I Love the Gammon Ferruginous!

        It was an emotional day saying goodbye to all the glorious finds found this year-- the Xiphactinus from the Xiphactinus Killzone, Matt's Xiphactinus jaws from the embankment, Katie and Kathryn's mosasaur, my little fish verts and teeth, and of course, to Andrea's dead coyote and horse. CFDC Field Season is not quite over yet (you still have time to book dig tours!) but us university students are heading back to school. And we had a wonderful last week full of exciting finds and fun times.
        Thank-you to all the wonderful dig-tour groups we had booked for our final week. During the past week, my group found a poorly-preserved mosasaur vertebra (but it was still grandly large), one of Kathryn's groups expanded and found more vertebrae from the mosasaur skeleton, and Matt's group found more fossils from the mosasaur, Angus, who was our big find in 2008!
        Morden's big Corn & Apple Festival was this past weekend and the CFDC offered discounted dig tours to the public. One lucky family found a Hesperonis femur (thigh bone). And more skeletal elements from the mosasaur were also found! We also had a special visitor, Flora Marcelino, Manitoba's Minister of Culture, Heritage, and Tourism! Abigail Williams also visited us on the weekend, she was one of our paleostars who worked in the Death Assemblage in 2008.
        On our last day the whole fossil crew went out to the field for one last adventure. And the year's final "Perfect Score" winner was decided... congrats Matthew Duda! For getting the highest rating museum and dig tours this month!

We heart the Gammon Ferruginous (and sunscreen).

Being the last day I decided to reply to some frequently asked questions floating around:

• We have more than just one dig-site, we have several we visit in a season.
•  Bruce is the largest mosasaur in all of Canada, he's 43ft and found in 1974. 
• Our recent find is a 15ft fish called Xiphactinus. We have its jaws on display, while the rest of his skeleton needs to be prepped from its fossil jacket. Come about this winter and we'll have more of it on display.
•  Yes! We offer actual fossil digging to the public! However, you must be 10 years old to come out on our dig tours!
• The creatures in our museum are not from Lake Agassiz. Lake Agassiz occurred only 10 000 years ago and was a fresh-water lake. Our creatures swam in the Western Interior Seaway, which was 8 000 000 years ago and was a salt-water sea! 
•  Yes!!! You can take pictures!!!

-Jaclyn Kozak