Strathcona Fiord is a fiord on the west central coast of

Ellesmere Island Ellesmere Island ( iu, script=Latn, Umingmak Nuna, lit=land of muskoxen; french: île d'Ellesmere) is Canada's northernmost and third largest island, and the tenth largest in the world. It comprises an area of , slightly smaller than Great Br ...

, the most northern island within the

Arctic Archipelago The Arctic Archipelago, also known as the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, is an archipelago lying to the north of the Canadian continental mainland, excluding Greenland (an autonomous territory of Denmark). Situated in the northern extremity of No ...

Nunavut Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the '' Nunavut Act'' and the '' Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act'' ...

, Canada.

Geography

Strathcona Fiord is a southern tributary of Bay Fiord. The landscape in the region is fragile and spectacular. The steep hills forming the sides of the valley rise about above sea level. The striking arc of a

terminal moraine A terminal moraine, also called end moraine, is a type of moraine that forms at the terminal (edge) of a glacier, marking its maximum advance. At this point, debris that has accumulated by plucking and abrasion, has been pushed by the front edge ...

marks the limit of the last ice advance in the area. Taggart Lake running eastward of the moraine drains Upper and Lower Taggart lakes into the head of the fiord. The Prince of Wales Icefield lies on the eastern flank of this valley.

Human activity

Although currently there is no permanent settlement in the Strathcona Fiord area, stone tent rings and other archaeological features indicate past human habitation.

Eureka Eureka (often abbreviated as E!, or Σ!) is an intergovernmental organisation for research and development funding and coordination. Eureka is an open platform for international cooperation in innovation. Organisations and companies applying th ...

, about to the northwest, is a weather station and staging point for scientific expeditions and for other visitors to Ellesmere Island and the

Qikiqtaaluk Region The Qikiqtaaluk Region, Qikiqtani Region (Inuktitut syllabics: ᕿᑭᖅᑖᓗᒃ ) or Baffin Region is the easternmost, northernmost, and southernmost administrative region of Nunavut, Canada. Qikiqtaaluk is the traditional Inuktitut name f ...

Grise Fiord Grise Fiord (; iu, ᐊᐅᔪᐃᑦᑐᖅ, translit=Aujuittuq, lit=place that never thaws, italics=no) is an Inuit hamlet on the southern tip of Ellesmere Island, in the Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is one of three populated places on ...

is an

Inuit Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territorie ...

community, located about to the south, also on Ellesmere Island. A parcel of land located south of the head of Strathcona Fiord is designated Inuit Owned Land. The area is sometimes visited by hunters from the nearest Inuit community, Grise Fiord.

Coal

A large portion of the Strathcona Fiord area lies within a coal license area, owned by Canadian Sovereign Coal Corporation, a subsidiary of Weststar Resources Corporation. The coal property is governed by three coal exploration licenses covering an area of . Coal deposits in the Strathcona Fiord area are ranked from

lignite Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible, sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35%, and is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its relatively low heat ...

to sub-bituminous and have been estimated to comprise roughly 1 billion tonnes. In January 2010, when the

paleontological Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of foss ...

scientific community learned of Weststar's interest in exploring this area the

Society of Vertebrate Paleontology The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) is a professional organization that was founded in the United States in 1940 to advance the science of vertebrate paleontology around the world. Mission and Activities SVP has about 2,300 members inte ...

issued a press release outlining the need to preserve the fossils in the area, Within four days the Nunavut Impact Review Board received over 70 letters of concern from paleontologists and the public alike.

Paleontology

The vicinity of Strathcona Fiord has yielded a fossil record of tremendous international scientific significance. These

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s, including plant and animal remains, have provided a unique opportunity for understanding the effect of

climatic change ''Climatic Change'' is a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Springer Science+Business Media covering cross-disciplinary work on all aspects of climate change and variability. It was established in 1978 and the editors-in-chief ...

through the past 4 or 5 million years on the

Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...

environment, and on its flora and fauna.

