Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-x5gtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-28T20:02:12.772Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The hunt for marine reptile fossils on western Ellesmere Island

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2009

Randall J. Osczevski
Randall J. Osczevski
Affiliation:
Protective Sciences Division, Defence Research Establishment Ottawa, Ottawa, OntarioCanada, K1A 0Z4
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

An expedition of the Canada/China Dinosaur Project collected several large marine-reptile fossils on western Ellesmere Island in the summer of 1989. They were led to the area by a 1939 report that a large fossil skeleton had been seen north of Trold Fiord by a member of a Royal Canadian Mounted Police patrol in 1926. This paper examines the events of the original discovery and an unsuccessful attempt by David Haig-Thomas to locate the fossils in 1937–38. Haig-Thomas had visited the area in 1935 as a member of the Oxford University Ellesmere Land Expedition. His party had reached a fiord variously identified as Trold Fiord or Vendomc Fiord, but a study of his probable route suggests that it was neither. This inaccurate identification misled Haig-Thomas' later search. In 1989, pieces of fossil bone from a large marine reptile were collected at a site compatible with the 1939 description.

Type
Articles
Information
Polar Record , Volume 28 , Issue 165 , April 1992 , pp. 105 - 112
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anstead, E. 1928. RCMP Patrol Report, Bache Detachment. Patrol on West Coast of Ellesmere Island, 1928. Public Archives Canada, RG 18 Vol 3013: 20–26.Google Scholar
Balkwill, H. R. 1983. Geology of Amund Ringnes, Cornwall, and Haig-Thomas islands, District of Franklin. Geological Survey of Canada Memoir 390.Google Scholar
Caulkin, T. B. 1939. Letter to S. T. Wood, the Commissioner of the RCMP, dated 30 September 1939, in the RCMP file on the Haig-Thomas expedition. Public Archives Canada RG 18, Accession 85–86/48, box 33, file 804–16: 55.Google Scholar
Haig-Thomas, D. 1937. Acknowledgement of receipt of explorer's permit (no. 220) and pledge, dated 21 July 1937. Public Archives Canada RG 18, Accession 85–86/48, box 33, file 804–16: 32.Google Scholar
Haig-Thomas, D. 1939. Tracks in the snow. New York, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Haig-Thomas, D. 1940. Expedition to EUesmere Island, 1937–38. Geographical Journal 95: 265–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harington, C. R.. 1983. H. W. Stallworthy (1895–1976). Arctic 36: 300–01.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harington, C. R. 1989. Nookapingwa (1893–1956). Arctic 42: 163–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Humphreys, N. 1936. Ellesmere Land and Grinnell Land. Oxford University Ellesmere Land Expedition, I. Geographical Journal 87: 386–410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Humphreys, N. 1937. A note on the Oxford University Ellesmere Land Expedition, 1934. Geographical Journal 89: 254.Google Scholar
Joy, A. H. 1926. R.C.M.P. Patrol Report, Craig Harbour detachment. Patrol to Grethasoer Bay Fiord and Axel Heiberg Island. Public Archives Canada RG 18, box 21, Accn 83–84/068, file G 567–25.Google Scholar
Martin, D.J. 1939. Letterto Supt. Caulkin, 25 August 1939. Public Archives Canada RG 18, Accession 85–86/48, box 33, file 804–16.Google Scholar
Morrison, W. R. 1985. Showing the flag. Vancouver, University of British Columbia Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nookapianguaq. 1939. Swom deposition, 3 August 1939. Public Archives Canada RG 18, Accession 85–86/48, box 33, file 804–16:53. (Map showing route taken with Haig-Thomas, Public Archives Canada RG 85, file 829, part 1.)Google Scholar
Osczevski, R. J. 1991. A high Arctic summer expedition. Defence Research Establishment Ottawa, Report 1068.Google Scholar
Rasmussen, K. 1930. Letter to Department of the Interior, Canada, dated 16 July 1930. National Archives Canada, RG 85, Vol 812, File 6887.Google Scholar
Russell, D. A. 1990. Mesozoic vertebrates of Arctic Canada. In: Harington, C. R. (editor). Canada's missing dimension; science and history in the Canadian Arctic islands. Ottawa, Canadian Museum of Nature, 81–90.Google Scholar
Shackleton, E. 1936. Arctic journeys: the story of the Oxford University Ellesmere Land Expedition 1934–35. New York, Toronto, Farrar & Rinehart.Google Scholar
Stallworthy, H. W. 1935. RCMP report, Oxford University Ellesmere Land Expedition. Shackleton Expedition. Public Archives Canada, RG 18, box 34, Accession 85–86/48, file 804–44 (1940).Google Scholar
Stallworthy, H. W. 1937. Expedition of Mr. Haig-Thomasto Ellesmere Land – 1938. Dated 24 March 1937. Public Archives Canada RG 18, Accession 85–86/48, box 33, file 804–16: 15–17.Google Scholar
Sverdrup, O. N. 1904. New land; four years in the Arctic regions. London, New York, Longmans, Green & Co.Google Scholar
Vibe, C. 1948. Langthen og Nordpa. Copenhagen, Gyldendal. Reviewed by Dunbar, M. J., Arctic 2: 60.Google Scholar