Picture this: Instead of sweeping canola, wheat, and corn fields as far as the eye can see in Southern Manitoba, the landscape is one of ancient waters teeming with marine life, including squids, vegetation, and large aquatic reptiles. This is what the area looked like during the Cretaceous period. Thanks to a local fossil tour, for the first time in Manitoba’s history, we can add the shark to our image of this region long ago.
A shark tooth from a species that has not yet been documented in Manitoba is the latest exciting discovery for the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre (CFDC) in Morden. Adolfo Cuetara, executive director of the CFDC, says that a community member discovered the history-making specimen.
“It was during our very first dig tour of the season,” he says. “What we do usually for our dig tour is we divide the [tour] into two parts. The first part before lunch is just prospecting the land [and] looking for surface fossils . . . . During the first part, one of the visitors found a shark tooth.”
It did not take long for the CFDC’s paleontologist to realize that specimen is the first of its kind in Manitoba.
“We have a paleontologist [here] with a federal program [who does] research on sharks and fish,” says Cuetara. “He immediately realized that it was a different [kind of] tooth [than we’re used to finding]. Further research is telling us that it belongs to a group of sharks called . . . Carcharhinidae, [or] requiem sharks.”
Cuetara says that while this particular species of shark is not uncommon across the world, the discovery is without precedent here.
“[Carcharhinidae] are found almost all over the world because the oceans are [connected] . . . . In the late Cretaceous [period] 83 million years ago, Manitoba was . . . in the Western Interior Seaway, which was a channel [connecting] Hudson Bay and the Arctic Ocean with the Gulf of Mexico.” he says. “It was a very shallow sea, very warm at that time, so it was not common to find this kind of shark in these . . . waters. It's more common to find them in deeper and colder water, so [this species] is well-known in other parts of the world, but it has never been found [here].”
Cuetara says that finding a shark tooth — because of its distinctive shiny black appearance — is always a treat for diggers, but the rarity of this find enhanced the experience.
“It was really, really exciting,” he says. “The experience was amazing for her. We are really happy that it was found by one of the visitors.”
The next step for the tooth is a close examination.
"The tooth is very resistant material and is very well preserved,” says Cuetara. “We have it in the laboratory right now and we will do further research. We have to make some comparisons with other sharks in other parts of the world to try to figure out what the species is exactly. We can narrow down the family right now, but we need to go further and try to figure out [its species].”
Cuetara says that pinning down the exact traits of the tooth is a project that the centre will undertake with the University of Manitoba.
For now, it’s clear that although the shark tooth is a mighty find, it comes from a relatively small animal.
“It was not a big shark,” says Cuetara. “These kinds of sharks are . . . about 3-4 feet in length. This is not a huge specimen, but it is the average for these kinds of sharks.”
According to Cuetara, visitors to the CFDC have been finding plenty of fossilized material on dig tours lately — each person who goes experiences the rush of uncovering something ancient.
“[Visitors] are constantly finding vertebrates,” he says. “Last week, someone [even] found a part of a squid, so all of them are finding things.”
To learn from the expertise of local paleontologists and participate in uncovering small but important pieces of history, see the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre’s dig tour schedule here.
When it comes to the impact of paleontology on the community, Cuetara says there are many perspectives to it. The first relates to the human experience.
“It gives you perspective to think about how long life has been here and how the landscape was evolving and changing [over] millions of years,” he says. “It's really interesting.”
The wealth of paleontological finds here also attracts the interest of academic institutions. The CFDC boasts the largest marine reptile specimen collection in Canada.
“From a scientific point of view, [paleontology] is putting Morden and the Pembina Valley on the map,” he says. “When you go through some scientific publications in Australia, China, the United States, Argentina, Europe . . . they [reference] the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre’s [collection].”
While the impact of the CFDC is global due to its specimens, the centre also has a beneficial local presence.
“The museum [has economic impact] in the community,” says Cuetara. “We are attracting about 15,000 people annually, and from those 15,000, around 12,000 are coming from outside the community. So that means that there are [that many] people coming to spend the day in the community — they're going for lunch or to the gas stations, and they are spending money.”
Cuetara adds that CFDC is a unique draw to the community because there is nothing like it in the area.
Although the centre's contributions to the discipline of paleontology at large and its economic potential are important, at the end of the day, it all comes down to the dirt — history-making moments, including the recent discovery of the shark tooth, are made possible by a close-knit community unified in the humble act of digging.
“It's really exciting because we are adding new species and we are completing the landscape of animals,” says Cuetara. “It’s really neat.”
To hear Cuetara’s complete interview about the shark tooth, as well as his comments on how the flow of the ancient seaway resulted in high concentrations of fossils in Southern Manitoba and the story of how local mining led to the rise of paleontology in Morden, listen to the two-part interview below.