"Older Than Dinosaurs" Rare 300 Million-Year-Old Fossil Discovered While Walking Dog 'Tuk'

Recently, The Washington Post (WP) reported that Lisa Saing Coeur Cormier, a high school teacher in Canada, discovered a rare ancient fossil while walking her dog in Prince Edward Island.
[Photo by Twitter]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Sumi] A Canadian teacher who was walking her dog near her home has become a hot topic after discovering a rare ancient fossil.

According to a recent report by The Washington Post (WP), Lisa Saint Coeur Cormier, a high school teacher in Canada, accidentally found a protruding branch while walking her dog on Prince Edward Island.

Upon closer inspection, the "branch" turned out to be a rib cage. The rib cage is a skeleton that surrounds the thoracic organs in vertebrates above reptiles. Nearby, vertebrae and a skull were also found consecutively.

Investigations suggest that the fossil is from a reptile or a close relative dating between the late Carboniferous and the Permian periods. The Carboniferous and Permian periods are the fifth and last periods of the Paleozoic era, respectively.

Dr. John Calder, a Canadian geologist and paleontologist, said, "It is extremely rare to find fossils older than dinosaurs," adding, "This could be a fossil that helps clarify the evolutionary process of amphibians, reptiles, and mammals." Experts believe that dinosaurs appeared on Earth about 245 million years ago and went extinct about 65 million years ago. The fossil Lisa discovered is said to be a rare specimen from about 300 million years ago, which is older than that.

Dr. Calder added, "It will take about a year to accurately identify the fossil," and said, "It could be a fossil of a new species that no longer exists."

Meanwhile, earlier, the largest dinosaur bone fossil in Europe was discovered in the backyard of a house in Portugal, attracting attention. According to the British Guardian on the 27th of last month (local time), researchers from the University of Lisbon who conducted the excavation estimated the owner of the dinosaur bones to be Brachiosaurus, a sauropod dinosaur that lived in the Late Jurassic period. Sauropods are dinosaurs with long necks and long tails and are known as the largest land animals in Earth's natural history.