Before British Columbia fossil hunter Mike Trask died last week, he knew that recognition of his biggest discovery would live on.
Now it has been confirmed that the ferocious-looking marine reptile he found with his then 12-year-old daughter on Vancouver Island 37 years ago is a new species—and an entirely new genus.
Trask died on May 15, eight days before the publication of the peer-reviewed findings in the Journal of Systematic Paleontology about Traskasaura sandrae, named in his honour.
Heather Trask, who was with her father when they found the fossilized remains of the 12-metre long animal along the Puntledge River, died in 2023….