WOLVERINE RIVER DINOSAUR TRACKS

Jen Becker, British Columbia Paleontological Alliance Field Trip

In the summer of 2005, I joined Jen Becker, and fellow delegates from the British Columbia Paleontological Symposium for an impromptu late-night tour of Wolverine River, one of many prolific research sites of Lisa Buckley, a vertebrate paleontologist working in the Tumbler Ridge area of British Columbia.

There are two types of footprints at the Wolverine River Trackside –theropods (at least four different sizes) and ankylosaurs. The prints featured in this photo were laid down by some lumbering ankylosaurs out for a stroll in soft mud. Many of the prints are so shallow that they can only be recognized by the skin impressions pressed into the mud. We'd been up to the fossil sites in the day but wanted to come back in the evening to see them by lamplight. After a lovely dinner, we hiked up to Wolverine in the dark. We filled the tracks with water and lit them with warm yellow lamplight. Some clever soul brought a sound system and played spooky animal calls to add prehistoric ambiance. A truly amazing evening.