Daily Fossil

Media Release Week!

2011-08-08T08:54:00.000-05:00

This week has been a great one so far! Monday was very exciting as we had our media release hit the news. Tuesday was super busy as the phones were ringing off the hook and everyone was busy taking pictures and videos. We have been digging at the site where the large Xiphactinus and mosasaur remains were discovered last year. The skull of the Xiphactinus, a giant, predatory fish, was excavated successfully in 2010 and is currently on display. The mosasaur skull was also excavated excavated in 2010, but is still currently being prepared in the fossil lab. We are hoping this field season to uncover the rest of the mosasaur and fish skeletons, but have had to stop excavation. Of course, we have been stopped in the best possible way. We keep finding more fossils! We have found another mosasaur (a different one as it is in a different layer), a squid, some bird remains and other unidentifiable fossils that we are still researching! So, we’re not upset about the delay! Above the mosasaur that we are hoping to uncover, we have been finding a microfossil layer that has an abundance of tiny fish vertebrae and teeth. Those are interesting to dig up!

I had one tour on Tuesday that went very well, but the rest of my week was really fun as I designed and worked on some exhibits with the curator. The new Xiphactinus display is finally complete, so you should come on down to see it! Our other exhibits are coming along and soon we should have about 3 new ones.

Matt and Lisa had a fun tour on Friday with a great group. Thankfully it wasn’t too hot outside and they managed to dig all afternoon!

New Discoveries!

2011-07-18T10:12:00.001-05:00

Xiphactinus Jaw

Monday, Anita and Joey had some very exciting finds: a Hesperornis femur (upper leg bone) and a Xiphactinus jaw. Hesperornis regalis was a flightless marine bird from the Western Interior Seaway that was about 3 to 5 feet tall. They were somewhat like modern day penguins in that while they could not fly, and modern day loons in that they dove for fish. Unlike modern penguins, however, this Cretaceous bird had teeth! Xiphactinus audax was a large carnivorous fish

Hesperornis Femur

about 15 to 18 feet long. It is also called the bulldog fish, occasionally, because of its resemblance to the canine. They were such great finds that on Tuesday, we decided to field jacket them.

Teaching us to field
jacket

After a dig tour on Tuesday, Lisa and I headed down to our research site where Joey, Anita and one of our volunteers, Tanya, were preparing to field jacket the fish jaw. They dug a small moat around the fossil, surrounding it with a buffer of shale. To protect the fossil we gathered mud from a nearby pond (dried up at this point), and packed it over the fossil as a protective layer. The next step was very amusing as we had to relive our kindergarten days and start playing with plaster! I was

Digging a trench under
the fossil

the lucky one who got to mix the plaster: which was slightly stressful as you had to mix it to the right consistency and then hurriedly run strips of burlap through it before it hardened too much. Tanya and Lisa would then wrap the plaster-covered strips around the fossil, mud and shale so that there were no air pockets or sharp edges. It was a quick process as the plaster started to dry almost immediately. Next, after the plaster dried, we dug under the fossil so that it was on a type of pedestal. When there was enough room, four of us flipped the fossil and its matrix over so we could plaster the bottom. It was a delicate process as we didn’t want the fossil and shale to all fall out. Our first field jacket was a success as it made it back to the lab in one piece!

Our finished product!

Our other research site has been turning up many interesting fossils. So far, it is mostly some fish and mosasaur vertebrae. I found a fossil that was half covered by a wall of overburden (extra shale that we always have to remove) and I was excited as to how far it might go under that extra layer. It turns out, it didn’t go very far at all, but there was another rib fragment right beside it. So, it was still exciting! My current dig spot has been consistently turning up smaller fragments and little fish fossils. We mapped our fossils: an interesting experience! Basically we had to set up a grid that was in line with our compass. We then had our artist, Lisa; draw every fossil that she could see within the grid on a grid map. This helps palaeontologists when they remove the fossils from the ground so they can remember where exactly the fossil was.

The grid for mapping

Some palaeontologists like to study the area where the fossils were found: the taphonomy (studying the process of death to discovery) and maybe even how ocean currents and predation occurred. It’s very interesting!

Adventures in the Pembina

2011-07-18T10:06:00.000-05:00

Lisa had her very first ½ day tour on Saturday and her groups had a great time digging around and finding minerals.

Monday was a relaxing day as Matt and Lisa went to one of our other properties. They found lots of fossils, including: a Hesperornis distal femur (leg bone), several fish jaw fragments with teeth in them, some fish vertebrae and a possible mosasaur caudal vertebra (tail bone). It was an exciting day for those two as they explored the Millwood shale and made their discoveries.

It was such a great site, actually, that Matt took his 2 day program there on Tuesday. It was a father and son who went on this tour and they were the proud finders of many of the fish jaws and the fish vertebrae. The next day they changed up their sites and visited some other areas. Again, they had a great time digging and they even visited some of us who were at a research site. After that they experienced another side to palaeontology and headed to the lab to make molds and casts; an integral part of palaeontological replicas like Bruce!

Wednesday, we all spent the whole day exploring the Pembina Provincial Park. We decided to do some hiking and something different from just sitting down and digging. We hiked over a bunch of trails, were eaten alive by mosquitos, looked at really cool rocks and beautiful flowers and just generally had a great time talking about geology and the great sights in the park. We found some awesome little streams that were filled with nice, icy water that helped cool us off after the long hikes and we found some neat outcrops of rock to look at.

My first 1 day program occurred on Friday. I had 2 groups combined into 1 and they were so much fun. We headed out to one of our larger sites after lunch and settled down to dig. It wasn’t too long and one of the young girls started finding some fossils and concretions right away. Everyone was very patient and they were excited when they started finding jarosite and iron concretions. It was a great day.

Changeover!

2011-07-18T10:01:00.000-05:00

This week was all about changing over from school tours to ½ days and 1 and 2 day tours.

Lisa led a school dig tour on Monday. They had lots of fun digging in the shale and enjoying the day. The kids were patient diggers and great at excavation!

Tuesday was my first ½ day dig tour. The group was awesome and we joked a lot about how much jarosite we were finding and that they could open up their own shop with how many Pembina diamonds they collected. They managed to take some of their favorite minerals with them. We decided, then, to hike over to the lookout point and found that the path to the lookout point was completely flooded over and we could only have reached it by swimming across. Still, they were absolute troopers; they made the best of it and we had a lot of fun.

Wednesday was another ½ day tour and this time there was only one gentlemen and his son. They were a delight to give a tour to as they asked many interesting and thoughtful questions. They were both great amateur geologists and knew many of the minerals before I even had to tell them. They even had their own rock shop with many interesting minerals and rocks. The son was a fossil magnet as he had found many other fossils during other digs and this day was no different. I wasn’t having any luck until he came over to dig with me and suddenly we were finding fossils left, right and center. We found some fish scales on the shale, a fish vertebra, a possible end of a phalange(finger bone) and a possible tooth. The son was a very experienced digger, already on his way to becoming a great palaeontologist! He brought his own rock hammers and dug for bentonite for his collection.

Thursday we had another very special group who came out for the entire day. The Royal Astronomical Society was a group gathered from all parts of Canada. This day was one of the hottest and muggiest, but many of the group members were absolute troopers and they stayed out the whole time, digging and sweating it out. A couple fish vertebrae were found and some miscellaneous ribs also.

Our tours have been going great so far and we hope they continue to be as fun as they are! We’re starting to change over from school groups to family groups. We’re excited for the changeover and invite you all to come on out and join us on a grand fossil adventure!

Exploring Exposures

2011-07-07T10:04:00.002-05:00

Squid Pen (Gladius)

Monday was a calm day as Lisa had the only tour; an indoor museum tour that went really well. I headed out to one of our research sites with Joey and we spent the entire day digging up fossils in the Gammon. I found many little teeth and fish vertebra that were well preserved. Joey was busy trying to excavate a fossil that he and Anita had found the day before. They found a squid pen in the lower Gammon rock layer, closer to the Boyne rocks than any other fossil we have in our collection. It was very delicate and difficult to remove from its matrix.

Prospecting for fossils

Tuesday was a busy day as Matt and I had a dig tour, but the forecast was for rain. For that reason we decided to go to the dig site first and then return to the museum afterwards so we would stay dry. We had a large group that were excited to be out and digging and they found several fossils. It was very exciting!

Great find of the day!

Thursday was another dig tour. It was an older class and Lisa and I had a blast with them as we went to one of our sites that we don’t normally visit. It was a very hot day and the fossils were not in great abundance. Then, all of a sudden, one young lady found a fish vertebra (possibly from a Cimolichthys). No more fossils were found after that, but the class still had a great time. After the tour, Joey, Lisa and I travelled to a couple different sites again, examining exposures and different outcrops. Unfortunately we didn’t have any luck in the fossil department, but we had a great time finding the shale! One of the exposures that we found was a new one, along an old railway track that is no longer in use. The Boyne shale was exposed in great layers alongside a little ditch. Climbing over to the strata was interesting and while we didn’t find any shark teeth, we found plenty of hungry mosquitos who decided we were the best thing since chocolate cake. Needless to say, we were swatting our arms and legs more than necessary and that may have contributed to no shark teeth being found.

