Rare duck-billed dinosaur tracks in Tumbler Ridge help tell story of ancient delta, says earth scientist

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In 1988, earth scientist Guy Plint was conducting sedimentary studies around Tumbler Ridge, B.C., examining 86-million-year-old formations, when, unbeknownst to him, he unearthed duck-billed dinosaur tracks.

Nearly four decades on, the area of northeast B.C. is a UNESCO Global Geopark, famous for its abundance of prehistoric fossils.

Plint has teamed up with a local paleontologist to explore the tracks’ history.

“So far, we’re the most northerly recorded in North America,” Plint told CBC’s Daybreak North.

“I did quite an extensive literature review and the nearest tracks of this age are in southern Montana.”

Plint published new research on the tracks in February, co-authored by Dr. Charles Helm, a local physician and paleontologist.

The two found the fossilized footprints date back to the Coniacian age, during the Late Cretaceous period, roughly 85 to 89 million years ago.

Plint said they represent a shift in dinosaur species after the introduction of flowering plants as a food source.

Ankylosaurs — spiky, armoured dinosaurs — had been the dominate herbivore species in the 10 million years before the Coniacian, Plint said, but duck-billed dinosaurs had taken their place as the most common plant-eater.

A recreation of an ankylosaur skeleton. Plint says the plant-eating armoured dinosaur was the most common herbivore species in the area before duck-billed dinosaurs took their place. — A recreation of an ankylosaur skeleton on display at Tumbler Ridge museum. Plint says the plant-eating armoured dinosaur was the most common herbivore species in the area before duck-billed dinosaurs took their place. (Tom Summer/CBC)

Back then, Tumbler Ridge was the site of a prehistoric delta, a marshy area that bordered an inland sea. That’s the geography Plint was mapping when he visited in 1988.

“So far, these are the only Coniacian age dinosaur tracks known in Canada,” said Plint. “This little area in Tumbler Ridge, where we have a big delta building out into the sea, where we’ve been able to preserve those terrestrial sediments.”

A map of the Western Interior Seaway, which covered much of the prairie provinces. Tumbler Ridge was once the coastline for this shallow inland sea, an ancient delta rich with prehistoric life. — A map of the Western Interior Seaway, which covered much of the prairie provinces. Tumbler Ridge was once part of the coastline for this shallow inland sea, with the tracks originating from the Marshybank delta. (Guy Plint/base map adapted from from R. Blakey, cpgeosystems.com)

According to their research paper, five sites were explored in 2022, 2023 and 2025, with five individual tracks recovered and curated as part of the Tumbler Ridge Museum’s collection.

“These rocks offer a rare glimpse of what must once have been a thriving community of dinosaurs,” states the paper.

Eamon Drysdale, the museum’s resident paleontologist and curator, says they’ve been storing the tracks Plint and Helm found to keep them safe from damage.

“We do see this sort of transition between what we would describe as the early and late Cretaceous period, where we see this turnover of dinosaur species, certain species go extinct and other groups move in to take their place,” he said of the tracks.

He said there isn’t a large body fossil record for the transition period between different dinosaur species during that time.

“Any tracks or anything that we can use to identify these groups that were around in this period are helpful for our understanding of what’s going on in the evolution of dinosaurs at this time.”

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