2018 NEWSLETTER
​That all men may know His work. Job 37:7b NKJV 
Scripture on the Rotunda (entrance) ceiling at the ROM, Royal Ontario Museum
2018 was a busy year for the museum, starting with some March research and ending with a visit to Ontario from John Mackay the Creation Guy in November. Lots of quarry digs, research, tours and fossil trips in between. We start with the end of the year and move backwards. Enjoy!
November 2018 Visit to Ontario from John Mackay the Creation Guy
The snow came early this year but although John comes from a part of Australia where there is no winter, he seemed to have acclimatized quite well here in Canada. Of course with the early snow we had to cancel the fossil trips because it would be way too cumbersome to try to clear the snow with leaf blowers just to get to the fossils!   
Nevertheless we did manage to scramble together an alternative indoor fossil trip on a Saturday with a great day of teaching and touring the museum at Goodwood Baptist Church
Off to Norland Ontario on Sunday for some preaching and teaching. We had some good feedback from the service:
​Dear John Mackay:
I would like to thank you for taking the time out of your schedule to share God’s Word. We were filled with the knowledge on how creation was truly by God. Thanks for sharing again at Pioneer.
May God Bless your ministry.
Sincerely,
Les Noble
A nice find. An almost complete Bathyrus Trilobite.
This quarry cuts through the Gull River Formation
Touring the museum
 ​John with supporters who travelled all the way from Simcoe, Ontario (a 3 hour drive)
Taking a little time out at a local quarry. The snow had melted just enough to be able to look for any fossils that may be lurking around.
​My second ever selfie turned out not so bad! 
A large order for gravel came in so the crushers and conveyors are lined up and ready
​
Below: a few shots of some of the churches visited by John this November
Sunday Service at West Highland Baptist Church in Hamilton (upper level)
Sunday Service at West Highland Baptist Church in Hamilton (bottom level)
Westney Heights Baptist Church youth rally in Ajax
Youth rally at Calvary Baptist Church in Oshawa
​Homeschool day at Bethel Canadian Reformed Church in Richmond Hill
Praise the Lord, the ministry vehicle got us through the GTA part of John's Canadian tour! Next, off to the Owen Sound area, then Saskatchewan and the last stop, Alberta.
​It was a great day for the kids and some good feedback from parents.
​ "John MacKay's talks were very informative, inspiring, and engaging for the kids and adults".
October Quarry Research
Quarry research is important not only to gather better museum specimens but it also helps one to realize again that in the real world you don't find evidence for evolution, rather everything points to creation and past catastrophic flooding! 
Parked and ready to start the day
A weathered crinoid stem. Crinoids are sea creatures called echinoderms. They are categorized  with star fish. Crinoids are known as a living fossil because they still exist in the seas today. They produced after their own kind! What you see in God's world lines up with what you read in God's word! 
Here's a record-sized mound bryozoan. Bryozoans are colonial creatures similar to coral. This one is headed for the museum. 
Why is Malcolm a happy camper?
Another record breaker for the museum. A large brachiopod shell!
The best areas are where there was a recent blast
​
Malcolm found a crinoid with a visible stem and arms. It will need some further delicate prepping
​
Cool growth rings on the flip side of a mound bryozoan
​ 
Because he found an amazing and rare cystoid! Also categorized in with the echinoderms  
Time to trim off the fossils and pack it up
September 2018 Museum Birthday Tour
Thanks for prayers the September 8, 2018 museum (birthday) tour and fossil hunt went well without a hitch. A museum birthday tour is when folks celebrate a birthday right at the museum! I couldn't have done it without my partner in crime, Marc Kenyon. Here are some photos of the event, Enjoy seeing the blessings.
OPENING INTRO
Martin Legemaate starting off with an opening intro to fossils
A good crowd today
TOUR AND SELF TOUR
The fossil prize draw. A large Isotelus trilobite!
Folks filling in their sheets for the fossil prize draw
Lots of rocks and fossils available for purchase
BIRTHDAY PARTY 
COLLECTING AND SAFETY LESSON
FOSSIL HUNT
This time we had a mix of Whitby Shale and Gull River Formation Limestone from Norland available,
​resulting in a wider range of different fossils found.

