Ferocious-looking B.C. marine reptile fossil confirmed as new genus
Global News
Mike Trask died on May 15, eight days before the publication of the peer-reviewed findings in the Journal of Systematic Paleontology about Traskasaura sandrae, named in his honour.
Before British Columbia fossil hunter Mike Trask died last week, he knew that recognition of his biggest discovery would live on.
Now it has been confirmed that the ferocious-looking marine reptile he found with his then 12-year-old daughter on Vancouver Island 37 years ago is a new species — and an entirely new genus.
Trask died on May 15, eight days before the publication of the peer-reviewed findings in the Journal of Systematic Paleontology about Traskasaura sandrae, named in his honour.
Heather Trask, who was with her father when they found the fossilized remains of the 12-metre long animal along the Puntledge River, died in 2023.
“That’s his and his daughter’s legacy,” said Mike Trask’s twin brother, Pat Trask, curator of natural history at the Courtenay Museum and Palaeontology Centre on Vancouver Island, where the fossil and another example of the species are on display.
His voice cracked as he noted: “That’s a big legacy. It’s not his only attribute, but it’s a good one.”
The marine reptile was named British Columbia’s official fossil emblem two years ago. It had previously identified as a type of elasmosaur, a group of plesiosaurs with extremely long necks.
In the findings published Friday, researchers now describe the fossils that date back about 85 million years as the remains of “a very odd new genus” of the plesiosaur family.
