CANADA: It indeed was a rare find for Stephanie Leco as she is an amateur paleontologist and unearthed a 220 million year-old fossil. Not only for Leco, it is a rare find for paleontologists around the world.
The fossil discovered is a jaw bone of a long-snouted fish previously thought to have been extinct in North America.
She used to dig the backyard of her parents’ home often as a child to find something rare as fossils have always attracted her. This find surely is something big and significant for the budding paleontologist.
Leco said, “The only other evidence of it being in this time period was previously found in China, so this is the first time that it’s being seen in the North America for this time period.”
The fossil about the size of a pinky fingernail was unearthed from the site of what was a lake or pond during the Late Triassic period when the fish were thought to be extinct in North America. Scientists knew closely related fish were present around the world in the Early Triassic period, about 10 million years earlier, but the fossils were found only in China in the Late Triassic, said park paleontologist Bill Parker.
The fossil has been found in Arizona.
Leco was part of the first dig for citizens held last month at the national park near Holbrook that routinely turns up fossils from the dawning age of dinosaurs and has vast expanses of rainbow-colored desert.
Leco, aged 26 now, said she developed an even deeper fascination with paleontology since her discovery and even bought a couple of books on the Triassic period.
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