Shale exposure

The next day was almost a repeat of the day before. Lisa and I had another older class dig tour full of great kids who made it a fun day. The class had fun digging up bentonite and collecting the Pembina Diamonds. This time after the tour, Lisa and I headed to one of our research sites and spent the rest of the day picking around in the lower Gammon (another shale member). It wasn’t long before we found some great stuff. Lisa was finding herself digging into deep layers of selenite crystals whereas I found several fish teeth and vertebra. Most were small and poorly preserved, but there were several that were larger and perfectly preserved. I was excited!

Just Another Day in the Sun...

2011-07-07T10:00:00.016-05:00

This week was, unfortunately, a rainy week and most of our dig tours transformed into all-day museum tours. Still, we had a lot of fun playing games such as Dino Hunt and Dino Jeopardy. All of the kids were great sports and we even brought out our dig boxes from the back so that they could have some experience digging.

Matt's 1/2 day tour

Matt had a half-day fossil adventure tour with a great family from Winnipeg. They found a Squalicorax (shark) tooth and a tibiotarsus (leg bone) from a bird, Hesperornis sp. Both were excellent finds despite the poor preservation and the group was excited to have the chance to find them.

Boyne/Pembina contact

One of the days it didn’t rain, Lisa, Joey and I traveled out to about 7 different dig sites just to examine exposures and check out our sites. We hiked for a very long time and managed to get millions of mosquito bites. We went to the site where Bruce was found and another site where the Boyne member and the Pembina Shale contact was exposed (rock stuff). One of the sites had a large gulley where there was some wonderful strata (rock layers) exposed. Joey wanted a small strata column from the middle of the gulley down to the little creek floor so I managed to climb up the ditch side and dig one down. Mostly I made the column from sliding down the slippery shale, but it worked and it was an exciting adventure. While working on one of the exposures we did find a bone. It didn’t seem to be a fossil and so we didn’t collect it, but it was a very old bone from a rather large animal, possibly a cow or even a bison.

Showing off their fossil!

Miscellaneous Vertebra

Matt also had a dig tour this week that produced several fossils. Three young students in particular found some great fossils. One was fully exposed while one young lady started working on uncovering her fossil (possibly a rib). Everyone had fun digging around in the dirt and soaking up the sun rays.

Uncovering her fossil!

Mishaps in the Millwood

2011-06-23T15:42:00.000-05:00

Monday was Lisa’s first field dig of the week. It was a warm and beautiful day with just enough wind to make it refreshing. A young group of girls found 3 fossils while another group of girls found 2. Unfortunately they were only fragments and therefore unidentifiable, but it was cool nevertheless. The boys were more interested in surveying the area for their finds. They had fun; it was a great day.

This group found tons of stuff!

Wednesday Matt and I had a great tour. We spent the morning in the museum and then popped out to the field in the afternoon after a relaxing lunch in the park. It was a great day, slightly windy, but still warm. We weren’t there more than half an hour and fossils started popping up like daisies! Matt and I were busily running around like gophers confirming fossils, snapping pictures, writing notes and taking names. Our students were great palaeontologists: one group found approximately 7 fossils in one little area and were still making discoveries as we left the site. Needless to say, they didn’t want to leave!

The students were great at getting together in groups and excavating their areas. Mostly they found mosasaur vertebrae; one was squished. Some of the fossils were unidentifiable because they were typical Pembina preservation (typically not great!).

Matt's shoe after he pulled it out.

We took the bus back to the highway and turned to go back to the dig site. Along our way we saw a large blue bird just chilling in the ditch, looking rather regal. We debated over whether it was a stork or a heron (turns out it was a heron) and stopped to take some pictures. Well, the heron was shy and flew off gracefully while I ran clumsily behind like a loping zebra with my camera trying to take a picture. I got one, but it was after a lot of zooming and is slightly shaky!

After that Matt and I decided to head to one of our research sites after we had examined some curious outcrops of Millwood shale. Unfortunately for us, Millwood loves water and it loves to retain moisture. I was fortunate enough to scramble safely to the top of the outcrop and examine some of the exposed layers. Matt, however, was not so privileged. The tricky Millwood appeared dry on the crust, but underneath lurked a slippery, goopy quicksand mixture just anxious for someone to step in and sink. Matt just happened to be that “someone.” He took one step and sank up to his knee in the devious Millwood. After some struggling (and many pictures on my part!) he pulled his muddy foot from the shale victoriously and we decided to head to the research site before we had any more mishaps. The rest of the day passed without a hitch as we excavated part of a mosasaur and found a cornucopia of tiny fish teeth. It was a great end to an interesting day!

On the way to one of the dig sites, we saw a painted turtle on the road clambering along. So Matt and Anita graciously decided to move the poor little guy to the side of a pond. Not long after, we walked back to the vehicle and lo and behold! The turtle was now barreling down the road at top speed and into the grass away from the pond. We were certain he just wanted a ride to the CFDC. Needless to say, we didn’t give him one.

Its a Hit!

2011-06-16T16:54:00.000-05:00

Saturday was our Dig Launch and it turned out to be a fantastic day for it! There were a few clouds, but the afternoon was sunny and warm. Anita and Joey brought out some tents and a picnic table into the field so people could have some shade and just relax. Coolers full of drinks and snacks lay within reach and we even brought a port-a-potty so that our participants were never in need of anything! Field volunteers Ted and Joe helped teach our participants to dig and to identify fossils and Ted sledge hammered in the first railway spike of the season with great pomp and ceremony.

Ted and the 1st rail spike
of the season!

Some that came out were very prepared for the dig. There was one young man that was so prepared he even brought his own tools! He was a future paleontologist in the making. One group discovered some fossils sometime around lunch! I know it was an enjoyable experience for all. We had lots of people (over 80) come out to our dig site and our bus driver, Cam, and Matt were busy every hour giving people a tour through the Manitoba Escarpment as they wound their way up to the site over bumpy gravel roads.

Lisa and I stayed in the museum conducting the free museum tours. We were kept very busy too as our groups swelled from small groups of 4 or 5 to groups of 20. I recall that I started with one group and there were only 3 at the start. By the end, I had around 25 people. It was awesome and we had such a blast! It was also challenging because we had to condense our normal 45 or 50 minute tours into 30 minutes (not as easy as it sounds!) and then add a 15 minute VIP addition: the collection room. We had to make sure that everyone was out in time for the bus and although it was hard sometimes, we managed to pull it off without a hitch!

Tyler and Katie managed the front and took waiver forms while a few of our wonderful volunteers, Jeanette and Linda worked with the kids and took in registration forms respectively. We all had our jobs and the day went smoothly! Everyone seemed to have a great time and Bruce the Mascot even made his appearances around town at the Block Party.

Fishing for Fossils

2011-06-08T10:09:00.000-05:00

Wednesday was my first dig tour of this week. I had a large and great group full of enthusiastic kids who were eager to learn. The first fossil was found almost immediately: within 20 minutes of arriving there! Two young boys found a possible fish rib fragment with a hole in it. We hypothesized that it was a tooth mark as the hole was on both sides as if someone (or something) had bit down on both sides. Possibly a mosasaur trying to have some fish for lunch! The second fossil was found shortly after that by two young ladies. It was broken and therefore unidentifiable, but it was still exciting nevertheless! Three more finds followed in rapid succession as our budding paleontologists worked hard to each have their own find. Unfortunately for one group of boys, their find happened to be an anthill full of red ants. Needless to say, they got out of that area pretty quickly!

The quarter is used to
indicate the size
of the fossil.

After the dig I followed Joey, Anita and Ted to our other dig site and we got down to work right away examining the Gammon Ferruginous rocks and moving away the top layers. It was a beautiful day out and while the small stream flowed merrily through the layers of rock, we worked for hours unearthing some more fossils. Joey also bagged some pieces of a fish caudal (tail) fin that had only recently been found.

Thursday we had a smaller group come out. It was an interesting day! The weather made things uneasy for a while, but the kids were absolute troopers and despite the muddy conditions, they continued on with the dig as planned. The morning had started out beautifully; sunny and clear. As soon as we wanted to head out to our dig site the sky darkened and lightning flashed. It started to pour almost immediately and the thunder rolled. The rain, however, stopped again pretty quickly so left it up to the class if they wanted to go out and they decided to move forward with the dig. The site was muddy on the topsoil, but not even an inch down, there was dry dirt. The kids managed to dig themselves little sitting spots that were dry and settled down to dig. It wasn’t long before one of the boys found a fossil! It was very exciting as it might have been a part of a turtle! It was a great discovery for the day and the rest of the afternoon was warm and perfect.

Fake Gold, Fake Diamonds and a Real…Fish Jaw?

2011-06-02T17:05:00.002-05:00

The blue is the Pyrite

The beige is the Bentonite

Tuesday Lisa and Matt had a school dig. After the tour, they joined Joey and Ted. They discovered a few fossil fragments, but the real puzzler of the day was a bluish-gold concretion in the Boyne Bentonite. Their first thought was some sort of blue clay, but after further examination, they discovered that it was indeed a pyrite concretion. You know, Fool’s Gold? Yeah, that kind of Pyrite, but it wasn’t as golden as that type, so we were in no danger of falling victim to gold fever. In the picture here, it appears to be blue, but with closer observation there are the tell-tale golden sparkles that permeate it.

Searching the Glacial Till while
Joey and Ted observe.

Wednesday Joey, Ted, Matt and I travelled down to one of our dig sites to remove overburden and dig for fossils. Before we even reached the site, we stopped at an exposure that had only recently been uncovered by rain from the previous week. We examined the soil and discovered…it was only glacial till. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a member and therefore not useful for us. It was terribly anti-climactic, but the day wasn’t done with us yet!

