Canadian Amber: A Snapshot of a Late Cretaceous Forest and Its Inhabitants
Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology via YouTube
Overview
Syllabus
Ryan C. McKellar
Outline
What exactly is amber?
Entombment and the nature of the trap: Flows
The stereotypical view of amber
Where did Cedar Lake amber come from?
Grassy Lake amber and the role of the RTMP
Other Albertan ambers (resinites)
Canadian amber in a broader context: why is Canadian amber important?
In the context of other Cretaceous ambers
Mosses and lichen in Grassy Lake Amber
Botanical affinities: plant inclusions
Botanical affinities: infrared spectra (FTIR)
Fingerprinting Grassy Lake amber
Insect biodiversity
Parasitoid wasps (microhymenopterans)
Serphites pygmaeus McKellar & Engel, 2011
Formicidae: Haidoterminus cippus (nomen nudum)
Insect conclusions
Mating congregations
Compression fossils of Sinornithosaurus plumage
Preservation and melanosomes in compression fossils
A feather evo-devo primer ...
The Canadian amber dichotomy
Stages I and II barbules: non-avian
Stage IV barbs and barbules: avialan
Stage IV, specializations for water uptake
Stage V, and specializations for flight
Pigmentation
Plumage conclusions
Coal-associated ambers
The quest for Paleocene amber
Synchrotron X-ray microtomography
General conclusions
Taught by
Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology