Happy Canada Day!

Happy Canada Day! I hope you all had a great time yesterday; the weather was great here in southern Manitoba the whole weekend and decided not to rain, for once. Ashlee and Rebecca were both down at the Morden Beach Blast manning the CFDC booth, so hopefully some of you got a chance to check out the fossils we had on display.

 It was the last day of school on Friday (if you're in Manitoba, at least)! If you're looking for something to occupy all the kids who will soon be in the process of transforming your house into a disaster area, bring 'em down to the Dino Day Camp at the CFDC, which starts this week and runs every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday until the end of August. The Dino Day Camp is for kids aged three to ten and uses fossil-themed arts and crafts to teach them about the creatures of the Western Interior Seaway during the late Cretaceous period, which we find all around Morden and Miami. Kids can come for any number of days they (or you) like, so drop by if you're looking for something to keep them busy this summer.

Fossil Crew with the Grey Cup.
As part of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers Kickoff Run to celebrate the opening of their stadium, the Grey Cup came to Morden last Monday. Our whole Fossil Crew got a couple pictures with it, which is pretty sweet; I'll post one on the blog in case you haven't already seen them on Facebook or Twitter. It's too bad the Bombers lost on Thursday, but they did a number of good things (I hate being generic, but we'll leave it at that) and it was totally awesome when Kenny Ploen gave Milt Stegall the ball in the opening ceremony. I was at the pre-season game at the new stadium a couple weeks ago, and let me tell you, it's an amazing place. If you get an opportunity to go to a game this year, take it, no matter how the Bombers are playing.

Exploring a site with both
Pembina and Millwood shale.
As for finding fossils (yes, we did do some of that), we engaged in more exploration than excavation last week, spending some time in a site with a huge expanse of Millwood shale and continuing our visits to Pembina Valley Provincial Park. Millwood isn't really conducive for digging in, even when it's dry (as I may have mentioned in a previous blog), so we mostly walked around and scoured the surface for fossils exposed by wind and rain. We found some fish or mosasaur ribs from both the Millwood and the park (the park ribs might be connected to a larger skeleton, which is exciting), while we also recovered what could be a rare Millwood skull fragment from a mosasaur or plesiosaur. It looks kind of gross because it's been all trampled by cows and whatnot, but hey, a skull frag's a skull frag.

As for this week, we're looking to spend lots of time outside and maybe do some plaster jackets. Keep in mind that Bruce's birthday is coming up! On July 27th, we're having cake and there's free admission to the museum, so be sure to drop by. Also, we're right in the thick of planning exhibits, presentations, and neat activities for our Shark Week celebration on August 12th through the 16th, so mark that our your calendars as well. Cheers! Enjoy the beginning of summer.

Matt Remple
Field Tech

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