Gisborne woman walks with 100m-year-old fossil

OLD AS THE HILLS: The 100-million-year-old mosasaur bone. Pictures supplied

DISCOVERING a 100 million-year old bone from an extinct marine reptile was the last thing on Gisborne woman Suzanne Orchard’s itinerary while visiting her nephew in Canada.

During her trip at the end of August Ms Orchard, who has a strong interest in fossils and semi-precious stones, went on a tour of the fossil-rich Peace Region, British Columbia, with her nephew Dr Dirk Kotze and his wife Nicky Taylor.

They visited the recently built museum in Tumbler Ridge and went on a guided tour to view dinosaur footprints in sandstone.

The following day in an area outside Tumbler Ridge, while keeping an eye out for interesting rocks, Ms Taylor spotted a bone lying on the lake shore among pebbles.

“I would have thought nothing of it normally,” she said,

“But given our experiences over the previous two days it was of a lot more interest.

“I pointed it out to the other two, and Suzanne picked it up. It was much heavier than we anticipated.”

Something specialMs Orchard said she had a gut feeling it was something special and knew from its weight that it was a fossilised bone.

“We were very excited when we found it. We knew it couldn't be anything else.

“My nephew said I should keep it, but I said we needed to send it to Dr Charles Helm, who had established the museum we visited.”

They took photos and noted the exact location, which were passed on to the Peace Region Palaeontology Research Centre.

PRPRC palaeontologists Dr Richard McCrea and Dr Lisa Buckley examined the specimen in September, identifying it as an upper arm bone belonging to a specimen of marine reptiles known as mosasaurs.

“We are quite interested in this specimen as it may be the first record of its kind from the Peace Region of British Columbia,” Dr McCrea said.

“Mosasaurs are not very closely related to dinosaurs and are, in fact, more closely related to snakes and other squamate (scaled) reptiles.”

Based on where it was found it was likely from the early cretaceous/Albian period, making it 100 million years old, give or take a few million years, he said.

They planned to investigate the site further to see if there were more remains.

“It was a very good find and everyone involved in the discovery should be very proud of themselves for recognising this as a bone of an extinct reptile, but not least for making sure the specimen was delivered to a proper repository where it will be protected and studied.

“Such discoveries emphasise the benefits of keen pairs of eyes, and of reporting these critically important examples of our distant heritage to the scientific experts we are fortunate to have right here in the Peace Region.”

It was the first time Ms Orchard had made such a discovery, but she was now inspired for it not to be the last.

“It has sparked in me an interest in palaeontology.”