Maria Canton
Northern News Services

Axel Heiberg Island (Nov 15/99) - The discovery of ancient teeth on a Nunavut island adds to existing evidence that the High Arctic was once a lush wetland.

Paleontologists John Storer and Jaelyn Eberle recovered three fossilized pieces of tooth enamel belonging to Brontotheres, one of the largest herbivore animals that lived between 38 to 45 million years ago.

The teeth, measuring about three centimetres in length, were discovered on Axel Heiberg Island, situated off the western shores of Ellesmere Island, in 1997.

Storer and Eberle, however, have only recently published their findings in the Canadian Journal of Paleontology.

"Fossils are relatively rare and often pretty scattered where you do find them. We were consciously looking for materials of this sort and hoping," said Storer, speaking from the Yukon where he works for the Department of Tourism, Heritage Branch.

"We were wanting to discover something new about the animals that may have lived on the island and this sheds new light on the fossil forest as well."

Storer is speaking of the exquisitely preserved fossil forest on Axel Heiberg, which is one of the largest and oldest in the world and where the discovery was made.

"There was an extensive variety of broad-leafed plants and species of animals that are quite different from the muskox, hares and wolves found today," he said.

Today the island is superficially barren, but thrives with some moss-laden, boggy areas, ground-hugging arctic willow trees and flowering plants.