The bottom of the jaw.

At the site Matt and Ted worked extremely hard and carted away a considerable section of upper and middle Gammon. The most exciting part for me: I found my first (identifiable) fossil!! I was happily scraping away with my tiny pick, brush and rock hammer when I suddenly caught a flash of the recognizable pinkish whitish of a fossil. I picked up the piece that dropped and lo and behold! There was a (possible) Cimolicthys jaw with some discernible teeth still in it! A Cimolicthys is actually a pre-historic and extinct salmonid fish. The other half of the jaw was still encased in the ground, but I bagged and tagged my jaw with the squealing excitement of a 5-year old. There is nothing quite like finding the teeth of a carnivorous 80-million year old ginormous fish. Then, as if that wasn’t enough, I luckily discovered some lone teeth floating around in the Gammon. There might still be a jaw down there!

The random tooth.
Maybe there's a jaw
underneath it!

Thursday was a very busy day as Lisa and I had a school dig. We had a very happy school group who were excited to learn and eager to find their very own fossils. Before we arrived at the dig site, however, we took our enthusiastic group to a neat spot of exposed Morden member bursting with Pembina diamonds or Selenite. A colorless crystal, this mineral is salt based and will dissolve if it comes into contact with water.It is an enjoyable spot to stop and search for diamonds that you can bring back home to show your family and friends! Our kids collected handfuls, pocketfuls and bagfuls of glassy selenite. Our only advice: Make sure they are out of your pants pockets before you wash your jeans. Not something you want in your washing machine! It was an exceptionally warm day and although we had several false alarms (the concretions were out in full force!) of fossil finds, we did have 3 young fellows discover some possible mosasaur vertebrae (backbones) and some unidentifiable fossils.

It was a great third week and I can't wait to go out digging again to see if I can find the rest of my Cimolicthys!

Let the Digging Commence

2011-05-25T10:09:00.000-05:00

Monday burst forth with glorious warmth and great potential. It was a wonderful and welcome change from the gloomy rain of last week. This weather enabled us to make the best of our tours and Monday afternoon we managed to head out with our first dig tour to one of our dig sites.

All of the students learned very quickly and they got down to work right away. The warmth of the day made the shale flaky and ready to be brushed aside; which the kids did eagerly! It was a productive day and many of our students found some great fossils. Most were smaller shards that were hard to identify, but it was still exciting to find something that was part of a world from so long ago. One young man in Grade 2 found a mosasaur jaw fragment that still had two of its teeth. It was a great discovery and ended the day triumphantly.

Mosasaur Jaw

Tuesday was also sunny with temperatures around 24 degrees Celsius. You couldn’t have kept us out of the sun if you had wanted to! Selenite was in abundance and glistened like a sea of diamonds. They aren’t called diamonds for nothing! No…before you ask, sadly, they aren’t real diamonds and they are worth nothing. They are fun to find, however! This was also the day of a large school group dig tour. We drove to our dig site after lunch and brought along as many brushes, shovels and rakes as we could find. Almost immediately students started finding pieces of fossil; a weathered fish vertebra (back bone) here and a possible mosasaur vertebra there. Some of the fossils were poorly preserved and crumbled on contact, but it didn’t dim the joy of discovering the piece! The students were busy the entire time, digging large sites and excavating them thoroughly.

Matt, not pleased with all the bugs

After the tour the fossil crew travelled over to an exposed outcrop that looked interesting. We immediately started to dig a trench to develop a good cross section of the exposed layers. Once again we were out searching for the ever elusive Gammon Ferruginous (rock unit), but, alas, that day we did not find it. We did, however, discover the Boyne (rock unit) as Matt was digging through what should be called the “Grub” member. (As you can tell from the picture, he wasn’t too happy about all the grub!) Anita and I were on top of the outcrop raking through layers and layers of compacted Pembina bentinite so we knew that the Gammon had to be somewhere in between. We shall definitely discover it one of these days!

Wednesday was Lisa’s dig tour. The students were excited to collect selenite and jarosite (a yellow, chalky, mineral) and everyone dug away happily. Meanwhile, elsewhere, Joey discovered the tooth of a Squalicorax, the “Crow Shark” of the Cretaceous.

The Fossil Crew busily excavating

Thursday Matt led another dig tour and one of the students discovered a fish vertebra that was almost nearly complete! According to Matt, it appeared to be from Cimolichthys, an extinct predatory salmonid fish.

Friday was an indoor museum tour with a very large group. We managed to work our system timing perfectly and it was a blast playing Dinosaur tag with the kids! This week was a great success and very exciting!

A Week of Firsts

2011-05-25T10:00:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the 2011 field season at the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre! May I introduce you to our new (and some old) summer staff? This year we have a smaller group of summer students working here at the CFDC. Matt Duda has returned in all his glory for yet another year as well as Katie Magitoaux who will be our sole Youth Program Coordinator. There are only two of us field and program staff this season; Lisa Burnett and myself, Shawnee Holmes. We’re all super excited to be here and we’re all enjoying our first week very much!

So let me tell you a little bit about our first week.

Monday was our first day and what a day to begin the season! It was completely overcast with a slight smattering of rain and a good helping of slippery mud.

We also made lots of little friends with…wood ticks.

Dermacentor variablis

One of the games that is often a great delight to employees at the CFDC is the great Tick Challenge. Basically, whoever has the most ticks wins. And apparently this year the gender of the tick is also important. How on this green planet can you tell the gender of a wood tick? (A little question that most of us have to ask.) Well, you will notice that the females are wearing necklaces while the males have stripes on their backs; suspenders, according to Lisa. Whoever said ticks weren’t classy? I believe I was the winner of that particular escapade with the grand tally being 11 ticks. Anita, wearing protective rubber boots, was our (lucky) “loser” who had absolutely none.

Something else that we learned from our little journey was the importance of being prepared. Some of us didn’t know exactly what we would be doing that day and we left our field equipment at the museum. As it turns out, that wasn’t a great idea. We ended up clearing a section with a boot scraper and two borrowed picks. Just another lesson to remember: always bring the proper equipment! As well as field equipment, we all learned to dress for any eventuality. You never know what the weather will be like!

As we walked along counting our ticks, slipping in mud and enjoying the fresh prairie air and the beautiful scenery (who said Manitoba is totally flat? The Manitoba Escarpment is full of rocking hills!), we examined any outcrop for signs of the next great mosasaur or plesiosaur. Or perhaps even a fish. Just about any fossil would have been nice. So far we had found the hind leg of a long-since-dead deer and several cow bones (all interesting finds in themselves, but still not what we were looking for).

Our discovered strata

It wasn’t long before Anita gave a shout: she’d found an outcrop of exposed strata that looked promising! We set about digging and looking for the Pembina Member; the shale that has produced most of the fossils at the CFDC. We didn’t find any fossils, but we did notice something interesting. The top layer appeared to be the Millwood Member, but what was beneath that layer belied that particular notion. It was red like Gammon (another rock unit), but had none of the other identifying markers of that particular member. We also found the interaction point between two shale members. Definitely worth a day in the mud!

The rest of the week was mostly learning indoors and shadowing tours. One of the school groups arrived, but it was too wet outside for a proper dig and the roads were slippery. We remained indoors and the kids had a blast playing Dino Hunt, Rock ID and Clipbirds.

Friday was the first day that Lisa and I (the two newest employees) did our first tours. We had a blast! We both had a class of kindergartners who were fun. That is a great age as the kids are happy just telling you stories about how many teeth they have lost or pretending to be mosasaurs and plesiosaurs. It is very difficult to pretend swim/walk like a mosasaur, if you ever want to try it. All in all, it was a wonderful first experience.

Fish vertebrae: right one is squished

Friday we also traveled to one of our dig sites despite more cold wind. There is nothing quite like hiking through the wilderness searching the ground for 80 million year old fossils…and then finding said fossils. We practiced writing our field notes (not an easy thing in the wind and cold!) and bagging our precious little fish vertebrae. (As you can see, one is terribly squished.) It was during this excursion that I discovered my very first fossil! What an experience!

It has been a wonderful week of firsts: first tour, first fossils, first time driving a 4-wheel drive, etc. With such a great start, it is obvious that this is going to be a great summer! So come on down and meet our great staff and dig for some fossils. You’ll have a great time!

I Love the Gammon Ferruginous!

2010-08-31T09:09:00.000-05:00

        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

Summer Fun is All Done!

2010-08-29T09:11:00.000-05:00

The Summer Fun Day Camp wrapped up the program for the summer this past Tuesday with a great group for the last session, making fossil jewelry! It has been a crazy, fun, exciting summer for the day camp, having more participants than ever before! We had so much fun this summer, every day the kids were so full of energy and enthusiasm for the crafts and activities we had planned. We would like to give an extra-big-Bruce-sized-thank-you to all the participants and their parents for being a part of the Summer Fun Program, we hope you all had as much fun as we did! A special thank you to our regular participants, Adam, Jill, Emily, Will, Emma, Ben, Naomi, Sydney, Mayah, Agape, just to name some! These kids always came to camp with a big smile and a great attitude; our staff got to know them and always looked forward to them coming! We also had a number of out of towner participants, Kaylene, Teryn, William, Joey, Vivian, Max, and Brody, came for a few days of camp for the second year in a row all the way from the Lockport area! We were super happy to see this awesome group return, and had tons of fun doing activities with them! And remember, the museum is open all winter, so feel free to stop by and say hi to Bruce and his friends!

