EDMONTON — A discovery in Capilano Park has unearthed a fossil first: a fragment of a 72-million-year-old sturgeon, making it the first new species of fossil fish discovered within Edmonton.
Some hikers found what they thought might be a fragment of dinosaur skin in Edmonton’s River Valley in February 2023. They brought it to University of Alberta researchers who identified it as a skull belonging to an ancient sturgeon, estimated to be about two meters long when it was alive. The researchers named the new species Boreiosturion labyrinthicus.
Sturgeons, a group of fish that can be found in North American freshwater environments, still exist and live in the North Saskatchewan River as a protected species. The freshwater Horseshoe Canyon Formation, where Capilano Park now lies, took shape roughly 73 to 72.2 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period.
Fish paleontologist Alison Murray, and co-authors Luke Nelson and Donald Brinkman recently published a study about the find, describing how the fossil fills a gap in what is known about the distribution of sturgeons during the end of the Cretaceous, just before the mass extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs. It also fills a geographic gap between sturgeons found in southern Alberta, Montana and North Dakota, and Alaska and Peace River, Alta. further north.
The study is the first publication for Nelson, who has been fascinated with sturgeons since he was a child and is now working on his master’s degree in paleontology. What Nelson found most interesting about the new sturgeon fossil is the distinct patterns on the back of its skull.
“There are three unique patterns, different from anything previously described from the time period,” he says. “This is from a part of the Cretaceous Period from which we didn’t have any North American sturgeon before.”
Nelson adds it’s important to preserve the current sturgeon in the North Saskatchewan River.
“They’re some of the largest bony fish we have today and have been around since dinosaurs were walking around on land,” he says. “They almost look like dinosaurs, because they’ve got these massive sizes and enormous scales running down their back that make them look kind of wicked.”
The sturgeon skull is now housed in the U of A’s Laboratory for Vertebrate Paleontology, which contains more than 50,000 fossil vertebrates.
More information and a video can be found here. To set up an interview with Luke Nelson or a visit to the Laboratory for Vertebrate Paleontology to get b-roll of the skull, please contact:
Sarah Vernon | University of Alberta communications associate | svernon@ualberta.ca