A new fossil find may give some the urge to examine their ornamental landscaping rocks a little more closely.
A grounds technician at Olds College recently discovered fossil remains encased in a rock that was moved in a campus landscaping project. The jet black fossil protruding from the rock was photographed and the Royal Tyrrell Museum was notified of the find.
“At first glance we thought it was a dried banana peel,” admitted Leona Megli, grounds technician at Olds College. “At closer glance we realized it was something much more valuable, but the last thing you think you’d find in your job is a 60-million-year-old fossil!”
A senior technician was sent out to investigate and the fossil was brought back to the museum.
The fossil has been identified as a Simoedosaurus, a crocodile-like reptile that lived in fresh water roughly 60 million years ago. The animal belongs to a group of reptiles called champsosaurs, which closely resembled crocodilians and lived alongside the dinosaurs, but survived the mass extinction 65 million years ago.
“This is an exciting find,” said Dr. Donald Brinkman, Director of Preservation and Research at the Royal Tyrrell Museum. “Two kinds of champsosaurs lived during the Palaeocene Epoch in North America; Champsosaurus and Simoedosaurus. Only two specimens of Simoedosaurus have been reported previously in North America; one from Saskatchewan and one from North Dakota. This specimen discovered in Olds is the rare Simoedosaurus.”
Other specimens of Simoedosaurus have been found in Europe, providing evidence there was an interchange between the two continents at some point.
The fossil is currently a priority specimen at the Tyrrell Museum and is currently being prepared.
