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2021 News
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- Study finds Sawfish face extinction unless overfishing is curbed
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2020 News
- STUDY SUGGESTS SEA LICE ON SALMON IS UNDER-REPORTED AT B.C. SALMON FARMS
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- SFU CHEMIST’S NEW PROCESS FAST-TRACKS DRUG TREATMENTS FOR VIRAL INFECTIONS AND CANCER
- HOT WATER CAN SOMETIMES COOL FASTER THAN WARM WATER – SFU RESEARCH CONFIRMS
- EDNA TECHNOLOGY MORE EFFECTIVE IN MONITORING SALMON RUNS: SFU RESEARCH
- LOVE OF SPORTS, MATH LANDS SFU ALUMNUS JOB WITH SEATTLE’S NHL FRANCHISE
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- A WHISKER'S MORE PROTECTION FOR CLEAN-SHAVEN MASK WEARERS
- RESEARCHERS WORKING TO IMPROVE QUALITY OF LIFE FOR SENIORS IN LONG-TERM CARE
- NEW STUDY FINDS CORAL ISLANDS MAY NOT “DROWN” AMID CLIMATE CHANGE
- NEW FOSSIL DISCOVERY SHOWS 50 MILLION-YEAR-OLD CANADA-AUSTRALIA CONNECTION
- BPK GRAD AIMS TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE AMID CHALLENGES OF LAB WORK ON COVID-19 PROJECT
- HOW CANNABIDIOL MAY BE HELPFUL IN TREATING DIABETES-RELATED ARRHYTHMIAS
- SFU LAB HELPS PATIENT MANAGE RARE DISEASE THROUGH PROGRAMMED EXERCISE
- SFU SURREY SCIENCE LABS HOST COVID-19 HAND SANITIZER PRODUCTION
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- STUDY REVEALS HIDDEN RISKS OF ESTUARY DEVELOPMENT FOR YOUNG SALMON
- SFU RESEARCHER SCORES MAJOR FUNDING FOR ACUTE MYELOID LEUKEMIA RESEARCH
- SFU EARTH SCIENTIST JOHN CLAGUE NAMED TO ORDER OF CANADA
- FACULTY OF SCIENCE RECEIVES OVER $1M IN RESEARCH FUNDING FROM CANADA FOUNDATION FOR INNOVATION
- ABUNDANCE OF SALMON KEY TO FEEDING 'UNDERDOG' STREAM FISHES: SFU RESEARCH
- YOUNG INVESTIGATOR AWARD BESTOWED ON PHYSICS PROF.
- SFU PHYSICS PROFESSOR RECOGNIZED AS “TOP 40 UNDER 40” IN CANADA
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2019 News
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- FIRST FOSSIL DRAGONFLIES FROM B.C. IDENTIFIED AND NAMED
- INTERNATIONAL STUDY FINDS NEW GENETIC FEATURES IN RARE BURKITT LYMPHOMA CANCER
- TRIO OF SFU SCIENCE PROFESSORS HONORED
- NEW EVIDENCE SHOWS HUMAN PRESENCE IN HAIDA GWAII 2,200 YEARS EARLIER THAN PREVIOUS ESTIMATES
- SFU CHEMISTRY PROF NAMED TO ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA
- POPULAR BUT DANGEROUS LAB DEMO NOW SAFER THANKS TO SFU CHEMISTS
- SFU PHYSICS WELCOMES NEW ASTROPHYSICIST
- WATCH YOUR SPEED—WHALE ZONE AHEAD!
