NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
Since July, people from across the territory have been sharing photos of fossils and strange rock formations thanks to a new Facebook page established by a Hay River resident.

Tsiigehtchic's Shane Van Loon stands beside a bison skull, which he found in the permafrost in September 2007. Experts said the well-preserved beast might be thousands of years old. - photo courtesy of Van Loon family

"I'm hoping we get some people who are knowledgeable in fossils to give us some identification as to what some of them are," said Anne Boden, creator of the NWT Fossil Enthusiasts Facebook page.

"That's my goal."

So far, more than 50 members have joined the page, all of whom share an interest in the territory's geology and fossils. People have been posting photos of everything from weirdly-shaped rocks to ancient coral, Boden said.

One member found what could be a part of a bone, which has now been sent to the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alta. to be examined.

"A friend of ours found a piece that might be bone," Boden said. "Since they found that piece, I found one more piece and a friend of ours found another last week. We're really curious to find out what that is."

While significant finds are typically made by paleontologists working in the territory, residents have also made some amazing discoveries in recent years.

In 2007, Shane Van Loon found a 14,000-year-old steppe bison in Tsiigehtchic where it was sticking out of an embankment at the meeting point of the Arctic Red River and Mackenzie Rivers.

Van Loon's find was incredibly well-preserved, providing researchers with a variety of unique opportunities, said Thomas Andrews, territorial archaeologist at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre.

"It was a really interesting find in that it provided us with a lot of scientific opportunity to study these remains," he said. "We were able to look at the genetics of the animal, for example, because of the preservation."

Andrews said researchers also looked to see whether prehistoric humans could have been responsible for the animal's death.

"When we find creatures of this age that overlap with human occupation in the the North as well,

as archaeologists we're interested to see whether or not there is evidence of human agency in the death of the animals," he said. "We X-rayed the remains to see if there were evidence of projectile points, a spearhead or an arrowhead or something like that in the remains that would suggest it being dinner for some hunter in the past but we didn't find anything of that nature at all."

Instead, they found a small puncture mark on the bison's shoulder, suggesting it may have been in a fight with another male.

"We did find a small hole in the scapula, or the shoulder blade, of the bison found in Tsiigehtchic that suggested that it had been gored by another male," Andrews said. "We can't prove that that was the cause of death, but it is good evidence of goring and it could have led to the animal's death."

Because the bison was so well preserved, scientists were also able to examine its hide and match it to Paleolithic cave drawings found in France of red-coated bison, Andrews added.

"The preservation is quite remarkable, there there is actually skin that's preserved from the creature and hair as well, quite a lot of hair, actually," Andrews said. "Bison hair - long red hair."

Andrews had advice for anyone in the territory who thinks they may have found something significant.

"I think it would be useful that they did contact the museum here in Yellowknife to let us know," he said. "We can make arrangements to have it professionally inspected by a professional palaeontologist."

The bison is now on display at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre and a smaller exhibit has been set up at Chief Paul Niditchie School in Tsiigehtchic, Andrews said.

Though no one in the group has reported anything as significant as a steppe bison yet, Boden said she hopes NWT residents will be on the lookout.

"Just keep your eyes peeled," she said. "You never know what you might find."

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