Hope everyone had a great summer, and enjoy the school year!

Sacha Debreuil

Youth Program Coordinator

Teeth, Scales, and Cookies!

2010-08-24T08:56:00.002-05:00

It's been another fishy week at the CFDC. The new Fish of the Cretaceous exhibit is open! Featuring a 6ft Pachyrhizodus fish. The exhibit also showcases other 80 million-year old fish such as-- the Xiphactinus, Cimolichthys, Enchodus, and Petanogmius!
Antoine, our five-day-fossil dig tour participant from Quebec, found an Enchodus tooth on Monday. Enchodus had fang-like teeth-- perfect for sinking into prey! Also on the same day, we found two mosasaur ribs. All this came out of our Xiphactinus Killzone site. This is the site the media has been paying attention to lately, and obviously there is still much work to be done!

That night, the Museum was alive... with excitement! Kati Slater-Szirom and Keiichi Aotsuka are research students working at the CFDC until September 15th. They did a presentation for board members, staff, and other Morden dignitaries on what they planned to achieve here. Slater is working on her undergrad thesis and doing research on the geology of the Xiphactinus Killzone. Aotsuka is doing research the the various taxa of cretaceous birds found in our collection. Coffee and cookies were enjoyed by all, Joesph Hatcher was over-joyed to bring leftovers home!
The next day, we were at the Xiphactinus Killzone again! Ted Nelson is our heavy-over-burden extraordinaire! He removed much over-burden whilst others were working on the micro-fossil layer. Some fish vertebrae and other fragments were found that day, but the big accomplishment was Ted Nelson.
Nelson was back at it again the next day, and with the help of Matt Duda and Steve Striemer they removed a whole wall of dirt to help expose new fossils! By the end of the day we were able to complete some field jackets and bring them back to the museum.

Xiphactinus (an extinct fish) jaws.

        At another site, the same day, Antoine, Kathryn Lapenskie, Lisa Burnett and myself were finding some very large lateral fish scales! Fish scales are often found in the Pembina Member shale. They are typically a dark brown/red colour and appear glossy next to the matte shale.
        Antoine had another prosperous day on Thursday. He aided in finding several vertebra (most of them fish), a couple of teeth, and other fossil fragments. Lapenskie galumphed down into the Boyne member and discovered a possible cephalopod!
        We ended the week on a high note. Andrea Hrenchuk plucked a mosasaur tooth and other fossils out of the Xiphactinus Killzone. Antoine worked on uncovering many fossil frags (including some fish vertebrae) in a square meter area. Hatcher discovered two new outcrops of the mineral, bentonite, which he is actively doing research on. And for myself, I finished another blog post. Hurrah!

-Jaclyn Kozak

Knock knock!

2010-08-01T18:03:00.001-05:00

        What a whirl-wind week! Monday, the CFDC had very special visitors-- the Daily Planet from the Discovery Channel came and checked out the Xiphactinus Killzone! Jim Bamburak from Manitoba Geological Survey, Mayor Wilson (Morden), and Mayor Harder (Winkler), joined us as well. Even with all these visitors on site, we were still able to find some incredible fossils! A few fish vertabra were uncovered, rib fragments, and a Hesperonis vertabra! The Hesperonis was a sharp-toothed, flightless, average 1.5 m (4-5 ft) tall bird that swam in the Cretaceous sea eighty million years ago.
        A very important visitor arrived during the week. Kati (pronounced Cod-ee) Slater-Szirom is from Washington State. She is doing her undergrad research with us and is very excited to be back at CFDC. She joined us last year on our 5-Day Fossil Excursion and fell in love with the Pembina Valley (and the fossils!). Her plan is to major in geology and then become a paleontologist. Along with the other geology student at the CFDC, Kathryn Lapenskie, they joined up with Bamburak and looked at various dig site’s stratigraphy and and took rock and mineral samples.
        We had a few more visitors including CBC, CTV, Winnipeg Free Press, Morden Times, and CJOB in the museum through-out the week. MP of Portage Lisgar, Candice Hoeppner even came down to the Xiphactinus Killzone! We ourselves played visitors to the Winnipeg Kids' Fringe Festival on Friday and Saturday. The volunteers were fantastic and we enjoyed showing the kids real fossils and talking to their parents about taking a trip to Morden. One of the local vendors was even nice enough to give us free snow cones!
        What a deliciously fossilicious week!

-Jaclyn Kozak

Kathryn's Contemplations on the Chaos

2010-08-01T12:21:00.001-05:00

        Hi! My name is Kathryn Lapenskie and I am majoring in geology at the University of Manitoba. Here is what I have to say-- the last two weeks at the CFDC have been busy and exciting! On Monday July 12th a film crew from the Daily Planet show on the Discovery Channel came out to take some footage of our "Xiphactinus Killzone." They spoke to the paleontologists from the museum about the fossils and were able to interview Jim Bamburak from the Manitoba Geological Survey who talked about the geological significance of this site. It was very exciting and fun to have the film crew down and we will post in the future as to when we will be featured on Daily Planet.
        The rest of the week was spent in preparation for our official press release on the "Xiphactinus Killzone." Our field crew spent a lot of time at the site continuing to prep fossils and removing more overburden. Friday morning we sent out information to newspapers and news stations in Winnipeg about our big dig site and we had a huge rush of camera crews and journalists out to the site that day to interview our field crew and get some footage of the fossils.
        We also had an exciting Monday-Tuesday July 19 and 20 when Jim Bamburak came out to the museum again to go on a “geology field trip” around some of our sites on the Manitoba Escarpment. Jim is very interested in researching the Gammon Ferruginous Member of the Pierre Shale Formation and was exploring many of our sites to find this elusive unit of rock. Jim has confirmed the Gammon Member at several of our sites including the "Xiphactinus Killzone." We also spent some time exploring the Boyne Member of the Carlile Formation and found a well preserved shark tooth and found multiple thin beds of coquina, a sedimentary rock composed almost entirely of shells and a small amount of cement. We did a lot of rock climbing and collected a lot of samples for our collection.
        Also! I've continued to find more mosasaur from a skeleton we've been excavating since the beginning of June. AND! Because this skeleton is so significant (and it keeps getting bigger) we get to name it! If you have an idea, comment on this blog and your name could be picked and credited!

-Kathryn Lapenskie

New Fossils at Xiphactinus Killzone

2010-07-29T10:45:00.003-05:00

        Yesterday proved to be a fantastic field day. Volunteers, staff and public participants arrived at the Xiphactinus site to continue excavation of the specimens. The site is making excellent progress and field jackets are starting to come into the museum. Both the fish Xiphactinus and the mosasaur Clidastes have been mapped onto a grid and are beng jacketed as we speak.

        There was some excitement at the site with a large crayfish found while bringing some water up from a near by water source to finish the field jackets. It was about 13 cm in length with great big pincers. It scared us half to death and thought it was going to get my big toe!

        Later in the afternoon, a large portion of the lower jaw from Xiphactinus was recovered, numerous small teeth and fish vertebrae as well as a lower leg bone (tibiotarsus) of the bird Hesperornis by a 5-day Fossil Adventure participant, Gavin. It is complete and excellently preserved.

Anita Janzic
Curator

Fishy findings!

2010-07-22T13:33:00.006-05:00

It was a grand start to the week for Andrea Hrenchuk and myself. We took a school out digging to the highest point on the escarpment, Mount Nebo! The kids had an excellent time digging and uncovered a few fossils! We then joined up with the rest of the crew at our "Xiphactinus Killzone" site. Joesph Hatcher was hardcore excited about his recent finds from last week. And was overjoyed to be finding more Xiphactinus fossils.

The crew went back to the "Xiphactinus Killzone" the next day. The name comes from a fossil that was peaking out of the ditch wall, which was recovered last year right before the end of the 2009 field season. The fossil ended up being a Xiphactinus, and the site became a top priority for excavation for this season because of that glorious find. A variety of different creatures are being found in the Killzone-- including mosasaur vertebrae! Which Linda found on Tuesday. Linda (the first picutre on your left) is one of our fantastic volunteers who is mostly in the lab where she preps fossils so they may be researched or put on display for the public. Hrenchuk grid-mapped fossils, including mosasaur and fish vertebrae, that were still in-situ (haven't been disturbed from their resting place). She then proceeded to apply a field jacket to the specimens so that the fragile fossils may be transported back to the museum safely and intact. Field jackets are made of different layers including wet newspaper/paper towel, burlap (potato sack), and plaster of Paris. Wednesday, the crew was back at the site again. And the site was producing more mosasaur vertebrae, fish vertebrae, and micro fossils again! However, our volunteers couldn't take the 32°C and 41 humidex heat, so the crew headed out. The crew returned and worked on the Xiphactinus Killzone, and found more fishy vertebra and started cleaning up the site to prepare for our visitors on Monday. And who might these visitors be? Stay tuned to our blog to find out!

-Jaclyn Kozak

All I wanna do is find fossils with you!

