Canada Post puts ancient reptile found on P.E.I. on new stamp series

A reptile that roamed Prince Edward Island before the dinosaurs, more than a quarter of a billion years ago, will be featured in a new Canada Post stamp series.

The postal service announced on Thursday the stamps will featurefive ancient reptile species, the fossils of which wereuncoveredin British Columbia,Alberta, Saskatchewan and P.E.I.

The upper jaw bone of the Dimetrodon borealis was discovered in 1845duringa well excavationin French River, near the Island's North Shore.The bone was found in a layer of shale by a farmer digging the well.

Older than the dinosaurs

The discovery was originally hailed as Canada's first dinosaur, but paleontologists later realized the fossil actually pre-dated the dinosaurs. Theydescribed the beast as a mammal-like reptilewith serrated teeth, whichlikely had a sail on its back for display.

• Canada's 1st dimetrodon solves P.E.I. fossil mystery

When Dimetrodon borealis lived 270 million years ago, the Island was hot, dry and located near the equator.

The stamps feature the artwork ofSergeyKrasovskiy, and weredesigned by Vancouver's Subplot Design Inc. Each stampfeatures the five species beingreflectedin a glassy dinosaur eye.

The four-colour stamps will be available in booklets of 10 permanent stamps. Alarger uncut press sheet will feature an enlargement of a tyrannosaur, whose eye is in the frame for a single stamp among seven other souvenir sheets each containing five stamps.

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