Elasmosaur Named B.C.’s Official Fossil

Eighty million thanks from the Courtenay and District Museum to the Heritage Branch and the British Columbia Palaeontological Alliance for this public voting process and to all those who voted for the Puntledge River elasmosaur discovered by Mike Trask in 1988 to become a provincial symbol.

Extraordinary support from Courtenay-Comox MLA Ronna-Rae Leonard and the Honourable Lana Popham, Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport achieved this bill. We cannot thank them enough for realizing the province-wide scope, impact, and potential the provincial fossil symbol holds for presenting British Columbia’s diverse natural history.