McAbee Fossil Beds
The McAbee Fossil Beds are a Heritage Site that protects an Eocene Epoch fossil site east of Cache Creek, British Columbia, Canada, just north of and visible from Provincial Highway 97 at 50°47.831′N 121°8.469′W / 50.797183°N 121.141150°W. The McAbee Fossil Beds were officially granted Heritage Site protection by the B.C. Ministry of Forests, Land and Natural Resource Operations on July 19, 2012.[1] The site is part of an old lake bed which was deposited about 50 million years ago and is internationally recognised for the diversity of plant, insect, and fish fossils found there.
Palaeontology
Palaeontological and geological studies of the McAbee Fossil Beds go back at least to research in the 1960s and early 1970s by Dr. Len Hills of the University of Calgary on the fossil spores and pollen (palynology)[2] and Dr. Mark Wilson of the University of Alberta on fossil fish from the fossil beds,[3] and an unpublished thesis on the fossil plants.[4] Significant research on the fossil plants and insects has only occurred since the 1990s.[5][6] The McAbee Fossil Beds are best known for the abundant and well preserved insect and fish fossils (Amyzon, Eohiodon, and Eosalmo). The insects are particularly diverse and well preserved, and include a recently described species of green lacewing (Neuroptera, Chrysopidae), Archaeochrysa profracta.[7][8] A species of fossil freshwater crayfish (Aenigmastacus crandalli) was described from the McAbee Fossil Beds.[9]
Fossils of plant leaves, shoots, seeds, flowers and cones are abundant and well preserved, and include up to 76 genera of plants.[10] Fossil plants described from the fossil beds include rare flowers such as Dipteronia, a genus of trees related to maples (Acer. spp.) that today grows in eastern Asia,[11] extinct members of the birch family (Betulaceae) such as Palaeocarpinus,[12] and fruits and leaves of a beech (Fagus langevinii)[13] and an elm (Ulmus okanaganensis)[14]
Plant genera (fossil and extant) recorded as macrofossils from the McAbee Fossil Beds
An incomplete list of the plant genera found in the McAbee fossil beds based on the list found in Dillhoff, Leopold & Manchester (2005).[15]
| plant family | genera | common name |
|---|---|---|
| Cupressaceae | Chamaecyparis, Cunninghamia, Metasequoia, Sequoia, Thuja | cypress, Chinese fir, dawn redwood, California redwood, red or white cedar |
| Ginkgoaceae | Ginkgo | ginkgo, maidenhair tree |
| Pinaceae | Abies, Picea, Pinus, Pseudolarix, Tsuga | fir, spruce, pine, golden larch, hemlock |
| Betulaceae | Alnus, Betula, Palaeocarpinus | alder, birch, extinct hornbeam |
| Cercidiphyllaceae | Joffrea | extinct |
| Fagaceae | Fagus | beech |
| Lauraceae | Sassafras | sassafras |
| Malvaceae | Florissantia | extinct |
| Myricaceae | Comptonia | sweet fern |
| Platanaceae | Macginicarpa, Macginitiea | extinct sycamore, plane tree |
| Rosaceae | Amelanchier, Crataegus, Prunus | serviceberry, hawthorn, cherry |
| Salicaceae | Populus | cottonwood, poplar |
| Sapindaceae | Acer, Dipteronia, Koelreuteria | maple, golden rain tree |
| Trochodendraceae | Trochodendron, Zizyphoides | wheel tree, extinct |
| Ulmaceae | Ulmus | elm |
A volcanic ash exposed in the lake shale beds was originally radiometrically dated at ~51 million years ago,[16][17] however an unpublished radiometric date places the McAbee Fossil Beds at 52.9 ± 0.83 million years old.[7]
Small collections of fossils are housed in the Royal BC Museum in Victoria BC, the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), Canadian Museum of Nature (CMN), the Burke Museum of Natural History & Culture in Seattle WA, and university collections, principally Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, B.C.. Significant collections of fossils from the McAbee Fossil Beds are in private ownership and fossils from the McAbee Fossil Beds are listed for sale on the internet.[10]
The cessation of fossil collecting at the McAbee Fossil Beds through heritage listing is consistent with British Columbia's new Fossil Management Framework[18] which seeks to:
- clarify the rules governing the management and use of fossils;
- manage impacts on fossils from other activities;
- provide for the stewardship of significant fossil sites;
- raise internal and external awareness of the framework and the importance of fossils;
- build knowledge of the nature and extent of the resource in BC; and
- clarify the rights and obligations of the public, business, government and other stakeholders.
