The T.rex Discovery Centre is a

natural history museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history scientific collection, collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, Fungus, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleo ...

located in Eastend, Saskatchewan,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, and housed in a building designed by Stantec. The T.rex Discovery Centre was opened to the public in 2001, and was intended to house a number of fossils, including the remains of a ''

Tyrannosaurus ''Tyrannosaurus'' () is a genus of large theropod dinosaur. The type species ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' ( meaning 'king' in Latin), often shortened to ''T. rex'' or colloquially t-rex, is one of the best represented theropods. It lived througho ...

'' nicknamed " Scotty" which was found nearby in 1991. Management of the T.rex Discovery Centre was assumed by the

Royal Saskatchewan Museum The Royal Saskatchewan Museum (RSM) is a Canadian natural history museum in Regina, Saskatchewan. Founded in 1906, it is the first museum in Saskatchewan and the first Provincial and territorial museums of Canada, provincial museum among the thr ...

in 2013.

History

The idea for a world-class facility to house the fossil record of southwest Saskatchewan began in 1988. Through a series of public meetings, the Town of Eastend, Saskatchewan identified a need for a palaeontological centre to showcase the rich fossil record of the Frenchman River Valley and the Cypress Hills. The T.rex Discovery Centre opened in 2001 in the Frenchman River Valley, about 25 km southeast of Eastend. On February 14, 2013 the

assumed operations of the T.rex Discovery Centre.

Galleries

Cretaceous Gallery

This gallery explores the geologic sediments deposited to create the

Bearpaw Formation The Bearpaw Formation, also called the Bearpaw Shale, is a geologic formation of Late Cretaceous (Campanian) age. It outcrops in the U.S. state of Montana, as well as the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, and was named for the Bear ...

and the

Frenchman Formation The Frenchman Formation is a stratigraphic unit of Late Cretaceous (late Maastrichtian) Geochronology, age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin, Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. It is present in southern Saskatchewan and the Cypress Hills (C ...

and the fossils within. This includes invertebrates from the Bearpaw Formation such as

ammonite Ammonoids are extinct, (typically) coiled-shelled cephalopods comprising the subclass Ammonoidea. They are more closely related to living octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish (which comprise the clade Coleoidea) than they are to nautiluses (family N ...

and baculite, fish, shark, turtles and marine reptiles and fossils from the Frenchman Formation including ''Tyrannosaurus rex'', ''

Triceratops ''Triceratops'' ( ; ) is a genus of Chasmosaurinae, chasmosaurine Ceratopsia, ceratopsian dinosaur that lived during the late Maastrichtian age of the Late Cretaceous Period (geology), period, about 68 to 66 million years ago on the island ...

'' and ''

Hadrosaurus ''Hadrosaurus'' (; ) is a genus of hadrosaurid ornithopod dinosaurs that lived in North America during the Late Cretaceous Period in what is now the Woodbury Formation in New Jersey about 83.6 to 77.9 Ma. The holotype specimen was found in flu ...

''.

Cenozoic Gallery

Some species of mammals, birds and fish survived the K-Pg extinction event. The Ravenscrag Formation is where these fossils were deposited and the gallery examines these creatures from Saskatchewan's prehistoric landscape. On display are reptiles such '' Borealosuchus'' and '' Champsosaurus'' as well as a life-size cast of the mammal ''Brontothere''.

Fossil Research Station

Museum palaeontologists work year-round in the station to conduct research on fossils collected over the summer field season.

Scotty the ''T. rex''

Originally discovered by Royal Saskatchewan Museum research team in Saskatchewan's Frenchman River Valley on August 16, 1991, the fossilized remains of specimen SM P2523.8 nicknamed Scotty, were painstakingly removed – almost completely by hand – over two decades from the rock in which they were embedded. When the preparation was complete in 2011, a 65% complete ''

Tyrannosaurus rex ''Tyrannosaurus'' () is a genus of large theropoda, theropod dinosaur. The type species ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' ( meaning 'king' in Latin), often shortened to ''T. rex'' or colloquially t-rex, is one of the best represented theropods. It live ...

'' skeleton was revealed. "Scotty" the ''T. rex'' was found on August 16, 1991, by local high school principal Robert Gebhardt. Gebhardt had joined palaeontologists Tim Tokaryk and John Storer from the Royal Saskatchewan Museum (RSM) on a prospecting expedition alongside the Frenchman River Valley. Gebhardt stumbled across a tail vertebra of the ''T. rex'' on a cattle trail he was walking along. They later found a piece of the jaw with teeth still attached sticking out of the side of a hill. Today, about 65% of Scotty's bones have been recovered. A cast of Scotty was first to go on display at the T.rex Discovery Centre on March 15, 2013, followed by a second in an exhibit developed by the

Australian Museum The Australian Museum, originally known as the Colonial Museum or Sydney Museum. is a heritage-listed museum at 1 William Street, Sydney, William Street, Sydney central business district, Sydney CBD, New South Wales. It is the oldest natural ...

in November 2013. On March 21, 2019, Scotty was described to be the largest and oldest ''T. rex'' in the world, with an estimated weight of 8870 kg, length of 13.2 m and age of over 30 years. The previous owner of the 'longest lived ''T. rex title was Sue, who lived to be 28. On May 17, 2019, a cast of Scotty was unveiled at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum.

References

External links

* {{authority control Natural history museums in Saskatchewan Dinosaur museums in Canada