This half-day urban field trip invites participants to discover the huge variety of extraordinary, fossilized creatures in the walls of some of the buildings in inner-city Calgary. These fossilized creatures are examples of some of the earliest forms of life and are found in 450 million-year-old rocks quarried from the famous Tyndall Formation in Manitoba. Tako Koning, P.Geol., an experienced geologist, has made an extensive study of the fossils. He will help the group identify the creatures and share details about their lives.

This field trip begins at the Safeway store in Kensington, where in ten large blocks of Tyndall Stone we will see the Tyndall in three dimensions and we will study a wide variety of fossils consisting of corals, sponges, nautiloids, algae, pelecypods, starfish and brachiopods that are exquisitely preserved in the limestone. The same will be seen in the Tyndall Stone which extensively clads the Senator Patrick Burns building on the SAIT campus. Accordingly, this is a paleontological field trip but it is also an ecological field trip since it gives an insight into how life existed a half billion years ago.

There will be a minimum amount of walking in this field trip and travel from Kensington to the SAIT campus will be by vehicle. If you are travelling by bike, you should be able to get between the locations in a similar time to the cars, but make sure to bring a lock for your bike.

This field trip is family friendly; kids are welcome.