The February 7 session of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology’s 2019 Speaker Series is a presentation by Dr. Donald Brinkman, Curator Emeritus at the Royal Tyrrell Museum, entitled, “Studies of fossil fish from the Late Cretaceous of Alberta.”
One of Dr. Brinkman’s long-term projects has been to try to understand the role of teleost fishes in Alberta’s freshwater communities during the Cretaceous Period. Teleosts are large ray-finned fishes that are well represented by fossils in the sediments laid down from ancient rivers flowing across Alberta.
It is rare to find articulated fish specimens (whole skeletons preserved as they were in life). Fishes are more commonly represented in the fossil record by isolated bones. Known as microfossils, they are often difficult to identify as belonging to specific groups.
Technology has made it possible to study fossil skeletons in new ways. Micro CT scanners allow very small fossils to be digitally examined. Using this technology, scientists have discovered that a fossil fish from 66 million years ago was an early member of the group that includes catfish, cyprinids, and suckers—one of the most important groups of living freshwater fish. The geographic distribution of isolated elements of this fish gives us new insights into the history of the group.
Dr. Brinkman will discuss the challenges of trying to identify isolated elements of fossil fish, and the use of new technology that gives us further insight into the history of teleost fishes.
The Royal Tyrrell Museum’s Speaker Series talks are free and open to the public. Presentations are given in the Museum auditorium every Thursday at 11:00 a.m., until April 25. Speaker Series talks are also available on the Museum’s YouTube channel at: youtube.com/c/RoyalTyrrellMuseumofPalaeontology.
photo courtesy of the RTMP
