Between 245 and 66 million years ago, dinosaurs roamed our earth during a time period known as the Mesozoic Era.

Millions of years later, we are in the Holocene Epoch of the Cenozoic Era (meaning the Age of the Mammals, versus the Age of the Reptiles that characterized the Mesozoic).

That means that we are treading the same ground where the dinosaurs once walked, following in their footsteps.

This is something that really hits home whenever new evidence of dinosaur life is uncovered – and new findings in British Colombia, Canada have drastically changed locals’ perceptions of the dinosaurs that once lived in the lands they now inhabit.

Dinosaurs are known to have roamed North America throughout the Cretaceous Period (one of three periods of the Mesozoic Era).

But the discovery of three-toed dinosaur footprints in sites at Tumbler Ridge, BC, and northwestern Alberta have set the paleontology community ablaze, thanks to their attribution to a type of ankylosaurs that hadn’t previously been identified in the region.

One of the joys of discovering a previously unknown dinosaur (part of the species group ankylosaurid ankylosaur) is being able to name it. The team in question – comprising experts from the Royal BC Museum and Tumbler Ridge Museum – opted for Ruopodosaurus clava, with the meaning of the title explained in a statement:

“It means ‘the tumbled-down lizard with a club/mace,’ referencing both the mountainous location in which these tracks were discovered and the distinctive tail clubs of these dinosaurs.”

Though their four-toed, flexible-tailed friends, the Nodosaurid ankylosaurs, are known to have traversed North America, ankylosaurid ankylosaurs – which have three toes and a club-like tail – have only now been acknowledged here for the first time.

And given that these footprints are believed to date back to the middle of the Cretaceous period, about 100 to 94 million years ago, this discovery has rewritten previous understanding of the timelines of ankylosaurids in North America. Until now, no evidence of the dinosaurs has been found from the period spanning 100 to 84 million years ago.

Now though, as explained in a recent article published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, we know that ankylosaurs roamed North America throughout this time period – they just looked a little different to what we expected.

As Dr. Victoria Arbour explained in the statement, the curator of palaeontology at the Royal BC Museum, these three-toed footprints tell us a lot about the dinosaurs that once stepped through the UNESCO site of Tumbler Ridge:

“While we don’t know exactly what the dinosaur that made Ruopodosaurus footprints looked like, we know that it would have been about 5-6 metres long, spiky and armoured, and with a stiff tail or a full tail club. Ankylosaurs are my favourite group of dinosaurs to work on, so being able to identify new examples of these dinosaurs in British Columbia is really exciting for me.”

And the crossover with nodosaurids shows that both types of ankylosaurs which called North America home lived in the area at the same time, truly highlighting Canada as the home of this species of dinosaur, as Dr. Charles Helm, scientific advisor at the Tumbler Ridge Museum, continued:

“Ever since two young boys discovered an ankylosaur trackway close to Tumbler Ridge in the year 2000, ankylosaurs and Tumbler Ridge have been synonymous. It is really exciting to now know through this research that there are two types of ankylosaurs that called this region home, and that Ruopodosaurus has only been identified in this part of Canada.”

Given the span and wilderness of the Canadian Rockies, we can only wonder what other prehistoric secrets might be nestled within.

If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read a story that reveals Earth’s priciest precious metal isn’t gold or platinum and costs over $10,000 an ounce!