New dinosaur trackway site discovered in Peace region, verified by Royal BC Museum

HUDSON’S HOPE, B.C. — A new dinosaur trackway site has been found in the Peace region.

Local outdoorsman Sheldon Marion announced the discovery of the tracks on the social media pages for his YouTube channel, Buick Outdoors, on August 11th.

“They looked extremely similar to a [previously known] dinosaur trackway site that was nearby,” Marion explained in a podcast discussing the find released August 19th.

“So, what I did was I took a couple of pictures of some of the prints that I found and I sent it off to the Tumbler Ridge Museum, and I waited about a week or two to see if they’d get back to me and they never did.”

Marion went on to reach out to the Royal BC Museum in Victoria, and received an email response within a week from its Curator of Palaeontology, Dr. Victoria Arbour.

“She really wanted to come out and see it,” Marion said. “She wanted a little bit more info, plus they were already planning on a trip to come up north to check out another trackway site that’s really close by to this one.”

After several months of correspondence, Marion met with Arbour and her team earlier this month, so Marion could assist with the team’s fieldwork in the region and so Arbour could see his discovery.

According to Marion, with the help of Arbour’s team, tracks from several different dinosaurs were found, as well as bird tracks and possible mammal tracks.

“As soon as the palaeontologists came down, they basically looked at the one track and went, ‘oh yeah, that’s 100 per cent a dinosaur track,’ and then from there, it just sparked the interest of everybody.”

Marion says he’s always been a “fossil and rock nerd,” and that the experience of having his discovery verified by Arbour and the Royal BC Museum was “absolutely phenomenal.”

Energeticcity.ca contacted the Royal BC Museum for more information on the discovery.

“Once the research is complete on the work being conducted, we will be more than happy to provide updates and discuss the findings,” the museum said in a written response.

“At this time, we are unable to provide detailed comments or updates about the work. To avoid any potential disruption or misinterpretation of the data, the team must protect the ongoing work and ensure accurate results.”