If you’ve spent time in the Earth Sciences Building, you’ve probably seen the Beaty Biodiversity Museum directly across Main Mall the beautiful whale skeleton makes it hard to miss. What’s less obvious is that EOAS and the Beaty Biodiversity Museum have more in common than just their affinity for enormous hanging sea-creature bones – Dr. Bruce Archibald also sits in the centre of this overlap. 

Dr. Archibald is the Curator of the Fossil Collection at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum. He has taken on the task of bringing order to EOAS’s fossil holdings, a research-grade collection that spans the entire geologic column and includes material from around the world. But his ambitions extend beyond cataloguing. Dr. Archibald wants to make UBC a hub for Eocene research. “We’ve got the good stuff,” he says. “If we can focus on this and build what we have here, I think that the Beaty will have a world-class collection.” 

The Eocene fossils of the BC interior document life in upland forests about 51 million years ago,  an exceptionally warm time when many modern plant and animal groups first appeared. An amazingly rich record of insects, leaves, fish, flowers, and rare birds and mammals was fossilised in lakes scattered across the landscape from Smithers, BC through south-central BC to northern Washington, preserving an extraordinary biodiversity. The BC and Washington uplands offered a temperate refuge from the extreme Eocene heat, and Dr. Archibald’s research shows that their ecosystems rivalled the richness of modern tropical rainforests. Fossils from these sites reveal communities where plants and animals that we now consider strictly temperate or tropical coexisted.

The Eocene ended with a drop in atmospheric carbon and an intense plummet in global temperatures that resulted in the extinction, adaptation, and changes in the ranges of many plant and animal species. The divide between those that adapted to cold winters and those that did not offers a window into how modern life might respond to human-driven climate change.  Remarkably, many of the fossils that record this shift are only a short trip from campus

Dr. Archibald makes excursions to these fossil sites regularly, contributing many thousands of specimens to the collection, but fieldwork is only part of what drives him. Dr. Archibald’s unwritten policy is that he makes an effort to engage with local people, to learn about what the fossils mean to them and share his own knowledge. He often gives public talks, helps run field schools for teachers, works with First Nations, and organizes dig-days for kids. This connection  with communities has blossomed in many ways— from collaborating with Indigenous Elders on naming newly discovered species, to long-lasting and rewarding relationships with local fossil enthusiasts. One Princeton resident, Beverley Burlingame, is determined to find a fossil worthy of display at the Beaty Museum; Dr. Archibald believes she deserves an award for amateur paleontology. Another, Daniel Moses from the Colville Reservation, has had Dr. Archibald’s guidance in fostering his love for fossils since he was six. Now pursuing a Ph.D. in paleontology at Arizona State University, Daniel still  joins him in outreach events, connecting communities with their deep past.

Dr. Archibald’s work highlights how a well-curated fossil collection can support both research and community outreach. His steady efforts to strengthen UBC’s Eocene collection reflect that practical goal, and the benefits are already taking shape in the Beaty Biodiversity Museum and in the communities he works with.