth and the horns over the nose and eyes of the Pachyrhinosaurus juveniles transform into bosses; spikes and horns develop on the top of and at the back of the frill that extends back over the neck. No cause has been determined for the apparent catastrophic death of the herd of Pachyrhinosaurus from the Grande Prairie area, but it has been suggested that such herds may have been migratory animals. In addition to the main descriptive paper, the volume includes information on the distribution of bones within the bone bed itself, and a cutting-edge digital treatment of CT-scan data of the fossils to reveal the anatomy of the animal’s brain! See below to view the Pachyrhinosaurus braincase, fading away to reveal the brain within. Courtesy of Witmer & Ridgely, Ohio University.

Abstract This monographic study deals with a major marine faunal turnover during the Late Ordovician global greenhouse/icehouse episodes. The Late Ordovician was marked by one of the two greatest global sea-level rises and inundations of the North American paleocontinent during the Phanerozoic (last 544 million years), accompanied by a rapid diversification of invertebrate faunas in shallow, tropical, epicontinental seas. Toward the end of the Late Ordovician, continental glaciation in the southern hemisphere (Gondwana landmass) caused a major sea-level drop and marine regression from North America, bringing about the first of the five major mass extinction events in life history. Anticosti Island was part of the larger Anticosti basin, located on the eastern continental shelf of the North America paleocontinent, and was covered by a shallow, tropical sea in the Late Ordovician epoch. During the latest Ordovician global mass extinction event, the marine shelly benthos (bottom) of the Anticosti basin experienced a significant local radiation. This provides a great opportunity for us to investigate the response of marine life to a major environmental crisis. This monographic study aims to document the diversity change of brachiopods (one of the major groups of marine life during the Ordovician Period) from pre-extinction to extinction times.

Abstract Migmatites are highly heterogeneous rocks found in high-grade metamorphic environments; they are commonly encountered in the continental crust. Until now, many geologists have been deterred from working with migmatites because of their complex appearance and an unhelpful non-genetic nomenclature. In his Atlas of Migmatites, Dr. Edward Sawyer provides genetically based definitions and a system of nomenclature with which it will be possible to describe and map migmatites effectively and to understand how combinations of factors and processes produce a bewildering morphological diversity. Migmatites are produced by partial melting; to aid the reader in the identification of migmatites, the author describes and illustrates microstructures that can be used to infer the presence of melt or a melt-producing reaction. He also describes how geochemical data can be used to infer petrological processes involved in migmatite development. This book includes the results from two decades of research in whole-rock geochemistry, partial melting, microstructural analysis and experimental deformation of partially molten rocks. It contains information from an outcrop through to a grain scale. Exceptionally well illustrated, with 272 colour plates and accompanying detailed captions, the Atlas provides descriptions and analyses of migmatites not previously available.

Abstract The most comprehensive summary available on the stratigraphic occurrence, geographic distribution, phylogeny, and taxonomy of Early Permian colonial rugose corals that occupied the Cordilleran–Arctic–Uralian (CAU) Realm, along the northwestern and western marine shelves and accreted terranes of the ancient supercontinent Pangaea. It is based on all previous studies by other coral specialists, a thorough review of all published data, and on information from a very large number of new collections from new areas. This book contains a new classification and phylogenetic scheme, based on critical restudy of the entire coral fauna at all taxonomic levels

Abstract Rugose corals of the Family Phillipsastreidae are abundant, diverse, and geographically widespread in the Frasnian (lower Upper Devonian) of western Canada. Species of the solitary genus Macgeea described here comprise M. parva Webster, 1889, M. proteus Smith, 1945, M. telopea Crickmay, 1962, M. soraufi n. sp., and M. pustulosa n. sp. Thamnophyllum and Peneckiella are branching forms, with Thamnophyllum represented by the species T. colemanense (Warren, 1928), T. tructense (McLaren, 1959), T. pedderi n. sp., T. cordense n. sp. and T. julli n. sp., while Peneckiella includes P. floydensis (Belanski, 1928), P. metalinae Sorauf, 1972, P. gracilis n. sp., and P. haultainensis n. sp. Biostratigraphic distribution of these species is reviewed, together with that of previously described Canadian massive phillipsastreid species belonging to the genera Phillipsastrea, Chuanbeiphyllum, Pachyphyllum, Smithicyathus, and Frechastraea. The coral biostratigraphy is expressed in terms of the Montagne Noire conodont zonation and modified western Canada rugose coral faunal assemblages.

Abstract The morphology, evolution, and paleoecology of the highly successful Silurian atrypide spire-bearers are described in detail, including the documentation of several new species. Numerous detailed illustrations and plates accompany the text.

