In 1988, Guy Plint, an earth scientist, discovered duck-billed dinosaur tracks while studying sedimentary formations in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., dating back 86 million years. This region in northeast B.C. has since become a UNESCO Global Geopark, renowned for its wealth of ancient fossils. Collaborating with a local paleontologist, Dr. Charles Helm, Plint delved into the history of these tracks.
Plint revealed that these tracks are the northernmost recorded in North America for their age, with similar tracks found in southern Montana. Their research, published in February, unveiled that the fossilized footprints are from the Coniacian age, a period in the Late Cretaceous era approximately 85 to 89 million years ago.
The study indicated a shift in dinosaur species during this period, with duck-billed dinosaurs replacing ankylosaurs as the prevalent herbivores following the emergence of flowering plants as a food source. Tumbler Ridge, once a prehistoric delta adjacent to an inland sea, preserved these tracks, which are the sole known Coniacian age dinosaur tracks in Canada.
Exploring five sites between 2022 and 2025, Plint and Helm recovered and curated five individual tracks now housed in the Tumbler Ridge Museum. These tracks provide a rare glimpse into a thriving dinosaur community during that era. Eamon Drysdale, the museum’s resident paleontologist, emphasized the importance of such findings in understanding the evolutionary dynamics of dinosaurs during this transitional period.
The museum has taken measures to preserve these significant tracks to prevent damage. Drysdale highlighted the significance of track records in elucidating the turnover of dinosaur species during the Cretaceous period, especially in the absence of a substantial body fossil record for the transitional phases. This ongoing research sheds light on the evolution of dinosaurs and their ecological adaptations in ancient times.
