The Mysterious Bathygnathus borealis

One of the first fossil discoveries to capture the Canadian imagination was that of Bathygnathus borealis. In 1845, while digging a freshwater well near New London, Prince Edward Island, a man named Donald McLeod found what appeared to be part of the jaw of an ancient sharp-toothed animal. He gave it to Sir John William Dawson (the father of Atlantic Canada geology and paleontology), who later sold it to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, in the care of American paleontologist Joseph Leidy, to be studied. Initially, Leidy incorrectly suggested the bone was part of a dinosaur's lower jaw. At the time, dinosaurs were known from incomplete skeletons in Europe but almost solely from footprints in North America, which led to this early misidentification. It wasn't until 1905 that the bone was correctly identified as part of the upper jaw of a sphenacodontid, a family of "pelycosaur-grade" mammal-like reptiles or synapsids, animals thatlived from the Late Pennsylvanian to middle Permian ages. Based on similarities of the jaw bones, experts now believe that the specimen could actually belong to the sail-back Dimetrodon or a similar animal, although fossil evidence of a sail has yet to be found. If Bathygnathus was similar to Dimetrodon, the large "sail" on its back could have helped regulate its body temperature.

This coin is the first issue of the Dinosaurs of Canada collection.
The first coin of the series, released in June 2013, depicts the Bathygnathus Borealis.
The second coin of the series, released in November 2013, depicts the Scutellosarus.
The third coin of the series, released in July 2014, depicts the Xenoceratops Foremostensis.
The fourth and the last coin of theseries, released in November 2014, depicts the Albertosaurus.
 

DINOSAURS OF CANADA - BATHYGNATHUS BOREALIS - 2013 CANADIAN COINS 01 is categorised COINS AND PAPER MONEY / 08- ROYAL CANADIAN MINT / 02- FINE SILVER and sold by l'Imaginaire, a store and specialised website.