Abstract Graptolites flourished from earliest Ordovician to Early Devonian, a time range of about 90 million years, and were widely distributed as marine benthic and planktonic colonial organisms around the world. They were diverse and rapidly evolving and, as such, make excellent “index fossils” for relative age-dating of their enclosing basinal rocks. Rarely, however, graptolites are beautifully preserved in their original three-dimensional form, and can be extracted from the enclosing rock for detailed study under scanning electron microscope. Such a unique preservation is pervasive in the latest Ordovician to latest Silurian rocks of the central Arctic Islands of Canada, presenting an opportunity to study their complex morphology and evolution, making the Arctic graptolite sequence unique in the world. The present study examines the isolated, uncompressed as well as flattened forms from the Ludlow and Pridoli (Upper Silurian) graptolites of the Arctic, recognizing 46 species of monograptids and retiolitids of which seven are described as new species or subspecies.

Abstract The shape of fish otoliths is highly species specific. Since otoliths resist degradation better than most other tissues, the shape and size of preserved or undigested otoliths recovered from fossilized sediments, native middens, and the stomachs and droppings of fish predators can be used to reconstruct the species composition of the diet or fish assemblage. This photographic atlas presents light and (or) scanning electron micrographs of 580 pairs of sagittal otoliths representing 288 species, 97 families, and 27 orders of fish from the northwest Atlantic. For most species, multiple individuals across a range of sizes are presented in order to highlight changes in otolith shape with increased size. For 72 of the families, photographs of the lapillar and asteriscal otoliths are also presented.

Abstract A large collection of fossil decapod crustaceans from Cretaceous and Eocene rocks of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, has yielded a remarkably diverse fauna. The Cretaceous decapod fauna, including previously described and new taxa, contains 17 genera in 14 families, represented by as many as 22 species. The Eocene fauna is less robust, with 7 species and 6 genera in 6 families. This publication includes one new family; three new genera; eight new species; and nine new combinations. The decapod fauna of the Nanaimo Group supports a position for Wrangellia well north of the current position of Baja California, Mexico. The decapod fauna of the Western Interior of North America is distinct from that of west coastal North America, suggesting limited faunal exchange between the two areas. Fewer than half of the decapod genera present in British Columbia during the Late Cretaceous Period became extinct by the end of the Cretaceous, most before the Maastrichtian. Two of the Cretaceous genera and none of the Eocene genera are extant; the extant genera are both members of the Callianassidae. Of the 14 families present in Cretaceous rocks of British Columbia, five are extinct. The North Atlantic and Central Americas appear to have been areas of rapid evolutionary expansion within the Decapoda during the Cretaceous, based upon the large number of decapod families that appear to have originated there during Cretaceous time.

Abstract Conodonts, the tiny, phosphatic, toothlike remains of an extinct group of early vertebrates, are the most important fossil group for biostratigraphy throughout their stratigraphic range from Late Cambrian to Late Triassic. The monograph presents the results of a significant project in remote regions of northeastern British Columbia. It extends the knowledge of the stratigraphic framework and conodont faunas into a region where information of this kind is largely unknown. Complete stratigraphic sections exposed in the high alpine of the Northern Rocky Mountains allowed examination of strata across a platform-shelfbreak-basin transect. The conodont faunas from the Kechika Formation, Skoki Formation, and Road River Group are described from an extensive collection of nine stratigraphic sections (over 9000 m measured) that yielded abundant conodont elements (38 600 total). This monograph represents a benchmark study of these important zonal fossils. The detailed paleontological work not only provides a taxonomic basis for future studies on early Paleozoic conodonts but also focuses on the evolution of conodonts in the early Ordovician, a time of extraordinary adaptive radiation. The taxonomic work provides detailed descriptions and illustrations of 185 species representing 69 genera. Seven new genera and 39 new species are described. The high diversity of taxa across the platform-to-basin transect shows the biogeographic differentiation and spatial ecological partitioning of conodonts through time. The taxonomy permits the refinement to the biostratigraphic zonation within two faunal realms for British Columbia that can be correlated with schemes elsewhere in North America and also internationally.

Abstract The Late Ordovician Epoch was marked by one of the two greatest global sea-level rises and inundations of the North American paleocontinent during the Phanerozoic (last 544 million years), accompanied by rapid diversification of invertebrate faunas in shallow, epicontinental seas. Toward the end of the Late Ordovician, continental glaciation in the southern hemisphere (Gondwana landmass) caused a major sea-level drawdown and marine regression from North America, bringing about one of the five major mass extinction events in life history. The diversity of marine life in the inland seas would be particularly sensitive to global sea-level fluctuations caused by the growth and decay of the Gondwana ice cap. This monograph is part of an ongoing comparative study of the biodiversity changes of the Late Ordovician – Early Silurian brachiopods (the most abundant and diverse group of shelly benthos at that time) in continental-margin basins and inland seas of Canada. Study of the brachiopod faunas helps us understand many aspects (duration, extent, intensity, and timing) of the climatic changes and their effects on marine environments far from the site of the glaciation. The Late Ordovician carbonate deposits now preserved in the Williston Basin contain a rich and diverse benthic shelly fauna that lived in the ancient equatorial epicontinental seas just before the Late Ordovician mass extinction event, and this work deals with the taxonomy, biostratigraphy, paleoecology, and paleobiogeography of the brachiopod fauna. The authors described a total of 16 genera and 22 species and discussed their ancient living environments and faunal provincialism.