Cover Image: Julius Csotonyi’s depiction of an adult Spinops sternbergorum defending her offspring from an attack by an albertosaurine tyrannosaur during the Cretaceous Period of the Mesozoic Era. See the article by Mallon et al. (pp. 294–299) of a newly discovered fossil, most likely Spinops sternbergorum, a ceratopsid species previously known only from Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, from near Unity, Saskatchewan. See also https://www.csotonyi.com for more paleoart.

Free Online Access to Feature Article in 138(4) is at https://doi.org/10.22621/cfn.v138i4.3451

The Canadian Field-Naturalist (CFN) is the official journal and publication of record for the Ottawa Field Naturalists’ Club (OFNC). Issue 4 of volume 138, the current issue, is posted online at https://www.canadianfieldnaturalist.ca/index.php/cfn. The mailing date was 18 December 2025 so those with print copy subscriptions should soon be seeing the striking cover. After all, who doesn’t love dinosaurs!

One of the last tasks of the editorial team prior to finalizing a CFN issue is to choose a cover picture. We look at the manuscripts that will be published in the issue to see if any have images suitable for the cover or if there might be other relevant images related to the manuscript. While CFN has previously published articles on fossils, it’s been some time since we did so. And, when was the last time we published anything on dinosaurs? So when we knew Jordan Mallon et al.’s article on the discovery of a fossil bone of a dinosaur previously only known from Alberta would be in this issue, I jumped at the chance. The authors of this issue’s Feature Article “A Spinops sternbergorum (Ornithsichia: Ceratopsia) parietal from the Dinosaur Park Formation (upper Campanian) of Muddy Lake, Saskatchewan” suggested paleoartist Julius Csotonyi might have something suitable, and here we are.

Issue 4 of volume 138 also is bit thinner than normal as we strive to return to a more regular publication schedule but still contains six other manuscripts in addition to the one on the dinosaur fossil. There are three on fishes: one about the fish community in the Rideau River-Canal system, another on a catfish from Saskatchewan, and a third on using ear bones to look at first-year growth patterns in minnows. Two articles on the effects of prescribed fires are found in the issue, one on Trembling Aspen (Populus tremuloides) in Saskatchewan and the other on how prescribe fires affects subalpine Grouse Berry (Vaccinium scoparium) habitat and Grizzly Bear (Ursus arctos) in Banff National Park, Alberta. An observation on a Yukon Grizzly Bear’s apparent predation on a bison (Bison bison) calf rounds out this issue. Six Book Reviews, the lists of New Titles and Upcoming Meetings and Workshops, an in memoriam for Dr. Gerry Mackie, an Editors’ Report for volume 137, and an index for volume 138 complete the last issue of the volume.

OFNC members can freely access the entire current and past issues online. Contact Bill Halliday at wdhalliday@gmail.com to obtain instructions on how to create an account on the CFN website.

Enjoy!

Dwayne Lepitzki, Ph.D.

Editor-in-Chief