Parks Canada and the Royal Saskatchewan Museum hosted their annual Fossil Fever in August in Grasslands National Park, a dig that includes paleontologists and the public. This year a rare thoracosaurus tooth was the highlight of the dig, uncovering new history in Saskatchewan. This is the third thoracosaurus tooth to be found in the province, forming a pattern.
Kaitlin Lindblad, a University of Regina PhD student, who has been studying crocodile fossils for five years now, was thrilled with the discovery.
“When the tooth this year popped out, I basically did like a happy dance around the quarry and started running around in circles. So needless to say, I was pretty ecstatic and pretty excited and honestly couldn’t believe that there was still more to find out there. And it also raises the question, okay, like what else are we going to find in future fossil fevers in future years?”
This is the third thoracosaurus tooth to be found in the Grasslands National Park, one in 2016, and the other a year prior. The thoracosaurus is already a rare animal but before these last teeth were discovered the idea that they might have lived here wasn’t realistic.
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Kaitlin Lindblad’s thesis revolves around paleontology in southeast Saskatchewan, is a pioneer in this research. According to her, the Frenchman formation in Saskatchewan and the Hell Creek formation are quite popular.
“It’s a really well known formation, very well studied, very well searched, so to being able to help find a new animal. It’s a little bit intimidating, but it’s also super cool that I can be contributing to this research.”
The reason this find is so unique is because the thoracosaurus is more of a marine animal, so to find these fossils in Grasslands National Park is extremely rare and it opens up a whole new world of mystery in paleontology.
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