Lots of anticipation about finding a great fossil today
A discovery! What is it?
Great find!
One of the most common fossils found in the Whitby Shale was a tail section from a trilobite called Psuedogygites latimarginatus
Picture
Top middle: a straight coned nautiloid. Whitby Shale
Possibly a clam shell from the Norland Limestone. Positive and negative impression.
A perfect trilobite (Bathyrus) tail section in Norland Limestone. Positive and negative impression
Marc Kenyon (red) helping with fossil identification
Some more trilobite tails. When folks split open the shale they smelt oil indicating a quick burial of organic matter.
Lots of great fossils were collected today and all were able to take them home. No evidence for evolution was found... only a quick burial could have produced these fossils and this oil!
July Quarry Research
I'm very fortunate to collect with some of the greats in fossil identification. These guys are mostly into collecting bugs (trilobites) and this quarry has several varieties including a fairly rare Bathyrus trilobite.
Arriving at a quarry in Kawartha Lakes where the Gull River Formation is exposed. Although mostly invertebrate marine fossils are found here, this Middle Ordovician rock can also contain vertebrates (animals with backbones).
https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/48471/ID321.pdf;sequence=2 
David checking the dark grey trilobite seam
Kevin B removing some large slabs
Kevin B, Kevin K and rock hound Shiloh checking out the rocks
So far just trilobite tails have been found
Getting closer. Half of a trilobite
Almost there! Kevin K found some of these 3/4 complete Bathyrus trilobites.
A great find by Kevin B. This is a Cephalopod or straight coned Nautiloid. Note the lines. These are preserved decorative markings. Great evidence for rapid burial.
June 2018 Fossil Trip and Tour

Fossil Trip and Tour With Immanuel Seventh Day Adventist Church

First stop: Norland Quarry
First, a safety lesson and some fossil collecting tips
This little girl found a three-quarter complete Bathyrus trilobite!
Perfect attire for fossil collecting!
And they're off to the races!
Close up of trilobite
Marc found the largest, albeit contorted, Bathyrus trilobite
Lunch time in Norland 
On to site 2. Near Fenelon Falls. 
Road cut exposing the Verulam Formation
The crowd had no trouble finding fossils in this very fossiliferous layer
Showing off some great fossil finds
Close up. Plenty of crinoid discs found in the Verulam Formation
As usual, no evidence for evolution was found; rather extinct fossil creatures were found and fossil creatures that have living counterparts were found!
Back at Goodwood for the museum tour
Winner of the fossil draw. A cool piece of fossilized wood.
Group photo
Hi Martin, Marc,
Thank you both for such a wonderful day ... and the pics.
We learnt so much about fossils and the children were very engaged. This is a
great initiative for those seeking evidence for creation.

God bless your efforts.

