[BCMA] New fossils curator joins the Royal BC Museum

[Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.]

July 13, 2018

Royal BC Museum welcomes new Curator of Paleontology

VICTORIA, BC-The Royal BC Museum welcomes a rock-star scientist to oversee its fossils collection, as Dr. Victoria Arbour joins the museum as the Curator of Paleontology.

Dr. Arbour is a vertebrate paleontologist and evolutionary biologist specializing in fossils from the age of dinosaurs. She is the leading expert on the armoured dinosaurs known as ankylosaurs, which are characterized by their extensive bony plating and weaponized clubbed tails.

"I'm excited about the opportunities to search for more dinosaurs in the remote northern mountains of BC, as well as other amazing fossil localities around the province," said Dr. Arbour. "BC has an incredibly rich paleontological heritage and there are many untold stories yet to be revealed by BC's fossils."

Dr. Arbour joins the Royal BC Museum a year after the retirement of Dr. Richard Hebda, who spent 38 years as Curator of Botany and Earth History, and, with recently-retired collections manager Marji Johns, cared for and championed this remarkable collection.

Fossils in the Royal BC Museum Paleontology collection range from specimens that are more than 550 million years old to clams and other invertebrates from the Victoria area that are only a few thousand years old.

The Paleontology collection has grown from about 2000 specimens in the late 1800s to more than 90,000 specimens today. Fossils are presently the museum's fastest growing collection and are frequently the basis for new scientific papers.

For more information about the Royal BC Museum's Paleontology collection, visit https://royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/collections/natural-history/paleontology.

Before joining the Royal BC Museum, Dr. Arbour worked as an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto, a Contract Assistant Curator at the Royal Ontario Museum, and a Brimley Postdoctoral Scholar at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and North Carolina State University.

Dr. Arbour completed her PhD and MSc at the University of Alberta under the supervision of Dr. Philip Currie, Canada Research Chair in Dinosaur Palaeobiology. Her BSc is in Earth Sciences and Biology from Dalhousie University.

Dr. Arbour has published several scientific research papers on the fossils of British Columbia, including one of BC's rare dinosaur fossils, and a small flying reptile from Vancouver Island. She has named three new species of dinosaurs: Ziapelta sanjuanensis from New Mexico, Zaraapelta nomadis from Mongolia, and most recently, Zuul crurivastator from Montana.

As with all curatorial staff at the Royal BC Museum, Dr. Arbour's role includes scientific research in the museum's collection, field work, replying to media inquiries and extensive engagement with members of the public at learning activities and other special events.

Dr. Arbour will be immersed in fieldwork over the summer and starts work at the Royal BC Museum in September, 2018.

About the Royal BC Museum

The Royal BC Museum explores the province's human history and natural history, advances new knowledge and understanding of BC, and provides a dynamic forum for discussion and a place for reflection. The museum and archives celebrate culture and history, telling the stories of BC in ways that enlighten, stimulate and inspire. Located in Victoria on the traditional territory of the Lekwungen (Songhees and Xwsepsum Nations), we are a hub of community connections in BC-onsite, offsite and online-taking pride in our collective histories.


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Media contact:
Royal BC Museum Media Inquiries
250-387-5051
news at royalbcmuseum.bc.ca<mailto:news at royalbcmuseum.bc.ca>

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