The fossilized skull of a marine reptile called an ichthyosaur is now being studied after being found in B.C.’s Kiskatinaw River valley, roughly 52 kilometres south of Fort St. John.
Local resident Kevin Geist and his 11-year old son Andreas discovered the skull two summers ago, spotting a strange black rock along the river’s shoreline in the fossil-rich Peace region.
The Kiskatinaw River has dropped to record lows after four years of drought, which means more rocks are becoming exposed there. In this case, one of those rocks contained a prehistoric skull.
“It wasn’t in the water. And that’s what is making some of these things pop up now, is because unfortunately we’re under a drought situation,” Geist said. “A lot of the rocks are more exposed than they were before.”
In search of 500-million-year-old fossils of marine life
Geist wasn’t sure what the rock was at first, and didn’t think it was that important initially.
After returning to check on the rock this summer, Geist’s sister-in-law Diana Hofmann sent pictures of it to the Tumbler Ridge Museum.
“They showed a lot of interest, so that kind of made it exciting,” added Geist.
It’s since been confirmed as an ichthyosaur by the Tumbler Ridge Museum Foundation.
Ichthyosaurs are not dinosaurs, they are marine reptiles. A cross between a dolphin and a fish, they were fully adapted to an aquatic environment, birthing their offspring in the ocean.
It’s assumed the ichthyosaur died in the Triassic period, explained Eamon Drysdale, the museum’s resident paleontologist.
But Drysdale says that the river valley dates back to the Cretaceous period, a time when ichthyosaurs would have been going extinct, meaning the skull’s location is unusual.
Living in a shallow sea that covered B.C. more than 250 million years ago, the skull was encased in carbonate rock from the Triassic and was most likely pushed by a glacier into the river valley after the formation of the Rocky Mountains.
“It’s been quite a journey for that one,” Drysdale said of the skull.
Fossils in the Peace region of northeast B.C. can date back 500 million years, noted Drysdale, covering a good portion of Earth’s history.
“We’ve got such a diversity of fossils,” he added.
“And for people who are just out in the area looking for things or just wandering around enjoying the frankly, very beautiful environment that we have, it’s interesting that you find specimens and fossils from a variety of different time periods.”
The Peace Region is fossil-rich, home to numerous discoveries — including dinosaur bones, footprints and other prehistoric life.
A UNESCO World Heritage Site in Tumbler Ridge includes exhibits and trails showcasing some of those discoveries.
Drysdale says it’s hard to say if anything else like the ichthyosaur skull is in the valley, due to how it arrived by glacier, but there is a chance low water levels could expose other fossil-bearing rocks.
“We currently haven’t explored much of that area, but it would not surprise me if there was fossil material exposed,” Drysdale said in an email.
To safely secure the skull, it was airlifted by helicopter into the back of a pickup truck, and then driven to the museum.
Other partial ichthyosaur specimens have been recovered in Tumbler Ridge in mountainous areas, but mostly bit and pieces of vertebrae and some skull material, noted Drysdale.
He added that it’s difficult to find a complete specimen, noting the best example from the Peace region is a shonisaurus, another marine reptile from the Triassic. It was removed from the Sikanni Chief River in 2001.
Drysdale says the recovery was a community effort, starting with the Geist family.
“We’re a small local museum. So a lot of our fossil reports, and fossil finds, are from local people,” Drysdale said.
“Everyone was great. We had a great time and we’re super excited to see what this specimen can tell us.”
