RESOLUTE - Inootik Manik has piqued a scientist's curiosity with pieces of fossilized wood that may be 45 to 60 million years old, that he found in an area of Cornwallis Island.

Inootik Manik, left, found some ancient wood fossils 12-kilometres east of Resolute that a scientist thinks may date back 45-60 million years. Philip Manik Jr., right, documented the location using GPS. Brian Manning, centre, principal of Qarmartalik school, said the students have learned a great deal from the steady stream of scientists that visit the school. - photo courtesy of Qarmartalik school

Manik and his friend Cory Buott noticed the ancient wood samples while exploring the land about 12 kilometres east of Resolute last August. At first Manik, a Grade 11 student, assumed it was some sort of mineral.

"After we looked we realized it was wood," he said. "It was all rippled and looks like it's been weathered down."

They turned some of the samples over to the Polar Continental Shelf, a scientific research facility based in Resolute.

The fossils eventually landed in the hands of Jim Basinger, the associate dean of science at the University of Saskatchewan.

He dates one of them back to the early Tertiary Period, up to 60 million years ago, he stated in an assessment sent to Qarmartalik school in Resolute last week. During that climatically warm period of history, what is now Nunavut was covered in forests of huge trees, according to scientists.

Although Basinger cautioned that it's difficult to be certain with one particular sample, which he describes as a fragment of a twig, he said he believes it's from the cedar and redwood family.

Although similar wood deposits have been found farther north on Axel Heiberg and Ellesmere islands and even on the other side of Cornwallis Island, Basinger indicates that this may be a new source of such fossils.

He expressed interest in visiting the site, particularly with the students who discovered the samples.

Manik knows exactly where to go because he returned to the site last summer with another friend, Philip Manik Jr., who brought along his GPS device to record the co-ordinates.

They plan to go out again this summer to see what else they can discover.

Manik said elders and other community members had previously found various fossils elsewhere, they just hadn't sent them to scientists.

Qarmartalik school principal Brian Manning said an unusual thaw in the river valley last summer revealed the samples that Manik located.

Manning said he's very pleased with the students' initiative.

"Our students get a lot of exposure to different scientists whether they're glaciologists or archeologists or whoever comes through here," he said. "They (the students) are taking some of the learning they're getting in the school, the exposure they get through the scientists, and taking it on the land with them. So when they do see something out there that's new, that's different, that's intriguing, they're able to come back and research it even more."

Manik said a career in archeology sounds appealing, but he has his heart set on becoming a pilot.