Rare duck-billed dinosaur tracks help reveal ancient delta in Tumbler Ridge

New research is shedding light on rare duckbilled dinosaur tracks found near Tumbler Ridge, B.C., where earth scientist Guy Plint first came across the fossils in 1988 during sediment studies. Plint and paleontologist Dr. Charles Helm say the tracks date to the Coniacian age of the Late Cretaceous, about 85 to 89 million years ago. The footprints are believed to be the most northerly duckbilled dinosaur tracks yet recorded in North America and the only ones of that age known in Canada. The findings help reconstruct what Tumbler Ridge looked like in the distant past, when the area was part of a marshy delta along the Western Interior Seaway. Researchers say the tracks also add evidence of a broader shift in dinosaur communities during that period, as duckbilled dinosaurs became more common while ankylosaurs declined. Five tracks recovered in recent fieldwork have been stored at the Tumbler Ridge Museum for preservation.