Fossil Collection
The Beaty Biodiversity Museum’s fossil collection contains over 20,000 specimens, ranging from recent shells to 500 million year old blue-green algal fossils, called stromatolites, which are the oldest evidence of life on earth.
The Museum also houses a modest collection from the famous Burgess Shale, in eastern BC, alongside specimens from localities all over the globe.
History
The Collection was initiated by Dr. Milton Yarwood Williams (1883–1974), a distinguished Canadian geologist and a founding member of the Geology Department (now part of the Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences) at UBC. A professor of paleontology and stratigraphy, he started the Fossil Collection in 1924 with the purchase of the collection of W.J. Sutton, a local mining engineer.
In 1971 the Museum’s exhibit space was greatly expanded when it moved into the newly constructed Geological Sciences Center. The Museum’s growth received another boost with the appointment of Joe Nagel as curator, whose energy and enthusiasm greatly benefited the Museum. In 1995, unfortunately, an economic downturn necessitated eliminating the curator’s salary, and the Collection was put into storage on South Campus.
In 2003, with the merger of the M.Y. Williams Geological Museum and the Pacific Mineral Museum, the Collection became part of the then newly opened Pacific Museum of the Earth. The collection is currently being recatalogued, and is housed in the Beaty Biodiversity Museum.
Contact
Pacific Museum of the Earth
Earth and Ocean Sciences - Main Building
University of British Columbia
6339 Stores Road
Vancouver, British Columbia
Canada V6T 1Z4
Director
Dr. Stuart Sutherland
ssutherland@eos.ubc.ca
Curator
Mackenzie Parker
mparker@eos.ubc.ca
Phone: (604) 822-6992
Fax: (604) 822-6088
Field Notes
