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The Douglas College Newsletter

= New Westminster Campus and David Lam Campus

   

IN

Douglas College

Michael Wilson and his bags of bones

There are bags of bones in
Michael Wilson's house.
The Douglas College
instructor has been
diligently sorting and
studying the tiny bones —
ancient remains of birds,
frogs, toads, voles and
other creatures — excavated
from a very special cave on
Vancouver Island. It’s
meticulous work — and it
could provide the missing
link in the long-standing
debate on how the first
people migrated to North
America.

“The big question is
whether people were able
to move down the West
Coast just before the last
ice age,” says Wilson, who
teaches Environmental
Studies, Geology and
Anthropology at the
College. “The prevailing
view is that First Nations
people came down through
the plains area when the ice
sheets opened up. The
opposing view is that
people moved down the

West Coast. This cave is

our first glimpse of the

environment of that time.”

The cave, located about
two thirds of the way up
the west coast of
Vancouver Island, is a
geological time capsule
with samples from 16,000
to 18,000 years ago. About
15,000 years ago, glaciers
came and bulldozed most
of the evidence from that
time period, but this cave
was protected because
glacial buildup sealed it off.
Then the earth’s crust
rebounded as the ice
retreated, keeping the cave
above sea level where it was
eventually discovered.

SFU Earth Science
professor Brent Ward is
leading the project and
recovering the samples,
while Wilson has the task
of working through the
animal remains. “There are
lots of them,” he says. “The
teeth of the mice are only a
few millimetres long so you
need to use a fairly high
level of magnification. And

there are all sorts of birds

which are really difficult to
identify.” Some of the
bones are sent to other

specialists for further study.

Ward, Wilson and other
members of the research
team have published a
report in Quaternary
Science Reviews and made
several conference
presentations. Wilson has
also published review
papers on the early people
of the New World, the
most recent being two
articles in the February
issue of Geotimes, the
journal of the American

Geological Institute.

The group has also found a
number of animals not
present on Vancouver
Island today, including the
mountain goat and two
vole species. Their research
also uncovered fossil
evidence of an alpine
marmot, which may be an
ancestor of the Vancouver
Island marmot, Canada’s
most endangered species.
Fossils like these provide

clues about the climate and

whether conditions could
have supported human
migration.

Wilson uses his own time
to participate in this
project, and it’s only one of
his many areas of interest —
he has also done extensive
research on ancient buffalo
and other Ice Age animals
as well as studies ranging
from dinosaurs to human-

landscape interactions.

Even Wilson’s vacations are
driven by his passion for
science. In the summer, he
and his wife, geographer
Ineke Dijks (who has also
taught at the College),
have volunteered on sea
turtle projects in Mexico.
“We've been surrogate
parents to dozens of baby
Olive Ridleys,” he says.

All of these experiences
help Wilson keep his classes
exciting. “I tell my students
what I've been up to,” he
says. “Doing research keeps
me motivated — it gets me
excited about the subjects I
teach and hopefully that

rubs off on my students.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Douglas College Instructor Michael Wilson
spends a lot of time looking through microscopes
like this one, examining fossils to unravel
mysteries of the past.

 

More fun, and more funds

 

Phew, they missed again! Accounting Instructor
Raymond Brookes got lucky, this time. The pie
throw was hosted by the Marketing Students
Society as part of Double Your Fun Week.

There were many new and
creative ways to double
your fun in Double Your
Fun, Double the Fund
Week. And they all added
up to a new record total of
$8,500 for the week, plus
another $2,640 from new
payroll deductions. And
that’s before matching

money from the College.

The Marketing Students
Society gave people a
chance to throw cream pies
at an instructor. Marketing
Chair Gail Tibbo says, “It
was really weird because
they kept missing. The first
one I got in the face was
somebody who just
decided to break the rules
and walked right up.”

Administration Clerk
Brenda Pickard put her

vocal chords to work
delivering singing
telegrams. She kept up a
hectic schedule at both
campuses singing songs like
Youve Got a Friend. “It was
a huge hit,” says
Foundation Executive

Director Myrna Popove.

The Green Team hosted a
garage sale and the
Institute of Urban Ecology
hosted a birdhouse
building contest. Plus there
were all of the usual
standbys — Events book
sale, pancakes, daffodils
and more. While some of
the money went directly
towards groups that
organized particular events,
most of it went to the
Foundation, supporting

students in financial need.

 

Christine Kerr (left) and Jessy Kainth Mahil
(right) of the Registrar's Office paint a
birdhouse for the birdhouse building contest.

 

Quote of the Month

“Doing research keeps me motivated — it gets me excited about the subjects I teach and hopefully that rubs off on my

students.”

Michael Wilson, who teaches Anthropology, Geology and Environmental Science (see top story)