User:Jbswake

My name is John Leahy. I am/was the mine manager and chief tour guide at the McAbee Fossil Beds since we opened in 2004 for public tours here in Kamloops, British Columbia. I have over 9,000 fossils from the world famous site in my own collection, of which, many will end up donated to science as they are unique specimens. We have approximately 120 known plant specimens. Most are macro fossils, but about 25 are known from the pollen record only. We are home to a new species of beech, trochodendron, and fern, and a new genus of flower, Dillhoffia. We have hundreds of new species of insects, but this is unconfirmed as many have not been studied in any detail yet. One new scorpion fly from the site is a new genus, Dinokanaga. We are home to a wide variety of ichneumon wasps, march flies, and leaf-, tree-, plant-, & frog-hoppers. I have photographed and catalogued about 3,500 so far. I have personally found several new genera of insects, crayfish, and bird. I have a scorpion fly named after me, Cimbrophlebia leahyi Archibald 2009. I am also one of the co-authors of the scientific paper naming the new genus of crayfish from our site, Aenegmastacus crandalli Meyer, Schweitzer, & Leahy 2011. I have also had my pictures used in two books, Sidetracked by Vivien Lougheed, Creekstone Press 2011, and In Search of Ancient British Columbia by Barbara Huck, Heidi Henderson, & Phillip Torrens, Heartland 2006. I am also the webmaster for the fossil site. At present we have been closed by the government while they change the status of the site from a legal fossil mine and incoroporate it into a BC Heritage Site. When this process is completed we will be changing our name (to be decided) and hopefully be able to continue with our operation. I personally know many of the scientists that have studied the material from our site and we have donated hundreds of samples to science, including 71% of the Thompson Rivers University Collection here in Kamloops. There are 140 morphotypes of plant residing in the Burke Museum via the Evolving Earth Foundation of Washington State, US, thanks to us. John Leahy