- DEPARTMENT OF STATISTICS & ACTUARIAL SCIENCE WELCOMES DONALD ESTEP
- COMPLIANT FLOORING NOT THE ANSWER TO PREVENTING FALL-RELATED INJURIES
- SFU WELCOMES NEW SHRUM CHAIR IN BIOLOGICAL MECHANISMS OF DISEASE
- PEST BUSTING SFU PROF NAMED FELLOW OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF CANADA
- INTERNATIONAL STUDENT BUILDS HIS OWN ADVENTURE AT SFU
- THE DIRT ON SUSTAINABLE SHEEP FARMING
- TINY FISH A BIG LURE FOR LIFE ON CORAL REEFS
- BIG ENERGY SAVINGS FOR TINY MACHINES
- BIOLOGY CLASS ANALYZES DOG DNA FOR BODY SIZE, SNOUT LENGTH AND COAT LENGTH
- SFU STUDIES CAUSES BEHIND SUDDEN UNEXPECTED DEATH IN INFANTS
- ANAL SECRETIONS OF APHIDS PROVIDE SUSTENANCE FOR MOSQUITOES
- CITIZEN SCIENTISTS' RARE FOSSIL BIRDS SHED NEW LIGHT ON AVIAN HISTORY
- STATISTICS STUDENTS IMPRESS THE NFL WITH THEIR MOVES
- 3D IMAGES IN PDFS IS A GAMECHANGER FOR CHEMISTRY EDUCATION
- DAVID SHIFFMAN NAMED PRESIDENT'S SOCIAL MEDIA NEWSMAKER OF THE YEAR
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- EARLY-CAREER LECTURER KEVIN LAM DRIVEN BY LIFE-LONG PASSION FOR TEACHING
- CHEMISTRY TEAM "FIXES" CANCER-SUPPRESSING P53 PROTEIN
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2018 News
- SFU PROF’S WORLDWIDE INFLUENCE ON SHARKS AND RAYS RESEARCH LEADS TO ACCOLADE AND A NEW CONSERVATION PROGRAM
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- SFU FACULTY MEMBERS SET SIGHTS ON HOLLYWOOD NORTH
- NEWLY HIRED STATS PROF BRINGS EXPERTISE IN BIG DATA AND MACHINE LEARNING
- MUSCLES KNOW BEST
- NANOMACHINES HAVE ALL THE MOVES
- PHD CANDIDATE IN MARINE BIOLOGY WINS MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL PRIZE
- ENGAGED STUDENT DOES IT ALL
- GENETIC MUTATION PROVIDES POTENTIAL CLUE TO NON-HODGKIN LYMPHOMA
- BUILDING MOLECULAR MOTORS – ONE STEP AT A TIME
- NEW STUDY ON EFFECTS OF CANNABIS ON PAIN AND SEIZURE CONTROLNEW STUDY ON EFFECTS OF CANNABIS ON PAIN AND SEIZURE CONTROL
- FACULTY OF SCIENCE WELCOMES NEW DEAN!
- SCIENCE INQUIRY VIDEOS FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS LAUNCHED
- SFU MATHEMATICIAN RECEIVES ROYAL SOCIETY AWARD
- JOHN REYNOLDS NAMED CHAIR OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE STATUS OF ENDANGERED WILDLIFE IN CANADA
- SFU STUDY BUSTS MYTH ABOUT FACIAL HAIR ON PILOTS
- NOT SO FAST: FROM SHREWS TO ELEPHANTS, ANIMAL REFLEXES SURPRISINGLY SLOW
- SFU TEAM RECEIVES FUNDING TO EXPAND SYSTEM OF WORLDWIDE HEALTH RESEARCH DATABASES
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- HOW SALMON "OUST THE LOUSE"
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2017 News
- FLIRTING ON THE FLY: HUMANS CAN LEARN A THING OR TWO FROM BLOW FLIES ABOUT ATTRACTION ON DATING APPS
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- SARAH JOHNSON WINS FACULTY OF SCIENCE EXCELLENCE IN PUBLIC OUTREACH AND ENGAGEMENT AWARD
- SCIENCE TECHNICAL CENTER WINS SFU TEAM ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
- Photos: SFU's Trottier Observatory wins national award for landscape design
- SFU PROF SCORES POSITION WITH NBA
- STUDY FINDS GREATER RISK OF EXTINCTION AMONG HIGH DIVERSITY AMPHIBIAN GROUPS
- 2017 CONVOCATION STAR - DANIELLE JEONG
- 2017 CONVOCATION STAR - ANDY ZENG
- 2017 CONVOCATION STAR - JOHN THOMPSON
- PERFECT PAIRINGS: COUPLE MEETS AT SCIENCE FROSH & HEAD TO MED SCHOOL TOGETHER
- EXTREME SCIENCE IN VOLCANOLOGY
- NEW CANADA RESEARCH CHAIR BOOSTS FUNDING FOR ENERGY-CONVERSION TECHNOLOGY
- CHEMISTRY BUILDING EARNS GOLD, LEED AWARD
- NEW CLASSROOMS + SOCIAL AREA = [MATH WEST]
- NEW STUDY SHOWS BANNING SHARK FIN IN THE U.S. WON’T HELP SAVE SHARKS
- NEW RESEARCH LINKS HEART ATTACKS TO GENETIC MUTATION
- CONSERVATION ACTUALLY WORKS
- NATIONAL GOLD MEDAL HONORS GERHARD GRIES' INSECT EXPERTISE
- REVVING YOUR NANOSCALE ENGINE
- "ROCK STAR" GEOSCIENTIST RECEIVES LEGGET MEDAL
- PUBLIC HEALTH MATHEMATICIAN JOINS SFU AS CANADA 150 RESEARCH CHAIR
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- MARS' SURFACE WATER: WE FINALLY KNOW WHAT HAPPENED
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2016 News
- HANDS-ON LEARNING ON THE MOUNTAIN
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- ZIKA VIRUS AND THE RIO 2016 OLYMPIC GAMES
- STAFF ACHIEVEMENT AWARD FOR THE FACULTY OF SCIENCE
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- FACULTY OF SCIENCE SWEEPS EXCELLENCE IN TEACHING AWARDS
- STATS STUDENT SAYS THANKS TO HIGH SCHOOL MATH TEACHER
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- ECONOMICS DRIVE THE EXTINCTION OF LARGE MARINE ANIMALS