Pliocene fossils (3-5 million years old)

The only

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58vertebrate fossil locality known is the Beaver Pond site at Strathcona Fiord. The Beaver Pond site was first noted by John Fyles of the

Geological Survey of Canada The Geological Survey of Canada (GSC; french: Commission géologique du Canada (CGC)) is a Canadian federal government agency responsible for performing geological surveys of the country, developing Canada's natural resources and protecting the e ...

in 1961. In 1988 he found the first

vertebrate Vertebrates () comprise all animal taxa within the subphylum Vertebrata () ( chordates with backbones), including all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Vertebrates represent the overwhelming majority of the phylum Chordata, with ...

remains there. In 1992 vertebrate paleontologist, Richard Harington of the

Canadian Museum of Nature The Canadian Museum of Nature (french: Musée canadien de la nature; CMN) is a national natural history museum based in Canada's National Capital Region. The museum's exhibitions and public programs are housed in the Victoria Memorial Museum B ...

, began ten summers of excavations at the site. This fossil site includes the mummified remains of fossil plants, including trees such as an extinct

larch Larches are deciduous conifers in the genus ''Larix'', of the family Pinaceae (subfamily Laricoideae). Growing from tall, they are native to much of the cooler temperate northern hemisphere, on lowlands in the north and high on mountains fur ...

(''Larix groenlandii'') and other trees indicative of a

boreal forest Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruc ...

.Matthews, Fyles 2000 Much of the wood preserved at the site has been gnawed by beavers and some of it is fire-blackened. This exceptional site also has yielded remains of pollen, insects, mollusks, fish (a percid), frogs and mammals such as an unusual rodent, a deerlet (''Boreameryx''), 3-toed horse, an extinct beaver (''Dipoides''), a rabbit (''

Hypolagus ''Hypolagus'' is an extinct genus of lagomorph, first recorded in the Hemingfordian (early to middle Miocene) of North America. It entered Asia during the early Turolian and spread to Europe not much later, where it survived until the Middle Ple ...

''), an unusual shrew (''Arctisorex polaris''), a primitive

black bear Black bear or Blackbear may refer to: Animals * American black bear (''Ursus americanus''), a North American bear species * Asian black bear (''Ursus thibetanus''), an Asian bear species Music * Black Bear (band), a Canadian First Nations group ...

(''Ursus abstrusus''), a badger (''Arctomeles''), and several other carnivores. Paleoclimatic reconstruction suggests a mean annual temperature that was warmer than present day Ellesmere Island. The assemblage of Pliocene plant

macrofossil Macrofossils, also known as megafossils, are preserved organic remains large enough to be visible without a microscope. The term ''macrofossil'' stands in opposition to the term microfossil. Microfossils, by contrast, require substantial magnifica ...

s (wood, leaves, cones and seeds) is typical of present-day boreal forest, as it includes

alder Alders are trees comprising the genus ''Alnus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The genus comprises about 35 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, a few reaching a large size, distributed throughout the north temperate zone with a few sp ...

(''Alnus''),

birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' cont ...

(''Betula''),

bogbean ''Menyanthes'' is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the family Menyanthaceae containing the single species ''Menyanthes trifoliata''. The North American form is often referred to as ''M. trifoliata'' var. ''minor'' Michx. It is known ...

(''Menyanthes trifoliata''),

(''Larix''),

sweet gale ''Myrica gale'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Myricaceae, native to parts of Japan, North Korea, Russia, mainland Europe, the British Isles and parts of northern North America, in Canada and the United States. Common names include ...

(''Myrica gale''),

spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' (), a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal (taiga) regions of the Earth. ''Picea'' is the sole genus in the subfam ...

(''Picea''),

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family (biology), family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanic ...

(''Pinus''), and

lingonberry ''Vaccinium vitis-idaea'', the lingonberry, partridgeberry, mountain cranberry or cowberry, is a small evergreen shrub in the heath family Ericaceae, that bears edible fruit. It is native to boreal forest and Arctic tundra throughout the Norther ...

(''Vaccinium vitis-idaea''), as well as the southern boreal tree, the

white cedar White cedar may refer to several different trees: * Bignoniaceae ** ''Tabebuia heterophylla'' - native to Caribbean islands and also cultivated as an ornamental tree * Cupressaceae: ** ''Chamaecyparis thyoides'' – Atlantic white cypress ** ''Cupr ...