2010-07-13T12:15:00.005-05:00

        This week at the CFDC-- fossils, fossils and MORE fossils! On rainy Monday, Katie Magotiaux, Matt Duda, Joesph Hatcher and myself attempted many of our sites with variable success. Most of our sites were too wet, Hatcher did verify Lapinskie's mosasaur find at one of our sites. We also went looking for invertebrate fossils and bentonite layers at Odanah shale exposures. We did end up at one of our unnamed sites, where the famous paleontologist, Elizabeth Nicholls, researched and published her findings on its stratigraphic sections for the world.
        Magotiaux and Anita Janzic had more success at finding invertebrate fossils on Tuesday-- finding a bivalve yet to be identified and other unidentifiable impressions, while Duda and Hatcher were finding fossils north-west! The same bank that earlier in the season Duda found a Xiphactinus jaw and Janzic found articulated mosasaur vertebrae, is producing yet again! On Tuesday the team found many fragments and a crushed mosasaur vertebra of Pembina preservation. They also collected seven mosasaur vertebrae and several other fragments!
        The whole Fossil Crew, along with CFDC's paleontologists-- Anita Janzic and Joesph Hatcher, went back to the north-west bank that was booming with fossils on Wednesday. Lapenskie found a lovely set of mosasaur pteryogoid teeth-- which are a mosasaur's second set of teeth that are hooked back, forcing prey to their stomachs with no chance of escape! Lapenskie's luck continued through-out the day, she also found a beautifully preserved Tylosaurus (a large mosasaur) tooth. Andrea Hrenchuk and Katie Magotiaux did quarry mapping of a horse skeleton for a taphonomy study, whilst the rest of us were finding fossils. Both are biology students at the University of Winnipeg and enjoy identifying bones! If you ever have a bone that needs identification-- they're your girls!
         Duda had a dig tour on Friday. He went and visited last year's death assemblage and found a few new fragments and a mosasaur tooth, possibly from it's pterygoid set! Also at the site he noticed cougar footprints and feces! Our animal friends are usually just cows, but don't worry yourselves! The CFDC has and will remain to take the utmost precaution at all their sites-- to protect themselves, the public, and the wildlife.
        Friday was also an exciting day for Hatcher at the "Xiphactinus Kill zone". He discovered Xiphactinus vertebra that started the site's interest and a glorious fragment of a very tiny vertebra that he needs to do some research to identify. The Xiphactinus vertebra had many spikes attached (ribs and neural arches!) as well as possible skull elements. It may be in the Gammon Ferruginous member, that isn't readily visible or present Manitoba. A geologist from the Manitoba Geological Survey plans on visiting the Morden area to confirm that this layer is indeed the Gammon! What a wonderful and huge scientific find for the CFDC if it turns out to be so!
        Hrenchuk ended off the week on a positive note at the "Xiphactinus Killzone". She took her full-day dig tour group to the site to do some brushing, pickaxing, shoveling, carrying buckets, and learning. Much fun was had and is yet to be had at the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre!

-Jaclyn Kozak

Major Excavation and Major Exhibitions!

2010-07-05T09:37:00.002-05:00

Hatcher enjoying the summer heat at the Xiphactinus Killzone.

         Despite the torrential rain fall, the CFDC still had a very SUCCESSFUL week. Katie Magotiaux and myself worked on our upcoming "Fish of the Cretaceous" exhibit. Recently, due to construction, our previous fish exhibit had to be removed because of the fossils sensitivity to the constant vibration of jack hammers. But no fear! The new exhibit is going to be fish-tastic! Currently we are working on molding a Pachyrhizodus caninus, a large carnivorous fish, but smaller than the Xiphactinus. The molding process involves layers upon layers of latex rubber painted on the fossil. After we "paint" the one side, we move on to the next. It is essential to leave a spoat in the mold so we can pour plaster in it later to make the replica. In the end we'll have two individual sides that we can put together, pour plaster, let dry, and enjoy! All of our dangling creatures in the museum are not real fossils. They are replicas of the real deal. The reasons are ample-- fossils are mineralization of a bone and therefore very heavy! Secondly-- we don't want to drill holes in fossils to build the specimen's 3D skeleton! Thirdly-- fossils are fragile and we must be extra careful with the real-deal! The Pachyrhizodus should be complete very soon, drop in and say "hello"!
       Matt Duda and Andrea Hrenchuk are currently working on complete a glorious Terminonaris (crocodile) exhibit! The crocodile was excavated in Dauphin last summer. The CFDC did some research and prepped the specimen this winter and also did a few replicas of the fossils. Duda and Hrenchuk are currently working on information and making accurate looking replicas (including painting) of the replica fossils!
      Geology student Kathryn Lapenskie is working on a volcano exhibit! She plans on tying in recent volcanic eruptions and prehistoric volcanic eruptions in the information she will be presenting. Right now, she is having a lot of fun making an accurate model of the Mayon Volcano, a perfect cone-shaped stratovolcano in the province of Albay, in the Bicol Region, on the island of Luzon. She had hoped the CFDC might fund her to go on an excursion to the island, but the funds were a no-go.

Fish jaw and mosasaur rib.

Besides all our exciting upcoming exhibits we are working on, this week we called in the back hoe to dig up the top overburden of a ditch. Joesph Hatcher and Reid Graham found a Xiphactinus jaw bone protruding out from the side of ditch, as well as a mossaur vertabra at the very end of our 2009 field season last year! Hatcher believes that this will be a very prosperous zone for fossils. And already we found another fish jaw bone (possibly Xiphactinus or Pachyrhizodus?), and here's the neat part-- fossilized to it was a rib! We still have to dig more over-burden off the top to get to the layer where the Xiphactinus jaw was found, but the fossil crew is looking more than forward to a summer of hard work!

-Jaclyn Kozak

Mosasaurs and Plesiosaur Oh my!

2010-06-29T12:28:00.004-05:00

Already the fossil crew has been incredibly busy, and we're barely hitting the good weather! School digs and museum tours are under-way, and in July and August are already starting to fill-up with family and group dig tours! Book now!

Darrel Jones shows off his findings.

Darrel Jones was our first 2-day dig tour. He found a huge mosasaur vertebra (a backbone), a fish vertebra and multiple fossil fragments. We took him out to our "Xiphactinus Killzone" , where we're trying out different digging styles! Usually the only tool you need digging in the shale are paint-brushes. But at the "Xiphactinus Killzone" we have rakes, pick axes, shovels, and rock-hammers removing wheel barrows of dirt. Besides heavy over-burden removal (thank-you Darrel!), we're also getting our feet wet! Anita Janzic, Katie Magitoaux, Andrea Hrenchuk, and myself got in a pond and did some sifting for fossils and fossil fragments. We found a few small, interesting and unidentifiable pieces and micro fossils that we collected and took back to the museum. The amount of hard work put into the "Xiphactinus Killzone" has been rewarding! This week it produced some Hesperornis fossils, which are extinct birds that lived during the Cretaceous period and are very rare in our collection. Hatcher found his very first Styxosaurus! He found a Styxosaurus's vertebra. The Styxosaurus is the genus name for a type of long-neck plesiosaur. Lapenskie also found a beautifully preserved fish vertebra, micro-fossils, and fossil fragments.

Sifting for fossils!

Lapenskie and Kaite Magotiaux also had a successful week with her school tours. Along with MacGregor students, Carman Grade 7's, and students from Hartney School, they helped uncover TWO vertebrae, one with the neural spine and chevrons still attached, and the other with the neural spine and excellent indication where the chevrons once were attached. They also uncovered a few fish vertebrae and other unidentifiable fossil fragments in situ-- meaning the fossils have not been disturbed for 80 million years! She left the fossils in the ground to be quarry mapped.
Quarry mapping indicates where each fossil is found in relation to the other fossils. And by studying their placement we can come up with a hypothesis on why and how the fossil is there. Taphonomy is the study of what happens to an organism when it dies to recovery. It gives paleontologists and other scientists clues on where fossils could be located, and why they are there. Last year the CFDC did a study on the decomposition on two already dead bears.This year we are looking at a horse and coyote previously deceased to natural causes on our sites. There is much to look forward to this CFDC 2010 Field Season!

-Jaclyn Kozak

Summer Fun!

2010-06-10T09:45:00.001-05:00

The Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre in Morden, MB is pleased to once again be offering day camp programs this summer in July and August! This year we have put more emphasis on making sure that each activity has learning outcomes specified by the Manitoba curriculum.We are also offering package deals and a Bingo card for frequent participants encouraging children to try all the different activities we have planned for them!

Fossil van to the rescue of 80 million year old dead things!

The activities this year include some favorites from last year, like Volcano Making, Fossil Dig Day, and Fossilicious Sediments! We’ve also planned some great new activities such as JUMBO DINOS, where we will do some experiments to see just how big dinosaurs really were! Everyone will get their own jumbo dinos to decorate and take home as well!Another exciting new activity is Craftaceous, for the kids that love to do arts and crafts!

To find our complete activity calendar, go to the Kids Corner of the CFDC website. Additional information on the activities, as well as registration forms can be found on the website. If there are any questions regarding the Summer Fun Program please contact me, Sacha, either by phone at 822-3406, or by email.

Sacha Debreuil
CFDC Youth Program Coordinator 2010

CFDC goes tourist!

2010-05-31T09:14:00.323-05:00

Despite the drizzling rain, we had one fun Friday on May 28^th when the CFDC staff went and visited other local tourist destinations. The “morden-ite” and returning staff were even surprised at the amazing opportunities for adventure in Morden. Our first stop was just a few steps away, to the Manitoba Baseball Hall of Fame, where we got the inside scoop from Joe Wiwcher, who is looking for volunteers as well as looking forward to the annual Fundraiser Buffet. Next stop was long-time favorite at Morden Park. The green grass, new playgrounds and bathrooms, and upcoming spray-park perked our interest and even the rain could not stop us. Downtown, we visited the Pembina Hills Art Centre where we got our passports stamped. Have you heard about the Pembina Valley Passport Adventure? Visit the best Pembina Valley attractions, get at least three stamps, and you can be eligible to enter a draw for up to $1500 worth of local swag! Including a Family Fossil Dig Adventure at the CFDC! Onwards, to Morden's Tourist Booth, Brianna Hunt had many pamplets, brochures, and maps about all to do in the Pembina Valley, and beyond! If you're planning a trip anywhere in Canada, give her a visit!We took a break for lunch, enjoying a Bruce Burger at The Timbers. Mmm, fish!

