Rare marine fossil found in eastern Saskatchewan

Frobisher, Sask. -

A rare ammonite fossil – about 75 million years old - has been discovered in eastern Saskatchewan.

A resident in the Village of Frobisher was building a drainage system with rocks in his backyard when he came across the ancient remains.

“The rock was cracked open like this when I found it. I was looking for the other half and I couldn't find it,” explained Bob Steman, resident of Frobisher.

“I just threw it off to the side and thought nothing of it. About four days later, my wife was out so I told her pick it up and have a look and she thought it was a fossil. That's when we decided we would get it checked out.”

Bob and Janet Steman found a rare fossil in Frobisher, Sask. while working on a project in their backyard. (Sierra D'Souza Butts / CTV News) Steman first contacted the Royal Alberta Museum for further information and was shocked to find out how old the object could possibly be. He then reached out to the provincial museum, due to the fossil being found on Saskatchewan land.

“This belongs to a group called ammonites, they are the squid like animals,” said Ryan McKellar, curator of Palaentology of the Royal Saskatchewan Museum (RSM),” referring to the new discovery.

“Their modern relatives are something like the nautilus. They have these big coiled shells, or straight shells, and there's a squid like animal that lives in the last chamber. They still have relatives around today."

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McKellar said the fossil is a shell of the marine species which became extinct at the end of the cretaceous.

“Shells are a little bit more common when we encounter them in the field, although this particular type of shell, it's a relatively rare specimen for Saskatchewan,” McKellar explained.

“We have hundreds and hundreds of summit groups of ammonites, we only have 19 of this particular group of ammonites so it's a unique addition to the RSM collection."

Currently, the museum’s collection of ammonites are from the 1920s to 1950s era, marking Steman’s discovery a unique find to the collection.

Now knowing the age of the cracked rock he found in his backyard, Steman plans on donating it to the RSM.