The Driftwood Canyon fossil beds are best known for the abundant and well-preserved insect and fish fossils (
Amia,
Amyzon, and
Eosalmo). The insects are particularly diverse and well preserved, and include
water striders (
Gerridae),
aphids (
Aphididae),
leaf hoppers (
Cicadellidae), green lacewings (
Neuroptera),
spittle bugs (
Cercopidae),
march flies (
Bibionidae), scorpionflies (
Mecoptera),
fungus gnats (
Mycetophilidae), snout
beetles (
Curculionidae), and
ichneumon wasps. A fossil species of green lacewing (
Neuroptera,
Chrysopidae) was in 2013 named
Pseudochrysopa harveyi to honour the founder of the park, Gordon Harvey. Fossil feathers are sometimes found and rare rodent bones are sometimes found in fish
coprolites. Most recently, fossil palm beetles (
Bruchidae) were described from the beds, confirming the presence of palms (
Arecaceae) in the local environment in the early Eocene. Fossils of plant remains are rare, but include up to 29
genera of plants. Rare flowers and the seeds of flowering plants have been collected, including
Ulmus,
Florissantia, and
Dipteronia, a genus of trees related to maples (
Acer. spp.) that today grows in eastern Asia. A fossil fern described from Driftwood Canyon is likely a Beech fern (
Phegopteris connectilis group), a fern found in temperate climates across the Northern Hemisphere. Initial attempts at
radiometric dating of the Driftwood Creek beds were unsuccessful, however a volcanic ash exposed in the lake shale beds was
radiometrically dated at 51.77 ± 0.34 million years ago. Bird feathers are infrequently collected from the shales; however, 2 bird body fossils have been found. In 1968 a bird body fossil was collected by Pat Petley of
Kamloops and donated in 2000 to the
Thompson Rivers University (TRU) paleontology collections and is on display at
Thompson Rivers University. A fossil bird complete with feathers collected from Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park in 1970 by German visitors Margret and Albrecht Klöckner, was repatriated to British Columbia and donated to the Royal British Columbia Museum/Victoria some 38 years later. Both bird fossils were described and identified in 2019 as a
coliiform bird and a member of the
Songziidae respectively. In 2014 two fossil
mammal jaws were reported from the Park, identifying an early
tapir relative (cf.
Heptodon) and
hedgehog relative named
Silvacola acares (which means small forest dweller), the first Eocene North American records of these animals outside of
Ellesmere Island in the
Canadian Arctic or
Colorado and
Wyoming. Small collections of fossils are housed in the Bulkley Valley Museum in Smithers and by the
BC Parks office in Smithers, the
Royal BC Museum in Victoria BC, the Royal Ontario Museum (
ROM), Canadian Museum of Nature (
CMN), the
Burke Museum of Natural History & Culture in
Seattle WA, and university collections. Significant collections of fossils from Driftwood Canyon are in private ownership. == Conservation ==