Newly Discovered Dinosaur Fossils Offer Insights Into Ancient Saskatchewan

A team of researchers and university students discover Saskatchewan’s first Centrosaurus and Citipes elegans fossils. Their findings were published in October 2024. McGill University/Handout photo

Researchers in Saskatchewan have unearthed two dinosaur fossil specimens previously unknown in the province, offering new insights into the region’s ecosystem some 75 million years ago.

A team of paleontologists and students from McGill University documented the first fossil specimens of the horned Centrosaurus and the parrot-beaked Citipes elegans while participating in a paleontology field course in Saskatchewan Landing Provincial Park along the South Saskatchewan River.

Their findings were published on Oct. 28 in the Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, shedding light on the ancient ecosystem of Saskatchewan compared to that of neighbouring Alberta.

“Centrosaurus was only definitely known from sites of similar age in Alberta,” said Alexandre Demers-Potvin, one of the authors of the study, in a Nov. 19 release. “Now we report fossils that unequivocally belong to this species from Saskatchewan for the first time.”

“It was always very likely to be found nearby, but the presence of Citipes elegans, a small, parrot-beaked dinosaur, was more unexpected,” he added.

Centrosaurus, a medium-sized herbivorous dinosaur, was closely related to Triceratops, a species with three facial horns. They lived between 76.5 and 75.3 million years ago in southern Alberta and southern Saskatchewan, and their remains were first discovered along the Red Deer River in Alberta in 1901.

The Citipes elegans, previously only known to be found in Alberta, were small-bodied dinosaurs with specialized beaks and long necks. Their name comes from the Latin Citipes meaning “fleet-footed,” and elegans meaning “elegant.” They were closely related to the Oviraptorosaurs, a group of bird-like dinosaurs.

The fossils were found at a site called Lake Diefenbaker Bonebed, where researchers also found “a rare mix of dinosaur and marine fossils.” They say the discovery provides information on the ecosystem during the Late Cretaceous period, when North America was divided by an inland sea, known as the Western Interior Seaway. At its peak, that inland sea was more than 3,000 kilometres long, nearly 1,000 kilometres wide, and 760 metres deep.

The Late Cretaceous Epoch, as it’s also called, spanned from 100.5 million years ago to 66 million years ago. It was the last geological period before dinosaurs became extinct.

While Alberta’s fossils have provided insights into inland ecosystems of that ancient period, the Saskatchewan findings indicate a coastal habitat.

“[The findings show] how large terrestrial dinosaurs like Centrosaurus shared space with marine animals in a mosaic of estuaries and barrier islands,” the researchers said.