Professional and amateur paleontologists are getting ready for a one-day free symposium called Paleo 2026 hosted at Mount Royal University. This is the 29th year the Alberta Paleontological Society has organized the event geared to wards people who want to learn more about the provinces rich dinosaur history. “There’s fossils and interesting people to talk to,” said Mona Trick, Paleo 26 chair. “You actually get a chance to talk to the people who are doing the research, get to talk to the students and the professors and the curators so it’s an opportunity that you usually don’t get.” Trick says visitors will learn about the latest research that’s being done locally and internationally. She says it’s a chance to meet people who share the same passions about prehistoric life. “It’s a chance to learn new things,” said Trick. “We bring together seven speakers, we’ve got 21 posters and the chance to get together with others who are interested in paleontology, I’ve actually seen people who have joined us (at the symposium), now they’re PhD students, people who have given us lectures as graduate students, now they’re curators of museums.” And while Trick says she’s been an amateur paleontologist for years, she’s had some exciting experiences on the hunt for fossils. “I have been out in the field and looked for fossils,” she said. “I went with Dr. Philip Currie several years ago to Mongolia, the Gobi Desert, where I found part of a bone of a very rare, small dinosaur.” Jon Noad is a speaker at this year’s symposium. He’s one of three paleontologists at Stantec Consulting. “We go out into the field pretty much every day and look at where ever excavations are going on for construction,” he said. “We’ll be looking at bridges, dams, housing estates, wastewater treatment plants and looking for fossils while they’re doing the excavation.” Noad has held the position of senior paleontologist for four years. “We’re very lucky in Alberta that we’re the richest dinosaur province in the world,” he said. “So there’s an excellent chance of finding dinosaur fossils but we also find fossil mammals and a variety of invertebrates as well.” Noad is an expert in trace fossils, things like dinosaur footprints, burrows, ancient bird feeding traces and fish nests. He says it’s important to have a really good imagination and open mind in his job because much of what he finds are odd shapes that he has to determine what kind of animal may have made them. One of those finds are crocodile swimming traces. “These are from the Livingston area in northern Calgary,” he said. “A crocodile was in a river 62 million years ago and it was scuttling along with its claws and leaving claw marks on the riverbed and I can see sets of these scrapes of claw marks sitting there on the base of a sandstone.” Noad enjoys sharing what he finds at the symposium along with meeting and fielding questions from the people attending. “When you meet the young people who are coming along to these events, that’s really where you’re hitting home,” he said. “We’ve got kids five to 15 years old who are very keen on dinosaurs and they get the chance to actually see and talk to real paleontologists as well, in fact I had two kids that asked for my autograph, so that’s how crazy it is.” The event will take place on Saturday, March 14 and Sunday March 15.