(''Thuja occidentalis'').

Eocene fossils (about 50 million years old)

The first High Arctic terrestrial fossil vertebrates were discovered in 1975, in the Strathcona Fiord by a team led by

Mary R. Dawson Mary R. Dawson (February 27, 1931 – November 29, 2020) was a vertebrate paleontologist and curator emeritus at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Education and career Dawson was raised in Michigan, receive ...

from the Carnegie Museum. These earliest finds include the fossil remains of an alligator, considered to be ''

Allognathosuchus ''Allognathosuchus'' (meaning "other jaw crocodile") is an extinct genus of alligatorine crocodylian with a complicated taxonomic history. It was named in 1921. Description ''Allognathosuchus'' was a medium-sized predator up to 1.5 m in lengt ...

'', and also small arboreal mammals called ''plagiomenids''. Since then, field expeditions in Strathcona Fiord have yielded a much more complete picture of the

biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic ('' genetic variability''), species ('' species diversity''), and ecosystem ('' ecosystem diversity'') ...

of the

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', ...

Arctic. Although, Eocene fossil vertebrates are known from other areas on Ellesmere Island (e.g., Stenkul Fiord), and

Axel Heiberg Island Axel Heiberg Island ( iu, ᐅᒥᖕᒪᑦ ᓄᓈᑦ, ) is an uninhabited island in the Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada. Located in the Arctic Ocean, it is the 32nd largest island in the world and Canada's seventh largest island. Accordin ...

, Strathcona Fiord has yielded the richest vertebrate fossil record. The fossil vertebrate record of the Eocene Arctic includes giant tortoises,

varanid The Varanidae are a family of lizards in the superfamily Varanoidea within the Anguimorpha group. The family, a group of carnivorous and frugivorous lizards, includes the living genus '' Varanus'' and a number of extinct genera more closely rela ...

lizards, and boid snakes. Mammal fossils are extremely diverse, including the rhino-like

brontotheres Brontotheriidae is a family of extinct mammals belonging to the order Perissodactyla, the order that includes horses, rhinoceroses, and tapirs. Superficially, they looked rather like rhinos, although they were actually more closely related to ...

, the hippo-like ''

Coryphodon ''Coryphodon'' (from Greek κορῦφὴ, "point", and ὀδοὺς, "tooth", meaning ''peaked tooth'', referring to "the development of the angles of the ridges into points n the molars") is an extinct genus of pantodonts of the family Corypho ...

'', a

tapir Tapirs ( ) are large, herbivorous mammals belonging to the family Tapiridae. They are similar in shape to a pig, with a short, prehensile nose trunk. Tapirs inhabit jungle and forest regions of South and Central America, with one species inh ...

like relative (''Thuliadanta''), an early horse (''

Hyracotherium ''Hyracotherium'' ( ; "hyrax-like beast") is an extinct genus of very small (about 60 cm in length) perissodactyl ungulates that was found in the London Clay formation. This small, fox-sized animal was once considered to be the earliest know ...

''?), carnivores (e.g., ''

Viverravus ''Viverravus'' ("ancestor of ''Viverra''") is an extinct genus of placental mammals from extinct subfamily Viverravinae within extinct family Viverravidae, that lived in North America, Europe and Asia from the middle Paleocene to middle Eocene ...

'', ''

Miacis ''Miacis'' is a genus of extinct carnivorous mammals that appeared in the late Paleocene and continued through the Eocene. The genus ''Miacis'' is not monophyletic but a diverse collection of species that belong to the stemgroup within the Ca ...

''), meat-eating

creodonts Creodonta ("meat teeth") is a former order of extinct carnivorous placental mammals that lived from the early Paleocene to the late Miocene epochs in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Originally thought to be a single group of animals ance ...

(e.g. ''Paaeonictis''), a

mesonychid Mesonychia ("middle claws") is an extinct taxon of small- to large-sized carnivorous ungulates related to artiodactyls. Mesonychids first appeared in the early Paleocene, went into a sharp decline at the end of the Eocene, and died out entirely ...

