‘Remarkable’ fossil footprint discovered on PEI is nearly 290 million years old
About 290 million years ago, a very large reptile – possibly a pareiasaur – roamed the shores of Hillsborough Bay in PEI, and left a footprint for an islander to discover all these years later.
The “remarkable” fossil footprint is 25 centimeters wide and was found by North Rustico resident Patrick Brunet.
A news release from the PEI Museum and Heritage Foundation says the footprint may have been made by a pareiasaur, a “heavily built, plant-eater with a lumpy skull that could have weighed up to a ton.”
That’s over 2,200 pounds.
a big step towards the past
In fact, per the release, periasaurs were the largest animals to roam the equatorial regions of Pangea at the time. At the time, the world was connected into a single continent, and PEI was right near the center.
This was the time known as the Permian period, millions of years before dinosaurs roamed the Earth.
The discovery of the footprint adds to a growing collection of fossils of reptiles and amphibians that once roamed the province millions of years ago, the foundation said in the release.
And it may be the oldest known example of this type of fossil footprint ever discovered.
Footsteps is definitely the greatest brunette, a self-taught scientist, has ever met.
“I knew right away that it really came from a big animal, and that was really important,” he was quoted as saying in the release.
Where does the footprint lead?
The next steps after the discovery include confirming whether it was indeed a periasaur that made the footprint.
Brunet will be part of a team of international scientists who will work together on that investigation. The work will be led by Dr. John Calder, principal investigator and advisor to the PEI Museum and Heritage Foundation.
Calder is quoted in the release as saying, “This one footprint is a mind-blower both in its sheer size and the fact that at this time, in the early Permian, nothing like it is known.”
“PEI will soon be viewed as one of the most important sites for fossil footprints of life on land during this unique time in Earth’s history.”
In 1845 a farmer was digging a well and found PEI’s first fossil. We learn a little more from geologist Laura McNeil about the creature that called this area home 300 million years ago.
The foundation said Prince Edward Island now ranks with world-renowned sites in the U.S. and Europe for Permian period discoveries, and the island’s red rocks hold the best record in Canada for that era.
When the study is complete, the fossils found will be returned to the island to be added to the Brunet Provincial Collection.
