Deep Alberta

Acorn delves into Deep Alberta

Rocky Mountain Outlook, March 29, 2007

Rob Alexander

In Alberta’s dinosaur world, at least outside of the palaeontological circle, it’s tough to make it into the mainstream imagination if you are small and hairy.

Instead, if you are a humungous reptile with massive teeth, horns or razor sharp claws, you’ll get all the attention in the world.

While the great dinosaurs — and the mega-fauna of the Ice Age as well — do have the imagination-grabbing charisma necessary to inspire legions of fans, it would be safe to say that many wonders of Alberta’s pre-history have been overshadowed.

And hidden in those shadows are incredible finds such as a little venomous mammal with snake-like fangs and a tiny primate, Saxonella crepaturae [italics], that lived 10 million years after the dinosaurs died out; both mammals were discovered along the Blindman River, near Blackfalds, Alberta.

Alberta is also home to the world’s oldest pike, which lived some 50 million years ago. But compared to the dinosaurs and giant mammals of the Ice Age, it can be hard to get excited about ancient fish and those ancient early mammals running around in the undergrowth.

But after reading Deep Alberta: Fossil Facts and Dinosaur Digs, written by John Acorn and published by The University of Alberta Press and the Royal Tyrell Museum, it’s hard not to come away with a new appreciation for the depth and complexity of Alberta’s buried or deep history.

Acorn, a biologist, naturalist, writer and dinosaur hunter, based Deep Alberta on his former radio series of the same name broadcast on CKUA radio. As a result, he uses a straightforward, easy-reading writing style, while providing lots of interesting facts without weighing his subject down with the heavy scientific gobbledegook that can make for some hard reading.

Instead, Acorn keeps it fresh and interesting as he turns over 80 significant stones, creating a broad picture in Alberta’s palaeontogical history in the process, that includes extinct mammals such as mammoths, living fossil fish, insects entombed in amber and fossil frogs — and the list goes on, including two Bow Valley references.

As Acorn turns over these stones, the reader also gets new and interesting tidbits about the well-known and well-loved creatures, like T. rex, and sites such as Drumheller.

Overall, Deep Alberta does a great job of entertaining, enlightening and educating, but it falls down in one aspect.
Some of the more intriguing topics, such as the one about the primate Saxonella crepaturae [italics], are only illustrated with photographs of fossil fragments.

As a reader, I was left wanting an illustration of this early mammal itself, even if it simply represents a theory of how it may have looked, especially given that Acorn makes the point that Saxonella is recognized around the world as an important discovery.

But overall, the lack of illustrations in those cases is a minor complaint towards what is an attractive, informative and fun book, and one which dinosaur fanatics of all ages can easily devour like their favourite raptor.