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N Profile Beetle fosils indicate Sub-Artie climate here The climate in this part ofOntarionsoucesimilar to thee1imatetobemmd, in the sub-Arctic parts of University of Waterloo re- searchers. The two are a husband and wife team: Dr. Alan Morgan, of the earth scienc- es and man-enyironrnent de- partments. and Dr. Anne Morgan. of the biology de- partment. They claim_70.~ 000 years ago Southern On- tario was probably covered with tundra. with scrubby willow and birch trees and P. " - W-boo Quotable. WM, my tt. 1975 Back in Good Shape...l'ast Not a sign of that colli- sion when our experts re-condition your car. Fine work at moder- ate prices. 430 ALBERT ST. PH. 884-0550 WATERLOO NORTHDALE AUTO BODY 341.3 a few small spruce: heme The claim is not particu- lady earth-shattering. per- bans. but what is interest- ing is the way they have ar- rived at it . . . from study- ing the fossilized remains of pieces of beetles they have been finding in Scarborough Bluffs. Toronto. For the past couple of years they and their students have been clambering up and down the steep bluffs, dig- ging out chunks of organic debris which they bring back to the campus in plas- tic bags. "We look for thin black streaks in the silt," says Alan Morgan. "This is or- ganic material. usually consisting of twigs. leaves. seeds and moss fragments. .. The Morgans. aided by a Ph.D student. Don Schwert. have been analysing a num- ber of sites from Southern Ontario and the northern United States. as well as from Scarborough Bluffs. The organic material is carefully separated ' the non-organic silt in a lab on the UW campus. The material is washed and Open Tues. - Sat. 10-6 PM IP t IEulfrlllf . 5 "MESS SI. WEST, "MERLIN! All this plus the option of skierized cars trom Calgary (based on four per car) for those who wish it, tow tickets on this basis would include Jasper. Limited number ot tickets available at $360.00 per person. Deadline February Ir, 1975. sun-now SALES t SERVICE Get Your Snowthrowers In Now For Repairs. No need to wait. No time to haste, That first snowfall. WiII start it all. silt nuts on and the oegapic matter is retained. The organic debris is then mix- ed with kerosene which re- suits in broken bits of (09 sil beetles floating to the surface. like tiny Mack specks. The floating mater- ial is decanted into another sieve, washed in detergent tto get rid of the kerosene) and then in alcohol (to get rid of the detergent). The remaining bits are then studied under a microscope.» Sometimes the University's powerful scanning elec- tron microscope is used. stminedttte9taeeryfirse "Some of the beetles are very tiny . . . they Would be less than one millimeter in length." says Anne Morgan. “And we get only bits and pieces of them; predominent- ly the elytra (wing covers), heads and thoraces. Pr However. they do get enough to be able to identify many beetles. In some sites they have identified as many as 5,000 individuals repre- senting some 300 differnt species. The findings, to date. contain several hun- dred individuals from 30 743-903 1 hada Wes- Tickets available at: The Record dh 2229,1975 Includes: i I 7 nights accommodation at the CHATEAU LAKE LOOSE f X6 or 7 days lifts depending on ttight tithes l )transters between Calgary airport and the hotel by bus I tunlimited use of lifts and tows at Sunshine Village. Mt. Nomuay and Lake Louise t Itraosters to and from these areas and the hotel I Duelcome coqhtail reception on arrival I lone dinner at the Hotel Post in Lake Louise I la motorcoach tour to Sulphev Mountain Hot Swings l ICP AIR nylon ski bag and ttight bag i Hour escort I thus transportatvon trom Kitchener to Toronto Airport and retum T nights, 6 days skiing toatditrematt-eies'rhey have also been with; in the old Don Valley brick- yards in Toronto in deposits believed la be about new years old; there they have discount! fossil bits of cad- dis fly larvae. and elylra from a species of water They have encouraged co- operative students to start collecting beetles while beetle that resembles some found in Southern Ontario they are scattered about the country on their work terms. Many University of Waterloo students are en- rolled in "cooperative" programs which means they alternate between class- room studies and organiz- ed "work terms" spent in industry or government ser- vice. every four months. ' Last summer, for examp- le. co-op students as far afield as Ellesmere Island. the Yukon, the Gaspe. Schef- terville and various other places sent back hundreds of beetles for the growing collection at Waterloo. The Morgans themselves also visited the far north. we are finding and the dis- tribution of living beetles. the better we should be able to reconstruct past cli- mates." preeicts Anne Mor- gan. "But a great deal of work remains to be done." "The more links we can make between the fossils Now what if we should hear, some day, that the beetles of the Arctic seem again? "Watch out!" warns Alan Morgan. "But unfortunate- ly. or perhaps fortunately, we really couldn't tell if they were. As yet nobody moving southward Kitchener-Waterloo Record 225 Fairway Road, Kitchener Meissner Travel Agency Westmonnt Place Waterloo borough Bluffs beetles. which they estimate to be abbut TO,000 years old (car- bon l4 dating is not accurate beyond about 45,000 years) are identical with beetles that live only in the far north today. Thus. they conclude. the climate at the bluffs was Once s‘milar to the far north climate in Canada today. say at Churchill or lnuvik. They also say that 90.000 years ago, or 20.000 years before the Scarborough Bluffs beetles were alive the Toronto region's cli- mate was similar to what it is today. triyeeoeeat.tttey.ii ahietosarrhetherafuil ..-. and by man-ac we do itmigttthetoo te." The Morgans base their conclusions on the know- ledge that individual beetle species have changed very little over the centuries and beetles move in respon-. se to changes in climate because they are fussy about the conditions under which they live. As Anne Morgan says: "Climate or more accurately, thermal environ- ment. is one of the most important factors limiting the distribution of insects-. ' . Reconstructing climates through the study of the fossil beetles is still a fairly new thing. The modern work originated in England about 20 years ago, though men- tion of fossil remains of beetles first appeared in scientific papers about 150 years ago. Alan and Anne Morgan learned the method in England. More tradition- numhgr 18 al methods involve collect- may represent an improve- ment because it enables the researcher to pinpoint changes in climate. “Beetles can fly in and out very quickly in response to a change in climate." points out Alan Morgan. In England Anne Morgan was able to conclude. from. her own doctoral research and with results obtained by a number of co-workers, that there had been a num- ber of climate changes over the past 50,000 years. She also came to the conclusion that changes in climate occurred much more sharp- ly than had previously been believed. "For example," she says, "we believe that in Eng- land. on at least two occas- ions. mean July tempera- tures __ and probably mean annual temperatures - went up more than 14 de- grees Fahrenheit 'within a period of 100 years." The cooling trends went more slowly. The "last "warm" period occurred about 13.000 years ago and there was another about 30.000 years before that. In the interval there was at least one, and pos- sibly two very cold periods. the most severe culminat- ing about 21,000 - 17,000 years ago. So far the Morgans have not been able to trace Southern Ontario's climate in that much detail. So they have embarked on a beetle collecting drive And have come up with a uni- que way to do it.