Once upon a time, your house was a bog and its inhabitants were spikey-tailed dinosaurs, but that was long before the oil and gas industry came to the Peace.
"When you are talking about palaeontology in the Peace Region, you are talking about palaeontology for Western Canada, for Western North America, and also depending on what time period you're looking at, you're dealing with palaeontology on a global scale," said Lisa Buckley, curator and collections manager of the Peace Region Palaentology Research Centre, which will be holding its annual symposium on June 30 at the Tumbler Ridge Conference Centre.
Speakers will be talking about the various connections discoveries in the Peace Region share with areas of the world and what those discoveries tell us about the Earth's natural history.
And all from some footprints left behind millions of years ago.
"We are getting interesting snapshots into B.C.'s history just from looking at what types of dinosaurs were wandering around and leaving footprints," said Buckley.
Of course, the Tumbler Ridge Museum is famous for its footprint collection, but it also connects the region other areas worldwide.
"There is different information we can get from footprints that we can't get from, say a skeleton, like how the animal moved and where it was living. A skeleton will tell you what the animal looked like and where it died, footprints will tell you where it was living and what it was doing," explained Buckley.
"They tell us what was happening 100 million years ago, what was happening 70 million years ago, so it's not just linked to one area. All of these bits and pieces around the world form a very complex and intricate puzzle of the history of the planet."
"One thing it does is helps us know a heck of a lot more about an ecosystem that no longer exists, so the more connections we can make with places in Colorado, and places in Alberta, and places halfway across the world we'll know a heck of a lot more on how ecosystems behaved without the presence of human beings.
"The more we understand that, and how animals lived and behaved and interacted, and just behaved like animals the more we are going to know about how our own planet has worked for millions of years," she continued.
"What we know specifically for the Peace Region is we have interesting slices of time preserved here especially with the footprints, and interesting combinations of dinosaurs that were present that we may not necessarily see in other parts of the world."
It is thanks in part to the formation of the Rocky Mountains that the Peace Region has revealed a variety of evidence from various timeframes.
A common era examined in the region is the Triassic period, dating back to approximately 225 to 250 million years old, which has revealed fossils of several giant reptiles and the coelacanths, a commonly found fish.
In fact a new genus of coelacanth, Rebellatrix, was recently discovered among the museum's large collection.
The most common footprint found is Ankylosaur tracks, which according to Buckley suggest a the Peace Region was a boggy, marshy area over 100 million years ago, and is now what makes up the area's coal deposits.
Buckley said Ankylosaurs – the bony, spiky quadriped whose tail resembles a mace – are often discovered by way of coal production.
"Coal mining activities do tend to lead to a lot of discoveries," she said but could not discuss any recent findings due to protecting site anonymity.
She did however note that a historic finding in the region is on the brink of being completed.
"We are going to be resuming our excavation [this summer] of B.C.'s first complete dinosaur skeleton," she said, but any further information will be unveiled when the dig is finished.
In the meantime one can learn about the region's connection to the rest of the world through the discussions at the symposium. Various speakers will cover topics such as track documentation, Palaeontology in industry, and Palaeontology in art and culture, among other topics.