          Conner, one of our high school volunteer students, joined us after lunch as we went to explore Morden's Research Station. Known world-wide for its agricultural research, like "plant breeding for flax, field peas, roses and ornamental (trees and shrubs)". It's also a perfect place for picture snapping! Another great place to take pictures is Stanley Park! Located south-west of Morden. The playgrounds, picnic and campsites make this a perfect place for family fun. The weather put a wet blanket on our next stop... it was too muddy and mucky outside for the dogs of Dogtown to come out and play! It will remain on our list of things to do, perhaps when we're not so busy digging up fossils. We also added Manitoba's only drive-in-movie-theatre to that list. Bring a blanket and your sweetie, or bring the van of kids to the Stardust Drive In Theatre; they have a variety of movie choices throughout the summer to please just about everyone!
          Morden's Airport gets visitors flying in from all over the world. Mountain City Aviation (located there) can also teach you how to fly! Or, they offer special cloud-high tours of the Pembina Valley, or take an airplane ride to Steinbach to enjoy supper, and be back in time to get the kids to bed early!
          Another fantastic attraction is Morden Colert Beach! Which boasts hiking trails, a sand engulfed lake, and Lake Minnewasta Campground, where you can pick what CFDC creatures you'd like to camp the night with, like Mosasaur Park, Turtle Park, Plesiosaur Park, and more!
Gaslight Sales staff was very welcoming to us, showing off their vintage artifacts decorating their building, their historical pictures of ol' Morden, and of course-- all their offical Harley-Davidson motorcycles and merchandise! Our final stop of the day was at Pembina Threshermen's Museum, found between Winkler and Morden. Sign up for a tour or explore the many farmer and pioneer artifacts and homes they have in their museum.
          Thank-you to the owners and workers at all these fine destinations for taking the time out of your busy day to tell us what you do! It was so amazing talking about the worldly tourists Morden gets in every year, and the dedication that not only do these businesses have to Morden and the Pembina Valley, but also the community's support that has helped these "touristy" destinations thrive and grow!

-Jaclyn Kozak

Finding the missing puzzle pieces!

2010-05-31T08:51:00.002-05:00

Another week is complete, but don’t worry—there’s still plenty of fossils to be found! The beautiful weather was a good sign for this week’s prosperity. On Monday, whilst the fossil crew was preparing a site for our Season Dig Launch we found another phalange (finger bone) of the short-neck plesiosaur, Ianto — one of our big 2008 season finds! Which leads us to believe, there’s still more Ianto to uncover! Later that day at another dig site, we dug up more articulated (connected) mosasaur vertebrae (back bones), Xiphactinus vertebra, and a mosasaur jaw bone including some teeth!

Tuesday was our first school dig tour, everyone had a blast and the kids found a few fossils. Wednesday was a particularly successful day. At one site we found a couple of really small fish vertebrae, Xiphactinus vertebrae, a mosasaur vertabra, ribs, and other fossil fragments.

Saturday was CFDC's big Season Launch, and we offered free tours and free digging to the public. It was a great success, drawing in over 200 visitors to the museum. Thank-you to all who came out, and great work on finding over fifteen fossils, including various fish vertebrae, mosasaur vertebrae, rib fragments, and two carpels (wrist bones) from Ianto!

-Jaclyn Kozak

Zooks! CFDC's 2010 Field Season Beginneth!

2010-05-17T09:45:00.002-05:00

       The Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre's 2010 Field Season has begun! The summer students are finally here (after acing all their university exams)-- and we're still expecting some interns! From left to right: Katie , Matt, Jaclyn, Andrea, Kathryn , and Sacha.
        It's been one incredible first week for us summer students, and the year-round staff are excited to have us back too! The new dig team includes Katie Magitoaux (Junior Field Technician), Kathryn Lapenskie (Junior Field Technician), and returning students Matthew Duda (Senior Field Technician), Andrea Hrenchuk (Senior Field Technician), Sacha Debreuil (Youth Program Coordinator) and myself, Jaclyn Kozak (Youth Program Co-ordinator). I'm responsible for blogging every week, because I'm the English student in a large sea of science degrees.
       Already on the first day, we had some success with finding fossils, with the guidence of Assistant Curator, Joesph Hatcher. On Monday we surface collected a mosasaur vertebra. The Mosasaur vertebra was found in the Pembina Member, it was pinkish in colour and had decent preservation.
      On Friday we found some more mosasaur vertebrae, semi- articulated!(some what connected) Lapenskie, our geology major, was most excited about the 7ft cut of bentonite layers, “It had perfect horizontal layers and distinct contacts between the bentonite and the shale.”
        There are big plans and high hopes for this year's field season. The CFDC has added new dig sites just ripe for excavation. There is big plans for large geological field work on the Pembina, Millwood, and Odanha Members, including more bentonite sampling for regional correlations of the beds. The CFDC has already spotted our next big finds-- including a mosasaur, Xphactinus, and a plesiosaur partially submerged under a cattle pond. However, until we get these fossils out of the ground, we won't be able to tell how complete they are or even if the preservation is very good for research.
       Throughout our season, we'll continue our successful museum and dig tours, excavating and quarry mapping at our regular sites, and we'll be hitting up the International Childeren's Festival, Kid's Fringe and Corn & Apple Festival again.
Come on down for a visit this 2010 Field Season, meet our staff  and be a part of discovering history!

-Jaclyn Kozak

Summer Winding Down

2008-09-09T10:36:00.003-05:00

This season has been very eventful with great new summer staff, interns both university and highschool, volunteers and visiting palaeontologists. We've had some great finds including "Ianto" a short-necked plesiosaur, "Angus" a great big mosasaur and an amazing "Death Assembledge" with over 180 fossils. There were also some great surface finds we'll be examining from the Millwood Member later this fall.

Unfortunately the weather is changing, the leaves are falling and we're slowly running out of time. The staff and volunteers are busy working on documenting and removing specimens at various sites. We have lots of tours booked to help with this so good luck to you all!

Full details of all of the finds from 2008 will be posted on the CFDC website shortly. We'll provide the link.

Reid's Blog

2008-08-29T16:27:00.003-05:00

But without a doubt, my best memory of the summer will be the finding of Angus. I woke up that morning and thought one thing. I'm going to find a Mosasaur today. I had no idea that I was right. Positive thinking I guess. The group was a pleasant family from Winnipeg, the LaChance family. Very interested and more than excited at the idea of getting to find fossils. We headed up to the museum property for the afternoon. there was one quarry that I was dying to dig at because no one else had dug there before. it was a new quarry that a backhoe had dug up a year earlier. We passed by it hundreds of times but that day I was determined to find something. It was really hot, we plunked down in the shade, hoping to find the discovery of the decade in the comfort of the shade. Of course that would be too easy. The family started out digging around the quarry, and I started surface collecting, just walking around trying to see what I could on the surface. It didn't take long for me to spot a small fossil sticking out of the side of a small rise in the shale. I grabbed the one woman, Chantel Gibson, and ask her if she would like to work on a fossil. About 10 minutes later we had the first find of Angus. It was what I thought would be a quadrate bone. Once the first fossil was found, everyone wanted in on the action. I did a little digging but mostly I supervised, making sure that they didn't damage any of the fossils they found. As soon as the LaChance family started digging, fossils appeared everywhere. at first it was just fragments, but then when Doris LaChance found the first teeth, then I realized the scope of the find. It was a beautiful jaw with two intact teeth. And they were huge. I knew right away that it was a huge find. I even did a little prospector dance in celebration. They kept finding so much fossil material that I couldn't keep up. I was everywhere making sure that the fossils weren't damaged by careless hands. But this family was the best excavators I’ve seen. Their patience, steady hands, and enthusiasm! Before the day was done they had excavated over 23 different fossils, from teeth to back bones to ribs. And we had a name. Chantel and her husband Scott live in Scotland. So a good Scottish name seemed appropriate. Jokingly I suggested Angus. And it stuck. I wish I could have named it Charlie or Ishmael. But it was Chantel's discovery. So Angus it was.

But everyone was overflowing with excitement. At the time I had no idea the how far the find would go. But 5 o'clock rolled around and we had to return to the museum. As hard as it was to leave Angus, I knew that I would be back as soon as I could. Over the next month we continued to expand the site, with just our field crew, and also other tours. The one day I kept finding tooth after tooth. It was so awesome. Once Joey and Anita, our paleontologists, identified the size and type of Mosasaur, Dave, our director, sent out a press release. The same afternoon, CTV and the Free Press arrived to film it and write about it. I barely had time to tell my family. Before I knew I was on the front page and on the national and local news. My friends are all calling me to congratulate me. It still blows my mind. Largest fossil find in thirty years, second largest Mosasaur in Canada. I never thought any of this while we worked on it. It was just a cool find. Nothing big. And now everyone credits me with the discovery. So I want to set the record straight right now. It was the LaChance family, not me that made the find. They found it and named it. I was just the staff member lucky enough to be there. It is funny though. Their family name means "the luck" And we are all very lucky to find such a big find.

