Contents

Chapters in this book

1. Front Matter i
2. Contents v
3. Preface vii
4. Introduction: Deep Time in the Cordillera 3
5. Fossils and Museums: Windows into Ancient Worlds 14
6. The Origin and Evolution of Canada’s Western Mountains 25
7. Lower Cambrian Trilobites: Most Ancient Mariners 45
8. The Trilobite Beds of Mount Stephen, Yoho National Park 59
9. The Burgess Shale: A Spectacular Cambrian Bestiary 69
10. The Microscopic World of Conodonts 78
11. Mesozoic Radiolarians of Haida Gwaii 93
12. Fishes of the Triassic: Trawling off Pangaea 104
13. Ammonoids and Bivalves: Triassic Life at Sea 116
14. Ammonoids: Itinerants of the Jurassic 128
15. On the Trail of Cretaceous Dinosaurs 143
16. Ancient Saurians: Cretaceous Reptiles of Vancouver Island 156
17. Mollusks: Exotic Shells from Cretaceous Seas 167
18. Plant Life during the Great Cretaceous Transformation 187
19. Paleogene Mammals on Land and at Sea 202
20. Fishes from Eocene Lakes of the Interior 212
21. Insects near Eocene Lakes of the Interior 225
22. Flowering Plants in and around Eocene Lakes of the Interior 234
23. Eocene Conifers of the Interior 248
24. Quaternary Animals: Vertebrates of the Ice Age 259
25. Late Pleistocene Salmon of Kamloops Lake 274
26. Quaternary Plants: Glimpses of Past Climates and Landscapes 281
27. Epilogue: The Cordillera through the Mists of Time 293
28. Contributors 301
29. Index 303