1 Fossil Feat
Move over Pacific dogwood and Stellar's jay—make room for a new provincial symbol. A fossilized marine reptile that lived 80 million years ago, when BC was mostly underwater, is now the province's official fossil emblem. The fossilized remains of an elasmosaur were discovered by Mike Trask and his daughter Heather while exploring the shoreline of the Puntledge River in 1988. The 12-metre-long beast (with very sharp teeth) now receives visitors at the Courtenay and District Museum and Palaeontology Centre, where a second specimen, discovered in 2020, is also housed.
An online vote for an official fossil emblem was launched in 2018 by the province and BC Paleontological Alliance. The Puntledge elasmosaur faced some tough competition that included an ancestor of the Pacific salmon and an ancient crab. Deborah Griffiths, executive director at the
