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ENTERPRISE
It now appears likely that a study of prehistoric tracks along the Hay River south of Enterprise won't take place until next spring.

Bruce Green, a Hay River Museum Society volunteer with an interest in natural history, has taken it upon himself to study the site with the support of the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment.

Recently, Green and about a half-dozen other volunteers have been exploring the area above Alexandra Falls and have found what they believe may be more prehistoric tracks.

That has pushed back an effort to preserve a record of the original tracks found several years ago in Twin Falls Gorge Territorial Park.

"I've kind of held off on doing the latex peel and that sort of thing," Green said. "That may have to wait until spring now."

The volunteer researcher explained the water in the Hay River is so low it has changed his focus and other potential tracks are being discovered.

"It's hard to say whether or not we've made any new finds," he said. "We certainly turned up some new tracks, which extend the trackway that we already know about, and that in itself is interesting and I think it helps confirm that track way really does exist."

Green estimated another six or eight tracks have been discovered, possibly from different prehistoric creatures.

The original 10 or so circular/oval impressions in the rock are believed to be tracks created 360-380 million years ago by a large walking fish called a sauripterus. The world's only other example of such tracks by large lobe-finned fishes from the Devonian Period is in Poland.

Green is not concerned that the original tracks will be further damaged by being exposed to the elements for another winter and spring break-up of the river.

"I'm not too worried about the tracks getting eroded away," he said. "I think the water levels are extremely low right now, lower than anyone can remember."

Since the original tracks were spotted in 2009 by a visitor to the park, their condition has noticeably deteriorated.

Green said the newly-spotted tracks may have been created by tetrapods, the first creatures that took to land in the Devonian Period.

"It's a much smaller track and they're not as distinct and they kind of go under a ledge of rock," he said. "So we don't have very many good tracks to go by, but I think it's a possibility that we might have tracks from a distinctly different creature there."

Green said, if that is the case, it would be an exciting find.

Donald Henderson, curator of dinosaurs at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology in Drumheller, Alta., examined the original tracks in June.

As for the new tracks, Henderson said he is on the fence about what they might be, saying he suspects they were also created by sauripterus, but could be from tetrapods.

"The size looks promising, but we need more detail," he said.

Further up the river, Green and the other volunteers have also spotted larger impressions in an area exposed by the low water.

"There's one section there that's filled with these really large impressions and they seem to line up, too," Green said, noting it might be a third kind of creature.

Based on photos he has seen, Henderson does not think those large impressions are tracks.

"They look like random divots on the rock surface," he said, explaining they could have been created by erosion.

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