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Groundbreaking Discovery of Armoured Dinosaur Footprints in Canada
Recent excavations in the Canadian Rockies have led to a remarkable discovery: the first known footprints of armoured dinosaurs equipped with tail clubs. These 100-million-year-old fossilized tracks were unearthed at significant sites in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, and northwestern Alberta.
Ankylosaurs, a group of heavily armoured dinosaurs known for their unique physical features, are divided into two primary categories. The nodosaurids possess flexible tails and four toes, whereas ankylosaurids are characterized by a robust, sledgehammer-like tail club and three toes on their feet.
In a significant departure from the well-documented ankylosaur tracks identified as Tetrapodosaurus borealis, which feature four toes and are widespread across North America, the newly discovered tracks display only three toes. This makes them the first documented ankylosaurid footprints globally. The research team has named this new species Ruopodosaurus clava, which translates to ‘the tumbled-down lizard with a club/mace,’ paying homage to both the mountainous terrain of the discovery site and the unique tail clubs of these dinosaurs.
A team led by Dr. Victoria Arbour, the palaeontology curator at the Royal BC Museum, along with researchers from the Tumbler Ridge Museum and Tumbler Ridge UNESCO Global Geopark, has published their findings in the esteemed Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Dr. Arbour, an expert in ankylosaur studies, expressed her enthusiasm for the discovery: “While we can’t definitively reconstruct the appearance of the dinosaur responsible for the Ruopodosaurus footprints, we estimate it was about 5-6 metres in length, featuring spikes, armor, and likely a rigid tail or a prominent tail club. My passion for studying ankylosaurs makes this identification particularly thrilling.”
Dr. Charles Helm, a scientific advisor at the Tumbler Ridge Museum, has been aware of the presence of several three-toed ankylosaur trackways in the Tumbler Ridge area for years. In 2023, he invited Dr. Arbour to collaborate in analyzing and interpreting these intriguing tracks. Other contributors to this project included Eamon Drysdale, curator at the Tumbler Ridge Museum; Roy Rule, a geoscientist at the UNESCO Global Geopark; and the late Martin Lockley, an expert from the University of Colorado.
The footprints date back to the middle of the Cretaceous period, approximately 100 to 94 million years ago. Notably, no ankylosaurid bones have been found in North America from 100 to 84 million years ago, leading some researchers to speculate that these dinosaurs may have vanished from the region during this timeframe. The discovery of the footprints indicates that tail-clubbed ankylosaurs thrived in North America despite this gap in the fossil record. It also suggests that both main groups of ankylosaurs—nodosaurids and ankylosaurids, including the newly identified three-toed species—coexisted in the same region during this period.
Dr. Helm noted the historical significance of the Tumbler Ridge area, stating, “Since two children discovered an ankylosaur trackway near Tumbler Ridge in 2000, the expectations surrounding ankylosaurs have only grown. It is invigorating to confirm through this research that two types of ankylosaurs inhabited this region and that Ruopodosaurus is unique to this part of Canada.”
Dr. Arbour emphasized the broader implications of the study, asserting, “This research underscores the critical importance of the Peace Region in northeastern British Columbia for understanding the evolution of dinosaurs in North America. There remains a wealth of discoveries waiting to be made.” The identification of Ruopodosaurus adds an exciting chapter to our understanding of the prehistoric life forms that roamed what is now Canada.
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