During a fossil expedition to a beach near Muir Creek northwest of Sooke six years ago, an amateur collector made the discovery of his life 鈥� a rare new Chimaeridae fish.

After donating his mysterious find to the Royal B.C. Museum, Steve Suntok recently learned the skeletal remains, a mandibular dental plate, was an iconic fish from the Upper Oligocene age.

Identified as a new species, it has been named Canadodus suntoki 鈥� Canadodus means 鈥渢ooth from Canada,鈥� and suntoki is named after Suntok.

The fish would have lived about 25 million years ago.

鈥淓very find鈥檚 exciting, but this one especially so,鈥� Suntok said Wednesday.

鈥淚t was unusual, but I didn鈥檛 know what I found. It鈥檚 always fun when this stuff contributes to science.鈥�

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The find was documented in this month鈥檚 Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology by Russian researcher Evgeny Popov. Victoria paleontologist Marji Johns and Suntok co-authored the paper.

Chimaeridae is a family of cartilaginous fishes that typically have short rounded snouts and long tapered tails.

The fossil dental plate is broad and strong, indicating the fish fed on invertebrates using its dentition to crush shells to extract the nutritious animal inside.

These fishes rarely preserve well in the fossil record, making this fossil find of high importance, John said.

鈥淭his find is a one-and-only and it鈥檚 the first found from the West Coast of Canada. It鈥檚 extremely rare,鈥� John said.

The Suntok family are skilled fossil collectors. They have discovered many fossils near Sooke and donated important ones to the Royal B.C. Museum.

Suntok鈥檚 daughter on a family outing found a coracoid bone of a new water bird. In 2015, it was identified and named Stemec suntokum by Royal B.C. Museum research associate Gary Kaiser.

Suntok has added to the museum鈥檚 Sooke-area fossil collection: whale vertebrae specimens, ribs, a seal bone, a potential terrestrial mammal bone, fish bones, fossil leaves and many invertebrate fossils (snails, clams, mussels, oysters, corals, brachiopods, barnacles, echinoderms, and tubeworms).

鈥淪teve has a very keen eye. You need to stand there and look at the rock and know what you鈥檙e looking for, and then you might see things,鈥� John said.

editor@sookenewsmirror.com
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