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A relative of the long-extinct bird species Songziidae perished about 50 million years ago, its remains embedded in the rock of northwestern B.C. until 1970.

It would then spend several decades in Germany.

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The rare fossil is now nestled in the Royal British Columbia Museum and written into the scientific literature thanks to the efforts of SFU paleo-entomologist Bruce Archibald, an expert on ancient bugs.

The fossil was originally found in Driftwood Canyon by the late Margaret Klockner, a German tourist who was visiting family here with her husband, Albrecht. It was even written up in the local paper.

Photo by handout / PNG

Archibald was presented with a yellowed Interior News clipping of the story by a volunteer while he was looking through fossil collections at the Bulkley Valley Museum.

“I got really excited because bird fossils are super rare,” he said.

After calling people named Klockner throughout B.C.’s northwest, Archibald found the right family and was able to trace the whereabouts of the Klockners at home in Germany.