('' Pachyaena''), a small swimming carnivore ('' Pantolestid''), a leptictid and at least five rodents (including ''

Paramys ''Paramys'' is an extinct genus of rodents from North America, Europe, and Asia. It is one of the oldest genera of rodents known and probably lived in trees. While the genus name literally means "near a mouse A mouse ( : mice) is a smal ...

'' and ''Microparamys''). There are over 40 fossil vertebrate sites in the Strathcona Fiord region. There are numerous Eocene plant fossil sites, including

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especiall ...

units that are rich with leaves as

compression fossil A compression fossil is a fossil preserved in sedimentary rock that has undergone physical compression. While it is uncommon to find animals preserved as good compression fossils, it is very common to find plants preserved this way. The reason f ...

s.Basinger, Greenwood, Sweda 1994McIver, Basinger 1999 Very notable are the

petrified In geology, petrifaction or petrification () is the process by which organic material becomes a fossil through the replacement of the original material and the filling of the original pore spaces with minerals. Petrified wood typifies this p ...

tree stumps, some of which are preserved in their original growth position. The trees show wide

growth rings Dendrochronology (or tree-ring dating) is the scientific method of dating tree rings (also called growth rings) to the exact year they were formed. As well as dating them, this can give data for dendroclimatology, the study of climate and at ...

indicating favorable growth conditions. The fossil flora indicates the presence of rich floodplain forests dominated by dawn redwood (''

Metasequoia glyptostroboides ''Metasequoia glyptostroboides'', the dawn redwood, is a fast-growing, endangered deciduous conifer. It is the sole living species of the genus ''Metasequoia'', one of three genera in the subfamily Sequoioideae of the family Cupressaceae. It now ...

''), together with

ginkgo ''Ginkgo'' is a genus of non-flowering seed plants. The scientific name is also used as the English name. The order to which it belongs, Ginkgoales, first appeared in the Permian, 270 million years ago, and is now the only living genus with ...

(''Ginkgo adiantoides''), walnut family (''

Juglans Walnut trees are any species of tree in the plant genus ''Juglans'', the type genus of the family Juglandaceae, the seeds of which are referred to as walnuts. All species are deciduous trees, tall, with pinnate leaves , with 5–25 leaflets ...

'' and other

Juglandaceae The Juglandaceae are a plant family known as the walnut family. They are trees, or sometimes shrubs, in the order Fagales. Members of this family are native to the Americas, Eurasia, and Southeast Asia. The nine or ten genera in the family have ...

), elms (''

Ulmus Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the flowering plant genus ''Ulmus'' in the plant family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical-montane regions of North ...

'' spp.), birch and alder (

Betulaceae Betulaceae, the birch family, includes six genera of deciduous nut-bearing trees and shrubs, including the birches, alders, hazels, hornbeams, hazel-hornbeam, and hop-hornbeams numbering a total of 167 species. They are mostly natives of the ...

), and katsura (''

Cercidiphyllum ''Cercidiphyllum'' is a genus containing two species of plants, both commonly called katsura. They are the sole members of the monotypic family Cercidiphyllaceae. The genus is native to Japan and China and unrelated to ''Cercis'' (redbuds). ...

''). Analysis of nearby fossil leaf sites from central Ellesmere Island of the same age indicate that these forests grew under very high rainfall, and can be considered to have represented a polar rainforest.Greenwood, Basinger, Smith 2010 This lush Eocene ecosystem thrived under a polar light regime. Like today, the region would have seen 24-hour sun in the summer and 24-hour darkness in the winter as it was positioned at almost the same latitude in the Eocene as it is today. Despite an

early Eocene In the geologic timescale the Ypresian is the oldest age or lowest stratigraphic stage of the Eocene. It spans the time between , is preceded by the Thanetian Age (part of the Paleocene) and is followed by the Eocene Lutetian Age. The Ypresian ...

climate with generally mild frost-free temperatures, the polar light regime likely forced these plants to be deciduous.

Notes

References

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{Fjords of Nunavut Fjords of Qikiqtaaluk Region Canadian Arctic Archipelago Ellesmere Island