Ellesmere Island

In the late 1980s and 1990s Mech observed a pack every year at Ellesmere Island in northeastern Canada.

Other “primates and close relatives of primates ... have never been found” on Ellesmere Island, despite being common elsewhere in the world, Beard notes.

Specimens of the mammals, now dubbed Ignacius mckennai and Ignacius dawsonae, were originally collected in the 1970s from Ellesmere Island by pioneering paleontologist Mary Dawson.

As exciting as the presence of these two Ignacius species on Ellesmere Island is, scientists are also interested in what isn’t found there—and why.

Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic is a treeless, rocky and bitterly cold wilderness, with large parts covered by thick glaciers.