References
- ^ McAbee fossil site receives heritage protection.
- ^ Hills, L.V. 1965. Palynology and age of early Tertiary basins, interior British Columbia; unpubl. Ph.D. thesis, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, 189 p.
- ^ Wilson, M.V.H. 1977. Middle Eocene freshwater fishes from British Columbia. Life Sciences Contributions, Royal Ontario Museum, No. 113, 61 pp.
- ^ Verschoor, K. van R. 1974. Paleobotany of the Tertiary (early Middle Eocene) McAbee Beds, British Columbia. M.Sc. thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, 128 p.
- ^ Archibald, S.B., and Greenwood, D.R., 2005, Fossil biotas from the Okanagan Highlands, southern British Columbia and northeastern Washington State: climates and ecosystems across an Eocene landscape: Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, v. 42, p. 167–185.
- ^ Archibald, S.B., Greenwood, D.R., Smith, R.Y., Mathewes, R.W., and Basinger, J.F. 2012. Great Canadian Lagerstätten 1. Early Eocene Lagerstätten of the Okanagan Highlands (British Columbia and Washington State). Geoscience Canada, v. 38(4), p. 155–164.
- ^ a b Archibald, S.B., Bossert, W.H., Greenwood, D.R., and Farrell, B.D. 2010. Seasonality, the latitudinal gradient of diversity, and Eocene insects. Paleobiology, 36 (3): 374 – 398.
- ^ Makarkin, V.N., and Archibald, S.B. 2013. A diverse new assemblage of green lacewings (Insecta, Neuroptera, Chrysopidae) from the early Eocene Okanagan Highlands, western North America. Journal of Paleontology, v. 87, pp. 123-146.
- ^ Feldmann, R.A., Schweitzer, C.E. & Leahy, J. 2011. New Eocene crayfish from the McAbee Beds in British Columbia: First record of Parastacoidea in the Northern Hemisphere. Journal of Crustacean Biology 31 (2): 320–331. DOI:10.1651/10-3399.1.
- ^ a b Wilson, M.V.H. 2009. McAbee Fossil Site Assessment Report. 60 pp.Online PDF. Accessed July 21, 2012.
- ^ McClain A.M. and Manchester S.R. 2001. Dipteronia (Sapindaceae) from the Tertiary of North America and implications for the phytogeographic history of the Aceroideae. American Journal of Botany, v. 88(7), p. 1316–1325.
- ^ Pigg, K.B., Manchester, S.R. & Wehr, W.C. 2003. Corylus, Carpinus, and Palaeocarpinus (Betulaceae) from the Middle Eocene Klondike Mountain and Allenby Formations of Northwestern North America. International Journal of Plant Sciences, 164 (5), pp. 807-822.
- ^ Manchester, S.R. & Dillhoff, R.M. 2004. Fagus (Fagaceae) fruits, foliage, and pollen from the Middle Eocene of Pacific Northwestern North America. Canadian Journal of Botany 82(19): 1509-1517.
- ^ Denk, T. & Dillhoff, R.M. 2005. Ulmus leaves and fruits from the Early-Middle Eocene of northwestern North America: systematics and implications for character evolution within Ulmaceae. Canadian Journal of Botany, 83(12), pp. 1663-1681.
- ^ Dillhoff, R. M., Leopold, E. B. and Manchester, S. R. 2005. The McAbee flora of British Columbia and its relations to the Early-Middle Eocene Okanagan Highlands flora of the Pacific Northwest. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, v. 42(2), pp. 151-166. DOI 10.1139/e04-084
- ^ Ewing, T.E. 1981. Regional stratigraphy and structural setting of the Kamloops Group, south-central British Columbia. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 18(9): 1464–1477.
- ^ Moss, P.T., Greenwood, D.R., and Archibald, S.B. 2005. Regional and local vegetation community dynamics of the Eocene Okanagan Highlands (British Columbia - Washington State) from palynology. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, v. 42(2), p. 187–204. DOI: 10.1139/E04-095
- ^ Fossil Management Framework. http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/Land_Tenures/fossil_management/index.html (accessed June 20, 2012)