Credit: University of Alberta
Once upon a time, just a few thousand years ago, a magic man made of nothing appeared from nowhere and said some magic words that magicked a whole universe out of nothing. Right in the middle of that universe he made a small flat planet and put a dome over it to keep the water above the sky out, then he magicked some people, some plants and some animals and this took him nearly a whole week. Even though he did it all with a few magic words, this made him so tired he needed a day off.
After a while he decided he didn't like what he had made because he had given the people free will and they were using it, so he drowned them all apart from a few, then started again without changing his original design, hoping things would turn out differently this time.
What he hadn't realised was that he had only gone and created this imaginary world in a small part of a really big Universe that had been there for billions of years and already had a planet with lots of animals on it, so, although he had started off 'going down' to chat to the humans he had magicked, he promptly disappeared, never to be seen again, almost as though he had gone back to being nothing. Meanwhile, the real planet in the real universe carried on the way it had always done, as though no magician had ever done anything magical.
One of those animals on the real planet was a fish called a sturgeon which lived in what is now Alberta, Canada, 75 million years before 'Creation Week', which is why scientist were able to find a fossil of it in rocks known to be between 84 and 72 million years old. It's little clues like this, and the complete lack of any evidence of magic, that tells us the story of that fantasy creation was wrong and made up by ignorant people who didn't know any better.
The discovery of the fossil sturgeon was announced in a paper in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology last August and announced to the press in a news release just a couple of days ago:
No doubt creationists who still believe the magic fairy tale despite all the evidence against it, are eager to know how the Horseshoe Canyon Formation in Edmonton, Canada was dated, so I've researched it for them:
A 72-million-year-old sturgeon fossil has been discovered in Edmonton’s North Saskatchewan River Valley, the first fish material of any kind found from that time period and in that geographical area.
A couple of hikers came across a sturgeon skull near Capilano Park last February, believing it might be a fragment of dinosaur skin. They took it to the University of Alberta’s star paleontologist, Phil Currie, who confirmed it was indeed part of an ancient fish.
Currie passed the fossil on to fish paleontologist Alison Murray, who identified it as a sturgeon — a North American temperate freshwater fish still in existence, a species of which lives in the North Saskatchewan River — estimated to be about two metres long when it was alive. Murray and her team named the new species Boreiosturion labyrinthicus.
Capilano Park lies on a geological structure known as the freshwater Horseshoe Canyon Formation, which took shape during the Campanian stage, roughly 84 to 72 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period.
According to a study published last August by Murray and co-authors Luke Nelson and Donald Brinkman in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, the fossil found there fills a temporal gap in what is known about the distribution of sturgeons during the end of the Cretaceous, just before the mass extinction event (likely a meteor) that wiped out the dinosaurs.
It also fills a geographic gap between sturgeons found in the southern localities of southern Alberta, Montana and North Dakota, and the northern localities of Alaska and Peace River, Alta.
"It’s the first fish description from within Edmonton’s limits, so that’s kind of exciting," says Luke Nelson, second author on the paper.
The study is also the first publication for Nelson. Now working on his master’s degree, he was an undergraduate student working in Murray’s lab when the sturgeon skull was found, and she invited him to participate in classifying the specimen.
In love with sturgeons ever since gazing at specimens in various aquariums as a child, Nelson just might be the world’s biggest fish fossil fanboy.
"If you asked me as a 10-year-old what my dream job would be, I would have said working with fossil fish — I just loved fish," he says. "I was teetering between marine biology and paleontology, but this is the best of both worlds."
"It’s been an incredible journey spending time in that museum growing up, and now working with some of those researchers," he adds, pointing out that Brinkman, third author on the paper, served as the Royal Tyrrell Museum’s curator until a couple of years ago.
What struck Nelson most about the new sturgeon fossil were the distinct patterns on the back of its skull.
"There are three unique patterns, different from anything previously described from the time period," he says. "This is from a part of the Cretaceous Period from which we didn’t have any North American sturgeon before."
For his part, however, the aspiring paleontologist is on a mission to let the world know how great sturgeons are.