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- EMPU DIRECTOR RECEIVES "HIGH-FLYING" AWARD
- SFU'S POPULAR ACADEMIC SUMMER CAMP FOR ABORIGINAL STUDENTS A HIT WITH ALUMNI
- SEA STAR DEATH TRIGGERS ECOLOGICAL DOMINO EFFECT
- DUGAN O'NEIL WINS COMPUTE CANADA TRAILBLAZER AWARD
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- TRAILBLAZING SCIENTIST AND ADVISOR PASSES AWAY AT 102
- UNDERSTANDING HOW THE "BLOOD-BRAIN BARRIER" IS BREACHED IN BACTERIAL MENINGITIS
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2015 News
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- SFU TO HOST SITE OF RESEARCH CYBER NETWORK
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Lacewing Fossil
NEW FOSSIL DISCOVERY SHOWS 50 MILLION-YEAR-OLD CANADA-AUSTRALIA CONNECTION
The discovery of a tiny insect fossil is unearthing big questions about the global movement of animals and the connection to changes in climate and shifting continents across deep time. The fossil, estimated to be 50 million years old, was found in rocks near the city of Kamloops, British Columbia, but today its relatives live exclusively in Australia.
The finding is the latest in a pattern of discoveries that are leading experts to contemplate a Canada-Australia connection not previously considered. Paleontologists Bruce Archibald of Simon Fraser University and the Royal British Columbia Museum and Vladimir Makarkin of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Vladivostok published their findings in The Canadian Entomologist.
According to Makarkin, the fossil is part of the “split-footed lacewing” family. Little is known about this group over the 66-million-years following the extinction of the dinosaurs. “These fossils are rare,” he says. “This is only the fourth one found from this time-span world-wide, and it’s the most completely preserved. It adds important information to our knowledge of how they became modern.”
The paleontologists identified the fossil by the characteristic network of veins covering its wings. They emphasize that fossils like the new lacewing species help in understanding large-scale patterns of the modern distribution of life across the globe.
Previous fossil insects of this age found in B.C. and neighbouring Washington have shown connections with Pacific-coastal Russia to the west and with Europe to the east – patterns that are not surprising since the northern continents were connected then.
“Fifty million years ago, sea levels were lower, exposing more land between North America and Asia, and the Atlantic Ocean had not widened, leaving Europe and North America still joined across high latitudes,” says Archibald. He explains that the far-north experienced warmer climates then as well, helping a variety of animals and plants to disperse freely between northern continents.
The Australian connection is more puzzling though, as there is no such clear land connection. That continent was closer to Antarctica then and farther from Asia than today, leaving formidable ocean barriers for life to disperse between it and Canada’s west coast.
This lacewing joins other insect fossils from B.C. and Washington whose modern relatives only live in the Australian region. These include bulldog ants, a family of termites, and a kind of parasitoid wasp.
Archibald says that “a pattern is emerging that we don’t quite understand yet, but has interesting implications.”
The researchers suggest that the answer might be connected to climate. The forests of the ancient British Columbian temperate upland where this lacewing lived had very mild winters, in fact, probably without frost days.
The climate of modern Australia shares these mild winters even in temperate regions. “It could be that these insect groups are today restricted to regions of the world where climates in key ways resemble those 50 million years ago in the far western Canadian mountains,” says Archibald.
Archibald and Makarkin emphasise that it’s important to understand the little things in order to appreciate the big picture. “The more we know about these insects, the more we can piece together the history of how climate and the movement of continents have shaped global patterns of the distributions of life that we see in our modern world,” says Makarkin.
“To understand where we are today and where we may be going with the big changes that we are seeing in global climates, we need to understand what’s happened in the deep past."