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- Lab number
- GSC-1855
- Material dated
- swordfish bone apatite; apatite osseux d' espadon
- Taxa dated
- Xiphias gladius rostrum (CMN-12456, id. by D.E. McAllister)
- Locality
- 2.25 km west-northwest of Saint-Louis-de-Champlain, Trois-Rivières region, Québec
- Map sheet
- 31 I/07
- Submitter
- C.R. Harington
- Date submitted
- September 28, 0098
- Measured Age
- 340 ± 80
- Normalized Age
- 585 ± 85
- δ13C (per mil)
- -10.0
- Significance
- palaeobiology; paléobiologie
- Context
- clay underlying 4 m of peat
- Associated taxa
- Pisces, Xiphias gladius
- Comments
- CcFd-VP: Harington notes that the specimen was originally considered to have been derived from deposits possibly of Champlain Sea age. However, the date indicates that this swordfish sword was transported to the area by early settlers or native people. This swordfish is a warm water species that presently reaches the Gulf of St. Lawrence only sporadically. It is unlikely to have been an occupant of the relatively cold Champlain Sea. W. Blake, Jr., comments that the well preserved and solid rostrum had been transformed into a sword by the son of the farmer on whose land it was found. It had been sawn, varnished and helved. The outside was sanded clean by J.G. Fyles and family. The sample showed no reaction with HCl or H3PO4 and so was treated with acetic acid in order to obtain the bone apatite fraction for dating.