Canada 20 Dollars Silver Coin 2013 Bathygnathus Borealis - Canadian Dinosaurs
Canadian Dinosaurs Series
One of the first fossil discoveries to capture the Canadian imagination was that of the Bathygnathus borealis-found in 1845 near New London, Prince Edward Island. 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 that lived 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.
Despite its early misidentification, this fossil is of great scientific and historical significance — it lived between 290 and 260 million years ago, when what is now P.E.I. lay near the equator.
Obverse: Susanna Blunt’s design of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
Reverse: Designed by Canadian artist Julius Csotonyi, your coin displays a depiction of the Bathygnathus borealis, scientifically verified by the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology. Depicted here as similar to Dimetrodon, the mammal-like reptile bares its long, sharp teeth as its powerful, low-slung body walks. From the animal's back rises one of the key Dimetrodon features: the tall, spiny, skin-covered dorsal sail used to regulate body temperature. The reverse is engraved with the words "CANADA," the date "2013" and the face value of "20 DOLLARS."
Mintage: 8500
Composition: 99.99% fine silver
Finish: proof
Weight: 31.39 g
Diameter: 38 mm
Edge: serrated
Artist: Julius Csotonyi (reverse), Susanna Blunt (obverse)
Face value: 20 Canadian Dollars.
Manufacturer: Royal Canadian Mint.
Special features
• coins to feature lifelike prehistoric animals and dinosaurs discovered in Canada.
• Your coin displays an exceptional engraving of a full, non-skeletal, lifelike portrait of the Bathygnathus borealis.
• Struck in 99.99% pure silver.
• Limited mintage of 8500.
Canadian Dinosaur Series
Canada 20 Dollars Silver Coin 2013 Bathygnathus Borealis - Canadian Dinosaurs
Dimetrodon borealis
Dimetrodon borealis, formerly known as Bathygnathus borealis, is an extinct species of pelycosaur-grade synapsid that lived about 270 million years ago (Ma) in the Early Permian. A partial maxilla or upper jaw bone from Prince Edward Island in Canada is the only known fossil of Bathygnathus. The maxilla was discovered around 1845 during the course of a well excavation in Spring Brook in the New London area and its significance was recognized by geologists John William Dawson and Joseph Leidy. It was originally described by Leidy in 1854 as the lower jaw of a dinosaur, making it the first purported dinosaur to have been found in Canada, and the second to have been found in all of North America (the first was Clepsysaurus from Pennsylvania, now known to be a phytosaur rather than a dinosaur). The bone was later identified as that of a pelycosaur. Although its current classification as a sphenacodontid synapsid was not recognized until after the discovery of its more famous relative Dimetrodon in the 1870s, Bathygnathus is notable for being the first discovered sphenacodont. A 2015 study by the researchers from U of T Mississauga, Carleton University and the Royal Ontario Museum reclassified the species into the genus Dimetrodon.