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Jaw Of A Flying Reptile Found Inside A Rock Off The Coast Of B.C.
2011/01/11 | Marten Youssef, The Canadian Press
An extremely rare fossil discovered on British Columbia's Hornby Island belongs to a flying reptile, according to a new study published in the Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences.
The discovery marks the first pterosaur found in British Columbia, and the first istiodactylid from Canada.
"What we found is a little rock that got broken in half and had a piece of a jaw in it. For a long time we thought this piece of a jaw was actually a dinosaur, but it turned out it actually belongs to a flying reptile," said Victoria Arbour, a University of Alberta paleontologist and the author of the report, along with her supervisor Philip Currie.
Pterosaur literally translates to "winged lizard" in Greek.
The fossil was found inside a fist-sized rock and Arbour was able to trace it to a flying reptile that had a three-metre wing span.
"The head would have been very long with a very long snout ... and we think that maybe he would have been a good predator so he probably would have eaten small mammals or lizards or fish or maybe even small dinosaurs," said Arbour, a native of Nova Scotia.
Unlike the badlands of Alberta, where archeologists regularly discover fossils, they are less common on B.C. shores, Arbour said.
"Lots of people are out there looking for these fossils but it's not very often that we find something that lived on land. They find lots of marine animals like shells or crabs but not usually bones of an animal that lived on land," said Arbour, a 27-year-old PhD student.
The rock was found several years ago by an avid fossil collector, Graham Beard, who runs the Vancouver Island Paleontological Museum. Beard was certain the fossil belonged to a dinosaur, Arbour said, and he asked Currie to investigate.
Arbour linked the fossil to the flying reptile after reading a paper on a Chinese pterosaur that shared the same teeth pattern. The reptile is said to have lived during the late Cretaceous period nearly 70 million years ago.
"He's got these little teeth at the end of a long snout so he may have been good at picking meat off of carcasses," Arbour said.
Arbour named the flying reptile Gwawinapterus Beardi after Beard.
Some of you Canadians may already have read this, but I found it very interesting, & wanted to share with the world! Joan
date: 8/24/11
2011/01/11 | Marten Youssef, The Canadian Press
An extremely rare fossil discovered on British Columbia's Hornby Island belongs to a flying reptile, according to a new study published in the Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences.
The discovery marks the first pterosaur found in British Columbia, and the first istiodactylid from Canada.
"What we found is a little rock that got broken in half and had a piece of a jaw in it. For a long time we thought this piece of a jaw was actually a dinosaur, but it turned out it actually belongs to a flying reptile," said Victoria Arbour, a University of Alberta paleontologist and the author of the report, along with her supervisor Philip Currie.
Pterosaur literally translates to "winged lizard" in Greek.
The fossil was found inside a fist-sized rock and Arbour was able to trace it to a flying reptile that had a three-metre wing span.
"The head would have been very long with a very long snout ... and we think that maybe he would have been a good predator so he probably would have eaten small mammals or lizards or fish or maybe even small dinosaurs," said Arbour, a native of Nova Scotia.
Unlike the badlands of Alberta, where archeologists regularly discover fossils, they are less common on B.C. shores, Arbour said.
"Lots of people are out there looking for these fossils but it's not very often that we find something that lived on land. They find lots of marine animals like shells or crabs but not usually bones of an animal that lived on land," said Arbour, a 27-year-old PhD student.
The rock was found several years ago by an avid fossil collector, Graham Beard, who runs the Vancouver Island Paleontological Museum. Beard was certain the fossil belonged to a dinosaur, Arbour said, and he asked Currie to investigate.
Arbour linked the fossil to the flying reptile after reading a paper on a Chinese pterosaur that shared the same teeth pattern. The reptile is said to have lived during the late Cretaceous period nearly 70 million years ago.
"He's got these little teeth at the end of a long snout so he may have been good at picking meat off of carcasses," Arbour said.
Arbour named the flying reptile Gwawinapterus Beardi after Beard.
Some of you Canadians may already have read this, but I found it very interesting, & wanted to share with the world! Joan
date: 8/24/11
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