COSAM News Articles 2024 09 Palaeontologists make major dinosaur discovery in remote mountains of northern Canada

Palaeontologists make major dinosaur discovery in remote mountains of northern Canada

Published: 09/17/2024

After three years of exploration, a palaeontology team from the Royal British Columbia Museum and Auburn University has uncovered a trove of extraordinary fossils in the rugged terrain of the Skeena Mountains in Spatsizi Plateau Wilderness Provincial Park in British Columbia, Canada.

The fossils, estimated to be about 66 to 68 million years old, include an array of well-preserved remains from various dinosaur species from a geological area known as the Sustut Basin. Among the finds are over 90 fossils, including teeth from a relative of Tyrannosaurus rex, teeth from a relative of Triceratops, bones from at least one large herbivore, and the foot of a small meat-eating dinosaur. Only one species was known from the Sustut Basin previously—Ferrisaurus sustutensis, BC’s first unique dinosaur, making the new discoveries a critical expansion in our understanding of the biodiversity of this ancient ecosystem.

The fossil site, situated at an altitude of 2000 m (~6500 ft), is accessible only by helicopter. Summer snowstorms and a major wildfire have been challenges the team has had to navigate in previous years.

“This site is unlike any other in Canada,” says Dr. Victoria Arbour, curator of palaeontology at the Royal BC Museum and lead researcher on the project. “Not only are we finding fossils in the mountains, but the dinosaurs we are finding were living among the mountains, too, which is really different compared to other fossil sites in North America.”

Determining the full scope of the discovery will require extensive analysis and interpretation to unravel the true extent of what species were discovered. Many of the bones will need to be painstakingly removed from the surrounding concrete-like rock by the museum’s fossil preparator.

“The species we’re finding here are exciting because they represent a part of the ecosystem we rarely get preserved in the fossil record, an intermontane valley. Usually what we find are from low latitudes on the coastal plain, so we’re excited to see if these represent the same species we know from the lowlands or something brand new to science”, says Dr. Thomas Cullen, Assistant Professor in the Department of Geosciences at Auburn University, and long-time collaborator on this BC dinosaurs project.

Over the next few years, the fossils will be analyzed and eventually reported on in peer-reviewed scientific publications. This exciting discovery was made possible in part by funding from the Trebek Initiative, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, BC Parks, and Auburn Univeristy. The full crew included Royal BC Museum curator of palaeontology Dr. Victoria Arbour, Auburn University assistant professor Dr. Thomas Cullen, RBCM palaeontology collections manager and researcher Derek Larson, University of Victoria grad student Teague Dickson, North Carolina State University grad student Emily Cross, and former Royal BC Museum summer intern Brady McBride.

Fossils are protected in British Columbia and the collection of these fossils was made possible by a Park Use Permit from BC Parks. To learn more about the rules around fossil collecting in BC, visit https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/industry/natural-resource-use/fossil-management.