At AEON, we pride ourselves in being an efficient, highly experienced and professional paleontological team delivering timely and quality reporting and field services to our clients.
With many years of project management, and industry and government experience, the staff at AEON have extensive background knowledge of the paleontological resources and geological history of Alberta and western and northern Canada. Our staff has wide-ranging experience in the identification, preparation, assessment, mitigation, monitoring, and reporting of paleontological resources throughout the province, and have worked extensively throughout Alberta and parts of western Canada. This provides AEON with the trained staff and regional expertise to respond to our client’s paleontological needs quickly and professionally, to help facilitate the approval process.
Michael G. Riley, President & Principal Paleontologist
Master of Science (Systematics & Evolution), University of Alberta
B. Comm. (Major in Finance), University of Alberta
Michael Riley founded AEON Paleontological Consulting Ltd. in 2004 and has been working in paleontology since 1996. He has specialized and worked extensively as a professional paleontological consultant throughout the province of Alberta for the last six years. He maintains paleontological permit-holding status throughout western and northern Canada. During his career, he has successfully worked with a diverse range of clients and stakeholders (including construction, petroleum, and large-scale mining industries, academic communities, provincial and federal governments, and landowners) while maintaining the highest standards in client care, research, report writing, and health and safety.
Since founding AEON, Michael has designed, implemented, and overseen all aspects of paleontological project management and independently assessed, written, and submitted hundreds of reports. These reports include overviews, impact assessments, in-field monitoring activities, post-impact assessments, and final reports for various research, oil & gas, mining, construction, and development projects. He has also enjoyed the opportunity to collect, prepare, identify, and catalogue fossil specimens from provincial and international localities and to use his diverse and award-winning teaching and presentation skills at the university level in education and administrative roles.
Natalia Riley, Office Manager
B.Sc. (Environmental Biology), University of Alberta
B.Ed., Distinction (Biological Sciences/Physical Sciences), University of Alberta
Natalia Riley has been AEON’s Office Manager since 2004. Her role is to assist in all aspects of paleontological historic resources report preparation and leading health and safety administration/development.
Natalia studied paleontology during her B.Sc., successfully completing an undergraduate thesis on Pliocene pine cones from the Yukon. She has provided assistance on a wide variety of paleontological field and assessment work throughout Alberta. She has also worked in an ecological capacity in consulting, government, and NGO environments performing surveying, reporting, public and school outreach programs. Other projects have included teaching, working as an interpreter and as a writer.
Georgia Hoffman, Affiliate
P. Geol., APPEGA
Master of Science (Biological Sciences), University of Alberta
B.A. (Geology), University of Pennsylvania
Georgia Hoffman began her paleontology career at the University of Pennsylvania in 1968 as an assistant curator of the geology department’s collections, and participated in fossil collecting at sites in Pennsylvania and New Mexico. Her interest in paleontology continued to grow during her career as an industrial geologist, leading to a Master’s thesis from the University of Alberta on Tertiary fossils from central Alberta. As a professional paleontological consultant, Georgia has wide-ranging experience in preparing paleontological reports, field surveys, impact assessments, and monitoring programs for the oil and gas and construction industries throughout Alberta. She continues to hold Permits to Excavate Palaeontological Resources at several localities in Alberta for research purposes.
As an industrial geologist, she has centered her career on coal and oil sand deposits, but has also included experience with base and precious metal deposits, petroleum and natural gas, and a variety of industrial minerals. Activities have ranged from all aspects of data collection in the field (geological mapping, drilling, geophysical surveys, geotechnical data collection, etc.), to interpretation of the resulting data, deposit modeling, and participation in mining feasibility studies.