2008-08-29T15:20:00.010-05:00

August 6, 2008
Today we had a special DIno Day Camp. A radio reporter CKMW broadcasted our afternoon. We had a excited group of kids ready to play. We started off with a Museum tour. All the children had many comments about everything on display. With our imaginations we turned into pirates of the late Cretaceous and explored the Western Interior Seaway. Our adventure lead us to Pterosaur nests, Stegasaurs, and even the evil Tiki Buhler Naka-naka. Our brave pirates found the clues which led to the lost treasure, their own flying Pterosaur. An excited bunch of kids crowded around the radio microphone and screamed with joy, all trying to get a turn for their own individual fame. Next the children made their very own Allosaurus tooth necklace with exotic beads. They all looked mystically beautiful. Then the kids grabbed a brush and headed for the dig box, each finding dinosaur bones hidden beneath the sand. After the dig they wound down by going back in time with the Magic School Bus. Today was a wonderful adventure for all.

Jolene Kozak

2008-08-29T15:19:00.006-05:00

August 25th 2008
Today was the last day of summer kids programs for the year. We had a full class registered for Volcano Making and were looking forward to it, as the kids always have a great time with this program. We had a bit of a rush to get ready as some of the children showed up 20 minutes early, but it didn't take us long to get everything together. The kids played with the puzzles and dinosaur toys as we waited for everyone to arrive. All but one of the children had already been to several programs over the summer, and it was nice to see some of our favorites on the last day. Once everyone had arrived we had the children put on their smocks and explained to them how we were going to make the volcano. We let them mix their own plaster and let them know when it was the right consistancy to start putting it onto the top of a pop bottle with a small plastic glass glued inside of it. Once everyone was done molding their volcanos, we cleaned our hands and I led a tour of the museum while Jolene cleaned away the extra plaster and set out the painting supplies. The kids had all been to the museum before and so knew almost everything I had to tell them on the tour. They answered all the hard questions and even remembered the name Hesperornis. After visiting Bruce, we came back to the room, and the children put their smocks back on to begin painting. We had our most colorful bunch of volcanoes yet, with all the colors of the rainbow. While the paint dried the kids learnt some facts about volcanoes, and had a bit of time to play. When it was almost time to go, they gathered back together at the tables with their volcanoes and prepared for the grand finale. Jolene had already poured some baking soda into the tops of the volcanoes, and I passed out little cups of vinegar with red food coloring in it. On the count of three, everyone poured in the vinegar and watched as the volcanoes erupted. The kids loved it so much, we did it three more times before it was time to go. Everyone seemed to have had a lot of fun and it was a great end to a summer full of adventures.

Tiffany Tilley

Duda's Blog

2008-08-29T15:14:00.005-05:00

A fact that is likely unknown to many in this area is that there are actually three different kinds of shale in this area, two of which we find fossils in. The CFDC digs in a formation of shale known as the Pierre Shale Formation. The Pierre Shale Formation is made up of three members; or layers perhaps. Above: Death Assembly
These three layers, going from the top to the bottom are known as the Odanah Member, the Millwood Member, and the Pembina Member.

Most of the fossils in the CFDC have been extracted from the Pembina Member of the Pierre Shale Formation. These fossils are usually pinky-white in color and are very crumbly. Three exciting finds that have occurred in the Pembina Member this field season!

First off, Heather Nelson, a fellow field tchnician of the CFDC stumbled across the fossils of a plesiosaur who she named "Ianto." Heather's discovery yielded at least ten vertebrae and a limb bone, not to mention a couple fish vertebrae thrown into the mix.

Secondly, board member Joe Brown came across what is known as a death assembly. The death assembly contained fossils from mosasaurs, fish, sharks, and birds, and was the first multi-species death assembly found in this area. This area was first dug in by school groups, who uncovered small sections of this find. So far over 150 fossils have been excavated and evtracted from the site, with many still waiting to be found!

Finally, as the field season was closing down, Reid Graham led a tour ground up to the CFDC property on a dig tour. They ended up discovering "Angus," the second largest mosasaur in Manitoba. This was a huge find and the media lapped it up. The find is still being worked on and will continue to be worked on next field season.

The CFDC has also discovered fossils in the Millwood Member. These fossils are very different from the fossils found in the Pembina Member. Fossils found here are very dark in color, in some cases jet black. They are smooth, and are often in very nice condition. Millwood shale is a lot more more solid than shale from the Pembina member, which makes the excavation of fossils extremely difficult. That is why most of these fossils have been collected right from the surface.

Several beautiful fossils have been found in the Millwood Member. So far two Hesperornis vertebrae, two mosasaur vertebrae, mosasaur jaw fragments, squid pen fragments, a plesiosaur vertebra, and several fish vertebra have been found and brought back to the museum. These finds are all jet black and extremely smooth, and were all found above ground lying on the surface.

I would like to continue searching in the Millwood Member, as the fossils are in great condition, and the area is practically "untapped."

Ianto

2008-08-29T15:11:00.003-05:00

The other day myself, Reid, Matt and Joey took a school group out to Mt. Nebo for an afternoon of field work. I decided to get up and stretch my legs. Walking around I noticed a vertebra poking out of the shale. I got out my brush, started brushing away the top layer of shale and uncovered three more vertebrae! I called over my coworkers and we continued to brush the shale away. A few minutes later we’d uncovered five nicely preserved plesiosaur vertebrae. Then came the really hard part, I had to give it a name! After much deliberation I finally settled on Ianto (pronounced: YAN-toe).

Since then we’ve been back to the site many times, and more fossils are still being found. Later on in the field season we’re planning on bringing Ianto back to the museum and it will be examined during the winter season.

-Heather

2008-07-16T10:19:00.004-05:00

Hey everyone! My name is Heather, I’m a summer student at the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre! I’m a third year archaeology student at the University of Manitoba, this is my first year at the museum and I’m really looking forward to a fun summer! The honor of keeping the museum blog up to date has been passed on to me. Wow it’s been a long time since the blog has been updated, but for good reason! We have been very busy in May and June with school field trips. I think we all felt a little overwhelmed at the beginning of the summer, but we managed to get through it!

The school tours have since stopped and we’re now focusing our energy on finding and uncovering fossils in the field as well as our paleo tours. Have you heard of our paleo tours yet? This is a REALLY COOL chance for you to come out with us and see what it’s like to be a paleontologist for the day! If you’re interested check out our website at http://www.discoverfossils.com/Programs&Tours/AdventureTours.html

Keep checking back, I’ll keep you posted on all the new and exciting things happening at the museum, and new fossil discoveries throughout the summer!

-Heather

Rock & Fossil Festival

2008-02-28T10:42:00.005-06:00

On February 22 & 23 the CFDC hosted its very first Rock & Fossil Festival, as one of the many projects of the Town of Morden Chautauqua Spirit project funded through Cultural Capitals of Canada. Participants included schools, adults, students and families.

Individuals could view the museum, collection room, exhibitors area and take with them mineral or fossil cards and dinosaur magnets. Those that were more enthusiast than visitors, brought in their own treasures for identification and viewed a Triceratops from Montana and flint knapping.

Thanks again to the Mineral Society of Manitoba, the Manitoba Archaeology Society, PaleoWorld Research Foundation and the CFDC including its staff and wonderful volunteers.

Hope to see everyone next year.

Love -o- saurus

2008-02-28T09:35:00.005-06:00

Recently the Morden Daycare visited the CFDC for a tour of the museum. The group was great! They made a Love-o-saurus for us. It's still in the office and everyone just loves it.

We look forward to many youth organizations and school groups visiting the CFDC this season. We really appreciate all their wonderful gifts and letters.

Thanks!

Summer Job Fairs Great Success

2008-02-07T08:40:00.001-06:00

Each year the CFDC attends career and summer job fairs at Universities and Colleges within Manitoba. After attending the University of Winnipeg and University of Manitoba fairs we were impressed with the students who visited our booth. In total over 300 students stopped by and numerous others were interested in what we had to offer. Our booth consisted of real fossil displays, summer employment opportunities and promotional information.

We hope students will apply for the summer employment opportunities we offer. Five positions are required for Field Technicians (supervising public digs) and two for Youth Program Co-ordinators (providing workshops and daycamps for youth). To view the complete position descriptions click on http://www.discoverfossils.com/AboutUs/Employment.html.

The CFDC will be at Red River College next in Winnipeg from 9-12pm. Make sure you come and find us on February 19th.

Triceratops Ready for Festival

2008-02-07T08:36:00.000-06:00

Work on the Triceratops brought in by PaleoWorld Research Foundation from the Garfield County Museum in Jordan, Montana, USA is under way. Palaeontologist, Joseph Hatcher has been air scribing away extremely hard ironstone that has encrusted most of the fossil remains. To the left he is air scribing a brow horn which is now complete.

On the left you can see the hard layer of ironstone (~1cm in width) along the nasal horn. It is a time consuming process. These fossils along with the braincase (still in the field jacket) will be available for viewing during the upcoming Rock & Fossil Festival to be held at the CFDC on February 22 & 23. Make sure you stop in and ask as many questions as you like to the paleontologist who works on Triceratops.

Triceratops Comes to Morden

2008-01-21T16:27:00.000-06:00

Recently PaleoWorld Research Foundation has been welcomed to the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre (CFDC) where they will begin work preparing dinosaur material from Montana.

