Geologists unveiled a fossil discovery Tuesday they believe will help resolve a longstanding mystery over whether dinosaurs ever roamed to what is now Canada’s Pacific coast.
The dinosaur tracks and a fossilized turtle shell, estimated to be about 125 million years old, were discovered north of Terrace, British Columbia, by provincial geologists doing a routine survey for energy exploration.
“I was in shock for a couple of days,” said geologist Mike Boddy, who admitted that he first thought the shell was a fossilized fern. The shell led to the discovery of the tracks.
Dinosaur tracks had never been found so far west in Canada. Although large quantities of fossils have been recovered east of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, scientists have speculated a geological feature — a mountain range or an ocean arm — had blocked the dinosaurs’ path.
“Many people have said they just weren’t this far west in British Columbia,” Peter Mustard, a Simon Fraser University professor, told reporters in Victoria where the discovery was announced.
Terrace is a logging community on the Skeena River, about 90 miles (150 kilometers) from the Pacific Ocean and east of the southern tip of the Alaska panhandle.
Mustard said the size of the footprints indicated the dinosaurs were likely raptors, predators that stood taller than a man. The tracks were probably made as the animals walked across soft sand on a river bank or flood plain. They were then covered by layers of sediment and hardened into clearly identifiable three-toed footprints.
Mustard predicted the finding would lead to more discoveries in the region. “There’s an entire world to be seen there,” he said.