EXTRAS
THE GREAT FOSSIL MYSTERY
Created by Gail Hussey-Weir
August 2017; Updated October 2022
Below is an artist's interpretation of a Pteranodon. Could a creature such as this have fallen into a crevice on Bell Island 80 to 90 million years ago? Unless more evidence of what was found in the Wabana Mines in 1902 is discovered, we may never know.
In the winter of 1902, a large fossil was discovered on Bell Island by Arthur House, who was in charge of driving Dominion's No. 3 Slope. This No. 3 Slope was not the huge submarine mine that we knew as No. 3 Mine, which was owned by the Scotia Company. Dominion's No. 3 Slope was one of their first underground mines, started after the surface ore ran out and before the wealth of iron ore beneath the ocean was even dreamed of. It came out through the cliff on the north shore and is believed to have been above what would become Scotia's No. 3 submarine slope. In the early days of the Wabana mines, both Scotia and Dominion referred to their mines by the numbers 1, 2, 3, etc. Not all of those mines proved fruitful and some were eventually abandoned. (You can read Arthur House's biography on this website by clicking "People" in the menu above, then "H" in the dropdown menu.) Arthur House kept detailed diaries of the years he worked on Bell Island and recounted the story of the fossil in the second of a 6-part series in The Daily News, March 2, 1939, page 4. Here is what he had to say about it:
The fossil was found about 100 feet from the outcrops, embedded in the foot wall next to the ore. On top of it were 10 feet of ore in place, and eight feet of rock beside the forest growth.
It was in the winter and we were using steam drills putting "down" holes, which went into the foot wall, to ensure bringing the bottom, and we were shovelling the ore thus blasted out. I noticed some fossil remains in the foot wall, and stopped the work to investigate it...A drill hole had gone through the trunk of the body and shattered it pretty badly, but not so bad that it could not be pieced together.
Mr. Grammer, our manager, had gone away for a holiday. I went at once and saw F.W. Angel and we decided to take it up piece by piece. (You can read F.W. Angel's biography on this website by clicking "People" in the menu above, then "A" in the dropdown menu.) The late Father McGrath had built a Hall at the mine, over on The Green. We had formed what we called "The Exiles Club" and had hired the downstairs part of the Hall for our recreation...
We decided we would remove the pieces of the fossil and piece them together on the floor of the Hall according as we got them out of the foot wall. This took several days as the open cut advanced. We worked our nights piecing it together in the Hall. F.W. Angel, C.J. Stewart and myself. When pieced up, it measured 27 feet 5 inches long. The tail section was in two pieces and was 12 feet long. The fin of the tail was somewhat like that of a shark.
From tip of the tail to the lower end of the body was 12 feet, and it was 8 and 1/2 inches diameter where it connected to the body. The body was 8 feet long as near as we could piece it together. Its neck and head was 7 feet, 8 inches long. One wing was extended, while the other seemed crumpled up under the body. Its head was elongated. It had talon-like members extending from the body, and on a section of the wing it had talon-like extensions.
C.J. Stewart made a drawing of it and called it "Teramorphons Dinosaurian Housei," whatever that may be...We made several blueprints of it.
F.W. Angel wrote to Dr. Adams of McGill University and sent him a drawing, who [Dr. Adams] said it was the most important discovery made in 100 years. We had kept it in the Hall all the winter until late in spring intending to set it up in plaster. Rev. Father McGrath asked us to release the Hall for the summer. F.W. Angel sent word to the stable to have the fossil removed, not thinking of the job it was. Thomas Shanahan was then in charge of the stable. Tom took a double team and some men and took it in a box cart like a load of meaningless rock and dumped it out in the old Mine House yard. It had been so fractured from blasting that it had to be carefully handled, but in dumping it, it broke it very much more.
Needless to say, when we found out what had happened, we were very much annoyed.
The late James P. Howley, Government Geologist at that time, from St. John's, came over and I spent three days with him and pieced sufficient of it together to give him a good idea, with the drawing we had made to scale.
Source: Arthur House, The Daily News, March 2, 1939, page 4.
Note: The Dr. Adams of McGill University that F.W. Angel wrote to concerning the fossil was likely Dr. Frank Dawson Adams (1859-1942), who was a renowned geologist, educator and author.
The fossil was found about 100 feet from the outcrops, embedded in the foot wall next to the ore. On top of it were 10 feet of ore in place, and eight feet of rock beside the forest growth.
It was in the winter and we were using steam drills putting "down" holes, which went into the foot wall, to ensure bringing the bottom, and we were shovelling the ore thus blasted out. I noticed some fossil remains in the foot wall, and stopped the work to investigate it...A drill hole had gone through the trunk of the body and shattered it pretty badly, but not so bad that it could not be pieced together.
Mr. Grammer, our manager, had gone away for a holiday. I went at once and saw F.W. Angel and we decided to take it up piece by piece. (You can read F.W. Angel's biography on this website by clicking "People" in the menu above, then "A" in the dropdown menu.) The late Father McGrath had built a Hall at the mine, over on The Green. We had formed what we called "The Exiles Club" and had hired the downstairs part of the Hall for our recreation...
We decided we would remove the pieces of the fossil and piece them together on the floor of the Hall according as we got them out of the foot wall. This took several days as the open cut advanced. We worked our nights piecing it together in the Hall. F.W. Angel, C.J. Stewart and myself. When pieced up, it measured 27 feet 5 inches long. The tail section was in two pieces and was 12 feet long. The fin of the tail was somewhat like that of a shark.