"They’re some of the largest bony fish we have today and have been around since dinosaurs were walking around on land. They almost look like dinosaurs, because they’ve got these massive sizes and enormous scales running down their back that make them look kind of wicked."
Now that it’s classified, named and catalogued, the sturgeon skull will enter the U of A’s Laboratory for Vertebrate Paleontology in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, which contains more than 50,000 fossil vertebrates.
As for the sturgeons still swimming in the North Saskatchewan River today, having survived at least 72 million years of evolution?
"It’s really important that we conserve them and treat them with respect," says Nelson, noting that Alberta’s species is protected.
"They are just a really cool group of animals."
How do geologists know when the Horseshoe Canyon Formation, Edmonton, Canada was formed? The Horseshoe Canyon Formation in Edmonton, Canada, is primarily composed of sedimentary rocks, and geologists determine its age through a combination of methods, including stratigraphy, radiometric dating, and fossil analysis. Here's a brief overview:By combining these methods, geologists can develop a comprehensive understanding of when the Horseshoe Canyon Formation was deposited. The Late Cretaceous period, approximately 73 to 67 million years ago, is the accepted age range for this formation based on the evidence from these various techniques. Keep in mind that ongoing research and advancements in dating methods may lead to refinements in our understanding of the age of geological formations.
- Stratigraphy: Geologists study the layers, or strata, of rock formations to understand their relative ages. The Horseshoe Canyon Formation is part of the larger Edmonton Group, which includes several formations deposited during the Late Cretaceous period. By examining the sequence of rock layers and their characteristics, geologists can establish a relative chronology of when these sediments were deposited.
- Radiometric Dating: This method involves measuring the concentrations of certain isotopes in rocks to determine their absolute ages. For the Horseshoe Canyon Formation, scientists might use radiometric dating techniques on volcanic ash layers within the formation or on minerals like zircon. Uranium-lead dating is commonly used for rocks of this age range.
- Fossil Analysis: Paleontologists study the fossils found within the Horseshoe Canyon Formation to correlate it with other formations and determine its age. Certain fossils, particularly index fossils or those with well-established evolutionary histories, can provide insights into the age of the rocks. The presence of specific dinosaur species or other ancient organisms can help narrow down the time frame.
- Correlation with Other Formations: Geologists often compare the Horseshoe Canyon Formation with similar formations in other areas. By matching distinctive rock layers or fossils, they can establish a broader chronological context and refine the age of the formation.
AbstractIt really doesn't require a detailed, comprehensive understanding of science to know that the story of creation by a magician casting spells to make things appear out of nothing is a fantasy. All it takes is a little common sense and a recognition of the fact that there are things about the world that wouldn't be there if the fairy tale were true, like the lack of a dome over the Earth, the fact that Earth isn't small and flat and the fact that there are fossils of animals and plants that lived millions, even billions of years before 'Creation Week', and of course the complete absence of any evidence that a magician made of nothing ever existed or that it ever did anything magical.
The posterior portion of a sturgeon skull preserved in a nodule was recovered from the latest Campanian sediments of the Horseshoe Canyon Formation in the city of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It is described here as a new genus and species of Acipenseriformes. The skull represents an individual of at least 2 meters in total length. This species is of particular interest because different bones of the skull show a surface ornamentation with different patterns; the clavicle has large pits, the dermal skull bones have smaller pits and radiating ridges, and the subopercle shows fine radiating ridges. The new taxon, here named Boreiosturion labyrinthicus, can be confidently included in the extant family Acipenseridae but a phylogenetic analysis does not further resolve relationships. This fossil is the first documentation of sturgeon in the latest Campanian of North America, and bridges the gap between the mid-Campanian assemblage of Dinosaur Park and the late Maastrichtian material from the Hell Creek Formation.
Alison M. Murray, Luke E. Nelson & Donald B. Brinkman (2023)
A new sturgeon from the Upper Cretaceous Horseshoe Canyon Formation in central Alberta, Canada
Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 43:1, DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2023.2232846
© 2023 Informa UK Limited (Taylor & Francis Group).
Reprinted under the terms of s60 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
But then in some parts of the world, common sense is a very uncommon commodity.
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