'Calgary is a really interesting place': Paleontologists look for 60-million-year-old fossils along the Bow River valley

Calgary's Bow River is an international hot spot for fly fishers but it also plays host to fossil hunters.

In the sandstone along the river valley, petrified wood and fossils of mammals, crocodiles, turtles, champsosaurs and fish can be found.

Paleontologist Steve Kary says the area was teeming with life after the dinosaurs died off.

"Well, in the City of Calgary, we are underlaying by a large amount of sandstone that's called the Paskapoo Formation," he said.

"Which is, give or take, around 60 million years old."

Kary recently found a skull fragment of a bowfin fish embedded in rock near Lindsay Park along the Elbow River.

"And, lo and behold, flipping over one of these little pieces, there was some bone, that telltale black," he said.

JC Ingram, a 24-year-old biological anthropology student at the University of Calgary, is interning with Kary.

"As a kid, I always wanted to be a marine biologist. My problem was that I was terrified of water but I'm like, ocean life is awesome," he said.

"So now, as a paleontologist, I get to go and look at ocean things from the comfort of a coulee instead of at the bottom of a lake."

In a short time at Edworthy Park, Ingram discovered a few pieces of ancient coral that are worn into pebble-size pieces.

At first glance, they appear to be grey rocks with some white spots but they're actually more than 300 million years old.

"Calgary is a really interesting place to look for a lot of interesting life that you don't see when you find deposits where the dinosaurs are," Ingram said.

Kary has had more than 20 years of experience looking for fossils but says it can be a fun activity for Calgary families out for a hike along the river valley.

"If you're keen on finding something, you're not going to find it if you're not looking," he said.

"When you want to find something, you want to look for differences, so whether that's a pattern that doesn't look normal or a break that might be different, because fossils will sometimes often occur on a weird break because it's a weakness in the rock."

There are rules surrounding fossils in Alberta because they're a natural resource and property of the province.

Craig Scott, director of preservation and research at the Royal Tyrrell Museum, says the person who finds a fossil is the custodian of it.

"In the language of the legal system, the fossils are referred to in the legislation as paleontological resources," he said.

"Those are vested in the Crown and right of Alberta, which essentially means that they're Crown property but we hold them in right of all Albertans, so in essence, everyone in the province owns these fossils."

Scott says the public is allowed to keep a fossil they find on the surface but are not allowed to dig it out of the ground.

"You're only permitted to excavate fossils if you have a permit and those are generally issued to professional paleontologists," he said.

"That's for the sake of the fossil because if you're untrained and you try to start yanking the thing out of the rock, there's a pretty good chance you might damage it and it potentially represents a loss of important data."

Museum staff say if someone finds an interesting fossil, they should detail where it's located using GPS and photograph the find, then send that information to the Tyrrell.

"We have staff here that go through all those emails because we do get them daily," Scott said.

"In fact, we get in excess of about 250 a year and we provide information to the finders and we give them as much information as we can on what we think it is, and if it looks like it's a really interesting find, we often send crews out there to go and take a look as well."

Kary says curiosity and determination are helpful when looking for fossils and there is a local club for people serious about the hunt.

"It's called the Alberta Paleo Society. They're fantastic," he said.

"They're very welcoming to newcomers. They're so keen. They'll help identify stuff there. Their meetings are incredible. The people there just love paleontology and I would recommend them to anybody that's looking to sort of get involved or start and just try it."

For more information on how to report a fossil find, go to the Royal Tyrrell Museum website.