A fossil discovered on Vancouver Island in 1988 appeared like a typical lengthy‑necked marine reptile, but each knowledgeable who studied Traskasaura sandrae left with new questions.
Scientists have now confirmed that the 39‑foot creature, which lived about 85 million years in the past, represents a wholly new species with a searching type by no means earlier than documented in its household.
“It has a really odd mixture of primitive and derived traits,” mentioned Professor F. Robin O’Keefe of Marshall College, whose group named the predator Traskasaura sandrae. He led the workforce that solved the puzzle.
Digging up Traskasaura sandrae
The primary bones got here from the Haslam Formation, a shale layer laid down when shallow seas coated what’s now British Columbia.
Group volunteers spent three summers liberating the skeleton, which included greater than fifty tightly linked neck vertebrae.
Further materials surfaced throughout freeway development and a separate riverbank dig, bringing the full to a few people.
Collectively they revealed a full neck, torso, limbs, and the crushing enamel that tipped researchers off to an uncommon feeding technique.
Neck was constructed for ambush
Most elasmosaurs relied on sideways sweeps to seize fish, however the workforce seen that the neck joints of Traskasaura sandrae permit clean downward flexion.
That vary, paired with strong shoulder muscle tissues, helps the concept the reptile hovered above prey earlier than plunging like a heron.
Every cervical rib factors barely ahead, a characteristic seen solely in a handful of southern-hemisphere kin. The ahead slant stiffened the neck throughout a speedy dive, stopping whiplash whereas the pinnacle shot towards a goal beneath.
Clues within the shoulders and enamel
The glenoid cavity, the place the humerus meets the physique, faces partly downward as a substitute of purely sideways. That tilt aimed the paddles to push water straight again and down, giving the animal a fast vertical burst.
“Its enamel have been very best for crushing,” defined O’Keefe. One preserved crown nonetheless holds fragments of damaged shell.
Heavy conical enamel, spherical in cross‑part and ringed by deep grooves, counsel a food regimen of shelled ammonites frequent in the identical rocks.
Life within the late Cretaceous pacific
Throughout the Late Cretaceous, Vancouver Island sat across the latitude of current‑day Oregon, edged by heat fore‑arc basins teeming with mollusks and early sharks.
Ammonite fossils from the Pachydiscus group dominate these beds, matching the menu implied by the reptile’s dentition.
The ocean additionally hosted glossy mosasaurs and blade‑toothed birds, but Traskasaura crammed a separate area of interest: the gradual‑movement stalker that attacked from above.
Its 12‑foot paddles produced brief bursts somewhat than lengthy chases, conserving vitality in nutrient‑wealthy however cooler northern waters.
Rewriting the plesiosaur household tree
Though categorised as a plesiosaur, the newcomer sits close to the bottom of the elasmosaur department. The phylogenetic work by O’Keefe and colleagues reveals it cut up early from southern cousins comparable to Aristonectes but later developed related shoulder joints, an instance of convergent evolution.
That discovering warns towards sorting species by one standout trait. Neck size alone as soon as grouped practically each lengthy‑necked reptile collectively, however limb and girdle particulars inform a extra nuanced story about how totally different lineages hunted and swam.
Traskasaura sandrae anatomy
The primary fossil puzzled paleontologists as a result of it blended options often discovered in several branches of the plesiosaur household.
Its cranium and enamel matched primitive species, however its shoulders and forelimbs appeared like extra specialised animals from the southern hemisphere.
Researchers initially hesitated to name it a brand new species as a result of lots of the bones have been fragmented or eroded. It wasn’t till a second, better-preserved skeleton was uncovered that scientists may confidently establish the creature’s distinctive traits and ensure its id.
What the discover means at present
The Courtenay and District Museum now shows the most effective skeleton, giving British Columbia a provincial fossil with unmistakable native taste.
College teams can stand beside vertebrae longer than their arms and picture a reptile that prowled the identical coastal waters the place orcas swim.
“Our new analysis lastly solves this thriller,” added O’Keefe.
Past regional delight, the examine highlights how group collectors, cautious curation, and fashionable scans can unlock a long time‑outdated mysteries. The creature’s hybrid anatomy will hold fueling debates about perform and evolution for years.
How Traskasaura sandrae obtained its identify
The genus identify Traskasaura honors Michael and Heather Trask, the father-daughter workforce who discovered the unique fossil alongside the Puntledge River in 1988. The identify combines their surname with the Greek phrase sauros, that means lizard.
The species identify sandrae was chosen in reminiscence of Sandra Lee O’Keefe, a Pacific Northwest native and advocate for breast most cancers consciousness.
This tribute mirrors the legacy of Elizabeth Nicholls, a paleontologist who helped establish the fossils in 2002.
The examine is printed within the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology.
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