I like to play ping pong on ping pong table

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An 8 million-year-old fossil of an ancient marine creature, lost for over 20 years, was rediscovered in 2002 at the University of Alberta underneath a ping-pong table and the results of the fossil research have only recently been released.

“The fossils made it under the ping-pong table in the undergraduate teaching lab, which ended up being the undergraduate teaching table that all the specimens for the paleontology classes would be laid out upon for the students to look at ... I did my undergraduate [at the University] in the ’80s, and the irony is that the ping-pong table Ichthyosaur was under my feet the whole bloody time,” Dr Michael Caldwell, U of A’s professor of vertebrate paleontology, explained.

The bones were originally discovered in 1971 in the Northwest Territories by a group of graduate students and a few volunteers. In fact, a technician who was on the original expedition still works at the University today. While travelling through the wilderness, the group had stumbled upon eight well-preserved skeletons of Ichthyosaurs: prehistoric marine creatures that resemble modern-day dolphins.

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There were eight fossils found, including two embryos discovered in an adult female. The Ichthyosaurs that were found in the Northwest Territories are by no means the oldest, nor the largest. What makes them special is the information they provide about the environment. The majority of Ichthyosaurs are found in certain locations in Germany, these fossils were found in the deep north, in a location of cold water, this poses many questions about the biogeography of the species.

“It’s not going to rewrite our basic understanding of Ichthyosaur relationships, but what it does do is add a very important part of the picture; or, it finishes off that part of that picture at the twilight of the evolutionary history of this group, where they are actually about to go extinct,” Caldwell said.

As for the future of the discovery, the fossils are already allocated a place in the U of A’s fossil records, and in the forthcoming year there is to be more research. Caldwell was awarded Australian Council Linkage Grant, meaning next year Australian authorities will come in hope of excavating more Ichthyosaur paraphernalia, and comparing it with similar specimens discovered the deep end of the southern hemisphere.

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