Denman Island Fossil Tail Confirms Pacific Coast Ornithomimosaurs Roamed Western North America
Paleontologists on Denman Island, off British Columbia, recovered a tail vertebra from an 80–75 million-year-old ornithomimosaur, the second dinosaur skeletal material found in the Nanaimo Group and the first from Canadian outcrops. The fossil suggests bird-like, ostrich‑like dinosaurs inhabited the ancient Pacific coastline and may have reached Denman Island via coastal currents, shoreline transport, or drifting carcasses. Dating to the Campanian, the find informs on the latitudinal distribution of Late Cretaceous dinosaurs along western North America and raises questions about coastal biogeography; the study was published in FACETS by Evans and colleagues.
