Royal Saskatchewan Museum: Research: Earth Sciences Unit: Current Research: Herschel Bone Bed

Earth Sciences Unit: Current Research:
Herschel Bone Bed

Research and collecting initiatives by the RSM in the late 1980s revealed a nearly complete skeleton of a marine reptile that lived in the ancient seas some 75 million years ago. The site is near the village of Herschel, Saskatchewan. The skeleton, a short-necked plesiosaur, was later determined by the University of Calgary to be Dolichoryhnchops herschelensis, a new species. As evidenced by the fossils and sediments, this site illustrates a near shore setting of the western interior seaway, a body of water that at times stretched from the Arctic to the southern United States.

Since this discovery, a nearby site of approximately the same age has produced additional fossils, but instead of a single skeleton, it appears to be a mass accumulation of bones of many species of sea-going animals. For the past several years the RSM has collected over 1400 individual bones of several species of fish, short and long-necked plesiosaurs, marine "lizard-like" reptiles called mosasaurs, and teeth of sharks.

Herschel site, overview of quarry
Herschel site, an overview of the quarry.

A bone bed can reveal much more about a specific point in the geological past than a single skeleton because representatives of more of the fauna are preserved in this moment of sediment deposition. Put another way, a bone bed shows a more vivid picture of life in the past, based on bits and pieces of the entire fauna, than a single skeleton can. This is the first record of a bone bed from the Late Cretaceous marine deposits of North America. Being a near-shore site where multiple water currents may have been at play, the exact cause of the deposition of a bone bed at one site, and a skeleton at another is still uncertain. We hope to attract a sedimentologist to make a more informed examination.

Ribs, and paddle bones of marine reptiles from the Herschel site.

shark tooth
One of the hundreds of shark teeth found.

Sorting and preparation of this collection will take several years. As this process develops, specific identification of the species will then be possible, revealing the diversity of life from this area, so many millions of years ago.

For further information contact the Curator of Earth Sciences

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