A schoolteacher stirred up the world's paleontologists with her discovery
What wonders does Prince Edward Island hold?
Lisa Cormier was walking along the beach at Cape Egmont Prince Edward Island when she noticed something strange and decided to take a closer look. So the schoolteacher made a major paleontological discovery — a fossil 300 million years old. She says she didn't immediately realize what it was:
"I saw something I thought was a root. But when I looked closely, I realized there were ribs. And then I saw the spine and the skull.
Cormier took a picture of her find and shared it with her family. Her mother-in-law sent the photo to specialists, who immediately contacted Lisa.
One of them, John Calder, a geologist and paleontologist, says the fossil appears to date from the late Carboniferous and early Permian. That's about 300 million years ago. As an expert and author of a book on the geological heritage of Prince Edward Island, he says such finds are extremely rare.
The fossil has not been identified, but experts say it is probably a reptile, or at least a very close relative. Calder says that very few specimens from that period have been found and it may even be a previously unknown species:
"This is the beginning of the evolution of reptiles from amphibians... So, it's going to be a real puzzle. It will probably take a whole year to figure out the nature of this thing."
A team of paleontologists traveled to the excavation site and after a few days of work were able to transport the fossil from its discovery site to a facility in Greenwich for further transfer to the paleontological laboratory.
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