...ABOUT SEE.

SHE DROVE PAST THE OBSCURE VILLAGES OF WONOWON AND PINK MOUNTAIN ON THE ALASKA HIGHWAY, AND THEN FOLLOWED GRAVEL SIDE ROADS BULLDOZED BY THOSE LOOKING FOR NATURAL GAS AMID THE BLACK SPRUCE OF THE EASTERN ROCKIES. THERE WAS BEAR SCAT ON THE SEISMIC LINES 180 KILOMETRES NORTHWEST OF FORT ST. JOHN THAT DAY, AND SWARMS OF MOSQUITOES--NOTHING NEW TO A FIELD PALEONTOLOGIST FAMILIAR WITH THE HAZARDS OF LOOKING FOR FOSSILS IN BRITISH COLUMBIA. ACCORDING TO THE DIRECTIONS, UP AHEAD--NEAR THE POINT WHERE CHICKEN CREEK HIT THE SIKANNI CHIEF RIVER--WERE THE PRESERVED BONES OF A MONSTROUS PREHISTORIC ANIMAL, LYING EXPOSED ON THE RIVERBANK, SLOWLY ERODING AWAY.

THE RIVER WAS LOW, THE RIVERSIDE ROCKS EXPOSED, AND--NICHOLLS REALIZED AS SHE WALKED--THE LIMESTONE MATRIX UNDERFOOT WAS FULL OF SCATTERED FOSSILS. THERE WERE CLAMS, SPIRALLING AMMONITES, AND--HERE AND THERE--DISARTICULATED FRAGMENTS OF MARINE REPTILES PROTRUDING FROM THE ERODED ROCK. SHE RECOGNIZED THESE IMMEDIATELY AS BELONGING TO THE ICHTHYOSAUR FAMILY, A GROUP OF PREDATORS THAT DOMINATED THE OCEANS 245 TO 90 MILLION YEARS AGO. SHE HAD, IN FACT, JUST DISINTERRED TWO SMALL ICHTHYOSAURS FROM THE HEADWATERS OF CHICKEN CREEK IN THE MUSKWA RANGE THAT LOOMED DIRECTLY ABOVE THE SITE.

As one of the world's leading experts on ancient Triassic marine life, Nicholls knows the reptile well. Sleek, dolphin-like, with strange beaked jaws, some species were a half-metre or so long. The big ichthyosaurs grew to five, even 10 metres. Their fossilized remains are easy to discern by their perfectly round vertebrae, most the size of big Lifesaver candies, or, in larger specimens, 10-centimetre doughnuts.

Suddenly, as Nicholls walked across the shelving bedrock, she saw it. Arcing out of the undercut bank, right beside the whitewater river, was a distinctive row of round, preserved vertebrae. Radiating away from this short section of backbone was an array of skeletal ribs. All the bones were black--mineralized by the limestone's sulphur-rich chemicals.

"Look at the size of...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



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