Jennifer
​
May 2018 St. Marys Quarry
St. Mary's Quarry May 27, 2018, with CCFMS
 It was perfect weather for fossil hunting and some collectors found some great stuff
​As usual we were greeted with the huge St. Marys entrance sign
Collectors starting to gather in the parking lot
Peter came with a cross section of a Potsdam sandstone pillar from an earlier Kingston field trip that he is loaning out to the museum. This is a very significant piece because sandstone pillars can only form if the surrounding sediment or sand is still soft. No place for millions of years of slow accumulation. 
​This is a huge multi-level quarry with large machinery. A little bit intimidating.
Peter and sandstone pillar. 
For full report on sandstone pillars click on
FALL 2015 NEWSLETTER
Then scroll down to TRACKWAYS FIELD TRIP
Stop 1: This time around I followed the seasoned trilobite collectors right to the middle levels of the Lindsay Formation. Many different trilobites can be found here.
​
There was a fresh blast pile to the right that was still fairly dusty so I moved to an older pile to the right. Immediately I started finding Isotelus trilobite bits.
​
​More trilobite bits. Nothing complete yet
Malcolm found the first complete Isotelus trilobite and proceeded to cut it out
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Afterwards I found a very nice complete Isotelus albeit just a cast. Serious bug collectors would destroy this one just to get the intact eyes that are left in the negative impression and use them for a similar sized positive usually found without the eyes.
This one was way up on the blast pile, so I took up my light- weight battery operated rock saw, rather than the gas powered saw, to cut it out. 
After cutting out
A pygidium (tail end of a trilobite) probably from an Isotelus maximus 
Found a few meters from the cast was this positive with a bashed in head. I was hoping it would match my cast but later it was found not to be the same trilobite.
A nice spired gastropod with the appearance of some intact shell
​
Another partial Isotelus trilobite
Not a bad lingula specimen. The matrix was crumbling so I managed to pop the lingula out.
​
So far some good finds! Now ​down to the Verulam Formation in the lower benches.
Trackway (zig zag markings) produced by an invertebrate creature
 Picture
 This level is very fossiliferous, with many horn corals
​
Crinoid stems and discs
Typical of the Verulam is burrowing activity. These ones were probably created by worms. Finding burrows and trackways is evidence the sediments with the markings hardened quickly then got buried quickly with more sediment to protect them from erosion.
​
Up to the top bench, my favorite, the Whitby Shale (Upper Ordovician)
I was surprised to see some people already here.
Marc is looking quite comfortable on the top of the bench.
Not surprised to see Peter Lee here, as he loves the pyritized fossils found in the Whitby oil shale! For pyritized fossils to form requires a low or no oxygen environment indicating a deep burial.
Marc's hard work sure paid off with a large Pseudogygites trilobite
Close-up of Marc's trilobite as found
More people are starting to arrive here as this is near the end of the day and on the way out of the quarry
Trilobite restored
Yep, even Kevin and Malcolm got in on the act!
Cane is a happy camper finding a rare coiled cephalopod:  Trocholites ammonius
Close-up of Cane's ​Trocholites ammonius
I was also happy, finding a pretty good Triarthrus eatoni trilobite and cast.
Peter and Martin. Sorry, it's starting to look like Snap'd newspaper! lol.​
A great day of collecting. End of the day photo of Malcolm, Peter, Martin, Marc and Kevin
Victoria Day Museum Tour and Fossil Hunt May 21, 2018
Opening: introduction to fossils
Q and A time
Part 3: the fossil hunt. But first a safety lesson and tips on how to collect.
Yuk, what a stink! Passing around a beaker containing crude oil. Folks learned with their nose that crude oil is the remains of dead plants and animals. You could call crude oil "Liquid Fossils"!  
Part 2: a museum tour and then a self tour
And the hunt is on!
A really good trilobite tail found, Pseudogygites latimarginatus.
Several nearly complete fossils were found today.
Also, several varieties of trilobite bits were found such as this Triarthrus eatoni.
The head (cephalon) part of the trilobite.
The day was magnificent!! Thank you so much. I turned down 30 more people who tried to sign up for this trip so I feel badly doing that. So I would like to organize another trip but I cannot do that in the summer. I could do that in the fall sometime.
Thank you so much for such a wonderful day. 
 
From us all,
The Ng Family 

Creation Research Canada Booth at
 the KWCHEA Kitchener/Waterloo Christian
Home Educators’ Conference Saturday, April 7, 2018 and
The OCHEC Ontario Christian Home Educators Connection Conference
 held at Redeemer University College in Ancaster on May 4, and 5, 2018

This year Marc and I did some museum promotion by attending 2 homeschooling conferences. We had some good feedback.
Museum book and info table at the KWCHEA conference
Folks could even purchase their own mini table top creation museum! 
Of course we had Vance Nelson's popular books on hand too 
​Good crowd at the OCHEC conference
Lots of materials were available
The attraction was the free fossils and minerals!
 Dr. Gary Chiang (right) came down from his office at Redeemer University (where the conference was held) to join us and converse with the crowd for a while. Gary recently joined the museum advisory board and is a good supporter of the ministry.  
Why is Marc happy? He was able to have a tour of Gary's lab, where he operated a microscope.
Close up of a Bathyrus trilobite tail
March 2018 Balls Falls 
I got an early start this year to try to finish off the formations board that's displayed in the museum. The formations board is a display board with a stuck-on sample of rock from each layer of stone or "formation" that's present here in Ontario. An area where I know I could find at least 3 specimens was at Balls Falls near Jordan, Ontario.
A sample needed was from the Irondequoit Limestone which was easily accessible at the middle falls between lower and upper Balls Falls 
My wife Salome walking down the gorge to the river. This is a good place in summer to take a camera.
Amazing worm burrows slabs littered at the base of the Grimsby Formation
Back at the museum. After trimming and washing the specimens it was time to glue them onto the board along with their captions. The tape was there to hold them into place until the epoxy dried.
 Just starting down the gorge to the river was an outcrop of the Reynales Formation. Specimen number 2 collected. 
Next stop, the Grimsby Sandstone. Here I had no trouble finding a good specimen as the formation is very fossiliferous
After walking down the gorge to the river we were rewarded by an amazing view of the lower falls
The Cataract Group of formations is now complete!
Looking good! Please pray as there are 3 more formations to go. Of course the hardest ones to get to are always last! I hope to complete the board in 2019.