Pond Inlet (Oct 25/04) - The Inuit have roamed the high Arctic for thousands of years, but one scientist may have proof at least one dinosaur set foot on the land near Pond Inlet before them.

McGill University biology professor Hans Larsson found a fossilized foot bone from what appears to be a member of the tyrannosaurid family of dinosaurs -- the group to which the famous Tyrannosaurus Rex belongs -- while out exploring near Bylot Island in the summer of 2003.

Considering that dinosaur fossils can be up to 230 million years old, Larsson's 65 million-year-old discovery is rather young. But the fossil was unique because "in getting closer to the high Arctic, very little has been found," Larsson said. Dinosaur bones have only ever been found in Canada's Prairie provinces, according to Larsson's news release.

This past summer, Larsson and another researcher went to Axel Heiberg on Ellesmere Island hoping to duplicate their previous dinosaur findings. While no dinosaur fossils were found, the pair did come back with a series of plant life fossils estimated to be 220-230 million years old.

Exploring for fossils is different from archaeological digs because it requires movement and hours of hiking with heavy equipment.

"You're hiking around with your eyes to the ground looking for any trace of fossils coming out of them," Larsson said, adding that an average day could involve covering 20-25 kilometres.

Though science is on his side, Larsson should see what Pond Inlet elders think of his findings considering a few years ago, another group of scientists found what they believed to be a dinosaur bone. It, however, turned out to be a hoax.

"When elders saw the bone they recognized that it was a walrus bone," said Jayko Alooloo of the Mittimatalik Hunters' and Trappers' Organization.