From tip of the tail to the lower end of the body was 12 feet, and it was 8 and 1/2 inches diameter where it connected to the body. The body was 8 feet long as near as we could piece it together. Its neck and head was 7 feet, 8 inches long. One wing was extended, while the other seemed crumpled up under the body. Its head was elongated. It had talon-like members extending from the body, and on a section of the wing it had talon-like extensions.
C.J. Stewart made a drawing of it and called it "Teramorphons Dinosaurian Housei," whatever that may be...We made several blueprints of it.
F.W. Angel wrote to Dr. Adams of McGill University and sent him a drawing, who [Dr. Adams] said it was the most important discovery made in 100 years. We had kept it in the Hall all the winter until late in spring intending to set it up in plaster. Rev. Father McGrath asked us to release the Hall for the summer. F.W. Angel sent word to the stable to have the fossil removed, not thinking of the job it was. Thomas Shanahan was then in charge of the stable. Tom took a double team and some men and took it in a box cart like a load of meaningless rock and dumped it out in the old Mine House yard. It had been so fractured from blasting that it had to be carefully handled, but in dumping it, it broke it very much more.
Needless to say, when we found out what had happened, we were very much annoyed.
The late James P. Howley, Government Geologist at that time, from St. John's, came over and I spent three days with him and pieced sufficient of it together to give him a good idea, with the drawing we had made to scale.
Source: Arthur House, The Daily News, March 2, 1939, page 4.
Note: The Dr. Adams of McGill University that F.W. Angel wrote to concerning the fossil was likely Dr. Frank Dawson Adams (1859-1942), who was a renowned geologist, educator and author.
In the c.1905 photo below, Arthur House is seen on the far right. He and his crew, some of whom are wearing candles attached to their hats to light the way, are about to go underground in Dominion's No. 3 Slope. Photo from Wendy Martin, Once Upon a Mine: Story of Pre-Confederation Mines On the Island of Newfoundland, The Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Special Volume 26, 1983, p. 55.
The building on the left below is St. Peter's RC Church Hall on The Green in the early part of the 20th Century; St. Peter's RC Church is on the right. The basement of the church hall is where Arthur House and others laid out the pieces of the fossil they found in Dominion's No. 3 Slope in 1902. Photo courtesy of Clayton Basha.
The front page of the June 6, 2000 edition of The Telegram, had a story by Michael Connors sub-titled, "Did workers unearth ancient fossils, and where are they now?" The article quotes Professor Elliott Burden, an earth scientist at Memorial University who specializes in paleontology. It begins, "They were definitely here 150 million years ago, but stories of dinosaur fossils found in Newfoundland remain rumour at best."
The first story discussed in The Telegram article deals with a 1970s drilling expedition searching for oil on the Grand Banks, but no records were uncovered concerning what may have been found, so it remained "mostly rumour" at the time this article was written. The article continues on page 2: "What is now Newfoundland may have been home to a number of large herbivores, such as the brontosaurus, diplodocus and iguanodon. There were probably even pteranodons, flying reptiles, which brings up the second, somewhat more peculiar story. In 1902, miners on Bell Island unearthed the skeleton of what appeared to be a pteranodon." The article then quotes the 1939 Daily News story above from Arthur House.
"I've been hearing that story for the past 20 years or so," Burden said, "but this one is a little more confusing [than the first story from the 1970s on the Grand Banks] because it doesn't fit the geology. The rock in the Bell Island mines is far too old for dinosaurs, predating the era during which they lived," he said. "The only explanation could be that the bones somehow fell there. The chances (of finding dinosaur bones there) are slim to none," he said. "But I can't speak for something falling into a crack or a fissure. I mean, these things would have been nesting on ledges."
Professor Burden does not discount the possibility of any peculiar discoveries like the Bell Island dinosaur. "I've been kicking around here long enough to know that strange things keep popping out of the ground," he said.
The first story discussed in The Telegram article deals with a 1970s drilling expedition searching for oil on the Grand Banks, but no records were uncovered concerning what may have been found, so it remained "mostly rumour" at the time this article was written. The article continues on page 2: "What is now Newfoundland may have been home to a number of large herbivores, such as the brontosaurus, diplodocus and iguanodon. There were probably even pteranodons, flying reptiles, which brings up the second, somewhat more peculiar story. In 1902, miners on Bell Island unearthed the skeleton of what appeared to be a pteranodon." The article then quotes the 1939 Daily News story above from Arthur House.
"I've been hearing that story for the past 20 years or so," Burden said, "but this one is a little more confusing [than the first story from the 1970s on the Grand Banks] because it doesn't fit the geology. The rock in the Bell Island mines is far too old for dinosaurs, predating the era during which they lived," he said. "The only explanation could be that the bones somehow fell there. The chances (of finding dinosaur bones there) are slim to none," he said. "But I can't speak for something falling into a crack or a fissure. I mean, these things would have been nesting on ledges."
Professor Burden does not discount the possibility of any peculiar discoveries like the Bell Island dinosaur. "I've been kicking around here long enough to know that strange things keep popping out of the ground," he said.
Below is a mounted composite cast of a Pteranodon Longiceps at the American Museum of Natural History, New York. Photo credit: Matt Martyniuk.
