Elkanah Billings (1820-1876) and Joseph F. Whiteaves (1835-1909): The First Two Paleontologists of The Geological Survey of Canada

Billings and Whiteaves, both self taught paleontologists, occupied the same position (at different times) within the Geological Survey of Canada but were at different ends of the paleontological spectrum. Together their paleontological careers span the last half of the 19th century. Both were prolific writers, but Billings was not primarily a field man and worked only on the lower Paleozoic fossils of the Ottawa-St. Lawrence Lowland and southern Ontario. Whiteaves was a field man par excellence, working from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Pacific coast and specializing in Mesozoic paleontology. Together, they complemented each other's studies and contributed greatly to the initiation, expansion and continuance of the science of paleontology within the Survey and Canada as a whole. They should be considered together as the "Fathers of Canadian Paleontology."