Dinosaur Tracks Near Chetwynd Again


The P.R.P.R.C. received reports of a fossil track find near Chetwynd that was found by employees of Canfor while making a road on a mountain side. From viewing the pictures provided by a number of sources it was easy to see that it was a very large track slab (est. weight approx. 11 tons) with remains of two large natural cast theropod trackways running across the surface. P.R.P.R.C. palaeontologist Rich McCrea visited the site with a Canfor employee on November 12th and made a few measurments of the tracks and various trackway features. The slab has since been moved off the site to a safe holding facility.

The tracks are from the Upper Jurassic/Lower Cretaceous (Tithonian/Berriasian) Minnes Group and are among the oldest records of terrestrial vertebrates known from western Canada (~135-140 million year old).

A view of the large track slab

 

A single theropod print that was made in soft sediment, deforming some of the theropod footprint features.