A long-term care home construction site in Saanich turned into a paleontological site after bison bones were discovered which experts believe date back at least 12,000 years.
Two weeks ago, Steve Oatman was afraid of his discovery while working onsite at the future home of Broadmead Care’s Nigel House.
“It was really exciting, I was really excited to dig it up. I wanted to keep going. Of course, we had to wait for everyone to come in and do their actual job,” said Oatman. Davies estimates that the bison was an older male and the bones were found at least four meters below the surface, surrounded by marine clay which was formed after the last age around 14,000 years ago. Bison were known to be in British Columbia“We have grey clay, marine clay which would have occurred after the glacier started to retreat,” said Davies.
All of the bones have been excavated and are safely stored away for examination. RBCM currently does not have plans to carbon-date the bones since there is enough evidence to support the timeline of when the bison may have died.
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