Ice Age relic found by Alberta woman out walking her dogs
A chance discovery by an Edmonton area woman who was walking her dogs has turned out to be a massive fossilized bone that likely belonged to an Ice Age mammoth.
Stacy Long was walking out west of Devon last spring when she came across something jutting out of the river bank. That find has now been confirmed to be a fossil relic from the Ice Age, a potential scapula from an adult mammoth.
"On previous trips, there had been nothing," Long said. "This time, there was stuff coming out of the bank."
At first, she thought it was a large piece of wood. Long says she loves finding and collecting rocks for her garden.
"When I rinsed it off, it didn't look like wood anymore," she added. "So I thought, 'Oh, it might be something cool."
A closeup of the shoulder blade Stacy Long found while walking her dogs west of Devon, Alta. (CTV News Edmonton/Darcy Seaton)
She recalled how her husband was dubious at the time that she found anything exciting.
"I was a humanities teacher, not a science teacher," Long said. "He was just tired of me bringing rocks home for my flower bed."
"He was like, 'It's nothing,' but it ended up being something," she said with a laugh.
BUILDING THE PUZZLE OF ALBERTA'S HISTORY: RAM
She lugged the specimen home and sent a picture to the Royal Alberta Museum. After a series of emails, experts confirmed that Long had found a fossil that was just over a metre long. Long also came across a partial skull believed to be from a Bison antiquus from around the same era.
The pair of fossils Stacy Long found while walking her dogs west of Devon last spring (Supplied).
Katherine Bramble, a RAM paleontologist, said the bone is believed to be a mammoth shoulder blade that is 10,000 to 14,000 years old. It has since been added to the museum's research and reference collection.
"We will be learning more about it from comparing it to other specimens, other mammoth bones, not just from her but elsewhere and that can tell us more about maybe what species it is," Bramble told CTV News Edmonton.
Stacy Long (centre left) poses for a photo with Royal Alberta Museum staff, including paleontologist Katherine Bramble (far left) (Supplied).
What is now Alberta had two kinds of mammoths during the Ice Age, the larger but not as furry Columbian mammoth and the iconic woolly mammoth, Bramble explained.
Mastodons, which are more closely related to modern elephants, also lived in the area.
"It's too early to tell which species it could be," Bramble said.
For her, the find is exciting since mammoth and mastodon fossils are less common in Alberta when compared to dinosaur bones.
"What we have in the collections are teeth or tusk elements," she added. "We have a couple of arm or leg bones, but we don't have as much as we'd like to have."
Fossils, including the remains of plants and animals or traces of their activity, are protected in Alberta by the province's Historical Resources Act.
"By law, you are not allowed to dig for fossils if you find any," Bramble explained. "You need to have a permit for that."
"If you find something on the surface, you are allowed to collect it and take it home. Our preference would be that you get in contact with us and let us know what you found."
Royal Alberta Museum paleontologist Katherine Bramble (CTV News Edmonton/Darcy Seaton).
Locating a different fossil like the one Long came across is helpful in building the puzzle of Alberta's natural history, Bramble said, like providing more details about where mammoths were living.
This spring, the museum plans to send a team to further probe the area where Long located the mammoth specimen in the hopes of finding more fossils.
"It just grows the story that we've been building over time about how Alberta looked in the Ice Age," Bramble said.
With files from CTV News Edmonton's Jeremy Thompson
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'State or state-sponsored actor' believed to be behind B.C. government hacks
The head of British Columbia’s civil service has revealed that a “state or state-sponsored actor” is behind multiple cyber-security incidents against provincial government networks.
Here's how much more Canadian landlords are asking for now, according to a just-released report
A new report says the average asking rent for a home in Canada in April was up 9.3 per cent compared with a year ago, while a slight month-over-month increase was also recorded for the first time since January.
Rare severe solar storm Friday could bring spectacular aurora light show across Canada
A rare and severe solar storm is expected to bring spectacular displays of the northern lights, also known as aurora borealis, across much of Canada and parts of the United States on Friday night.
What is basic income, and how would it impact me?
Parliamentarians are considering a pair of bills aiming to lift people out of poverty through a basic income program, but some fear these types of systems could result in more taxes for Canadians who are already financially struggling.
Canada abstains from Palestinian UN membership vote but supports two-state solution
Canada was one of 25 countries that abstained from a United Nations vote on Palestinian membership that passed with overwhelming support on Friday.
More than half the Canadians once detained in Syrian camps for suspected ISIS family members have returned home
A total of 29 Canadians have been freed from detention camps in northeast Syria and brought back to Canada since human rights advocates began lobbying for their release years ago.
'I may have some nightmares:' Man survives being bitten by 2 sharks in Bahamas
A man who was bitten by two sharks in the Bahamas said Thursday he's 'thankful that I'm here' while sharing his story of survival.
Out-of-control wildfire burning near Fort McMurray
As of 9 a.m. on Friday, the wildfire burning 28 kilometres southwest of the northeastern Alberta city was 25 hectares in size.
Mexico's president accuses press and volunteer searchers for missing people of 'necrophilia'
The administration of Mexico's president has accused the press and volunteer searchers who look for the bodies of missing people of 'necrophilia,' comments that drew criticism this week.