Last month Joseph Hatcher, curator of PaleoWorld, brought a Triceratops skull from the Garfield County Museum in Jordan, Montana to Morden, Manitoba. He has begun to expose fossil from the rock matrix in the lab.

The CFDC is hoping to have some of the Triceratops material viewed by residents in Morden before it has to return to the Garfield County Museum.

All we can see now is the occipital (bone connecting the skull to the backbones) and two horns. I'll post another blog once more is exposed.

Busy Bees

2007-11-28T10:56:00.000-06:00

Over the past couple of weeks, volunteers and staff have been extremely busy with the Collection's Room, tidying and reorganizing.

Major accomplishments include:

- relocation and storage of artefacts

- construction of new shelves for field jackets

- reorganization of the photo lab into a research lab

- inventory and shelving of field supplies

The space is now more functional and appropriate for researchers and staff. Three new work areas have been created for lab technicians and official preparation work on Betsy, our recently discovered plesiosaur has begun as a result.

Keep up the good work everyone and many thanks to all those who have helped with this project.

Season Wrap Up

2007-11-28T10:22:00.000-06:00

We've had a very exciting summer season in 2007. Summer students warmed us with their presence, many visitors came to view the collection and we had the privilege of having 4 exchange students from the Canada World Youth program assist with many projects. But as winter is approaching the museum has become quiet without the students to banter with. In the next month or two we'll begin the process all over again in hopes of having another successful summer season in 2008.

Our last day!!!

2007-11-23T11:43:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone (Paul) its Adam again, and for the last time.

Today is our (Me, Mey, Nahla, and Pierre) last day working at the musuem and we have had an amazing time! We have all learned tons and had a truly unique experience.

Personally, I feel almost like an expert on the topic of marine reptiles and the museum has really become a second home to me here! Its been sad saying bye to everyone and I (as well as the rest of the group) will miss everybody dearly and wish everyone at the museum the best of luck and I will definitely hope to visit sometime in the future.

We are all leaving for Indonesia on Dec. 8 but before than we will be giving a final culture show on Dec. 3 which we hope to see everyone at! Anyways on behalf of all of us here at the museum and all of the Canada World Youth group, thank you we have had a wonderful time in Morden.

-Adam, Mey, Nahla, and Pierre

Halo...!

2007-11-13T15:56:00.000-06:00

Hi, It's me Nahla. It's my turn now to write this blog and share our experience and story here in Morden District Museum or Canadian Fossil Discovery Center. It's like the best work placement ever during this youth program! The place that we learn about something new which is totally enrich our life experience. Learning how to dig fossils, make field jacket, doing some project about children's tour, making the 'Shark Attacks' as new exhibition, clean the museum are the best moments of our here for the last two months.

Anyway, next Friday on November 23rd is gonna be the last day of us to volunteering here. I personally really sad because I don't wanna leave this place. We have a lot of fun here that we can't find in another place. We had the chance to make a replica fossils like mosasaur's tooth and dinosaur's baby as our souvenir. I feel very lucky to be involved in all the activity here in museum.

We are also have to finished another projects like database and building exhibition. Hopefully we can finish all of that stuff before November 23rd.

Okay, that's all for now. Hope you guys have good day.

Cheers,
Nahla

Great Museum!

2007-11-01T11:13:00.000-05:00

Hai...hai....it's me Mey. On Saturday October 27th , there was pumpkin carving here at the Museum. Everybody brought their own pumpkins and we carved them together. It was so.... much fun! In Indonesia we don't celebrate Halloween and so I have never done pumpkin carving, or trick or treating. Last week we went out to the field and Nahla and I helped Dave and Paul dig out and make a field jacket, which was fun.

Tuesday October 30th , a school group came to visit the museum. They are from Hutterite Colony. We entertained the children, played games with them and helped them do the dino hunt around the museum. Then in the afternoon we moved a whole bunch of stuff around the collection room and Adam was very tired. We finished the day by cleaning up the museum.

Today Yvonne taught us how to make necklaces and they turned out very beautiful. Paul gave us keychains that are very nice, thank you Paul & Yvonne! We also helped Yvonnne straighten out the stock of the gift shop. Anyway, we do enjoy our day here as volunteer!

That's all for now.
Big hug,
Mey

Hey !

2007-10-26T10:07:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone, it's Pierre-Luc....So first, here's a picture of us, the students here in the museum. I think it's time for you to know how we look... So.. Yesterday, we went to the field with some other volunteers and bring the field jackets to the museum before winter. It was a very nice day and the temperature was perfect ! A warm day with some persons that we like doing a job that we love ! Perfect ! -

Whats up

2007-10-23T16:41:00.000-05:00

Hello all, its Adam again and Anita has just returned from an awesome trip to Texas and we missed her tons while she was gone, however shes back in action.

First off i am going to dedicate this blog entry to Paul (one of the several dedicated volunteers the museum has). Thanks to Paul, I know at least one person is reading these blogs and so their not a complete waste! Jokes but seriously thanks to Paul, Linda, Dave and Laura and all the rest of the volunteers we have not yet met.

So we have been here for over a month now and have accomplished so much! With the help of Anita we completed the new exhibit of the shark attack in the museum and it looks fantastic if i do say so myself. We got the museum ready for Halloween and put up some awesome decorations, revamped the Aggasiz room and have kept the museum...basically spotless. We have also gone on several, in my opinion, very successful trips to the field and got experience making field jackets.

Personally I am still having a very fun time here (and in Morden) and have not been homesick yet. Anyways for people in the Morden area who are interested in our Canada World Youth group, we will be having a culture show (a bunch of performances, dances, songs, etc.) on Dec. 3 right before we leave and we would love to see YOU there.

VISIT THE MUSEUM

-Adam H to the G

2007-10-04T12:36:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

I'm Nahla, one of the participant of Canada World Youth Program 2007-2008 from Indonesia. I've been volunteer here in Canadian Fossil Discovery Center for about a month. Just like three of my friends, Pierre, Adam and Mey, I really do enjoy my time here. Learning something new like fossil, exactly make me feel better. In the same time it is giving me more experience in doing something different that I never thought it before.

Well, on monday Oct 1st, me and the whole group came to visit the museum. Our Project Supervisor, Leslie and Yecin also came. After that, Anita (The Paleontologyst of The Year, hehe... that's what we call her) gave us a tour for about 3o minutes. Everybody looks very happy. I think because they can see Bruce, The King of The Museum. ^_^. At 1.30 there is a break for moslem to pray. After that all of us went to the field. That was a great time. Everybody really interest to find fossil. And yeah, we can find some.

On tuesday, me, Pierre, Mey and Anita went to Winnipeg to set some stuff for the exhibition. Unfortunately, Adam can't join with us because he was sick. But we can do our job very well. After that we went to the University and Winnipeg. Finally back home at 3.30 pm. That was really fun. Thanks Anita for invite us to join with you...

Anyway, that's all for now. And at the end, I just wanna say that being volunteer here exactly make me interest to being a Paleontologyst. Hopefully...

Best regards,
Nahla

Hello friends!

2007-09-25T10:33:00.000-05:00

Hello, I'm Merlyanda Puspa Indah (Mey) and i am from Bangka Belitung Island, Indonesia.

I'm one of the participants in the Indonesia-Canada World Youth Program. I have been in Canada for almost a month and i really like it! Canada is beautiful country and I have never seen snow before and i am very excited! I like Morden a lot becasuse Morden is a cool town and the people here are very friendly. I also really like all the flowers that are all over town.

Like Adam and Pierre, and Nahla who you will be hearing from soon, I am also a volunteer at the Morden Fossil museum. I like the museum because I enjoy the fossils, and i am learning many new skills at the musuem. I'm learning alot about the Mosasaurus and the other creatures that lived with it. We have done many activities at the museum such as making baby dinosaurs from plaster, cleaning the museum together, and have even begun to make a new display for the museum. We cut some pieces of styrafoam, sprey painted it, and then we glue sand on to it. It is goimg to look very cool! We also have gone out looking for fossils and we will do this every thursday.

I am trying my best to learn English so i will write a new blog soon, and maybe even without help! haha See you soon!

-Love Mey

Canada World Youth: day 2

2007-09-13T16:08:00.001-05:00

Hi ! I'm Pierre-Luc from the CWY program. I'm working at the museum with Nahla, Mey and Adam. Today on our second day at the Fossil museum, we went, Adam and I, outside to find some fossils or bones. It was very nice ! The weather wasn't, but it was interesting. We found a fossil of a bird and try to find the missing parts of it. We were so exited to find something ! It was a very nice day ! I'm sure I will enjoy my time here, at the Canadian Fossils Discovery Center witch I thanks a lot for the welcoming they have !

Pierre-Luc Lefrancois, Quebec, QC

Canada World Youth!

2007-09-11T14:12:00.000-05:00

Hello! My name is Adam Helfand-Green and today was my first day of volunteering here at the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre in Morden, Manitoba.

Personally, I am from Toronto and what you may ask is a Torontonian doing way out here? Me, along with 8 other Canadians from all over the country, and 9 Indonesians are here as part of the Canada World Youth Program (or the Indonesian-Canadian Youth Exchange Program). Each one of us has been paired with a counterpart from the other country and are living in pairs in different host families around the community.

We arrived here in Manitoba two weeks ago and spent the first week at an orientation camp which is where we first met the Indonesian partcipants and found out who our counterparts were. We all moved into Morden and our host families' homes on the friday evening and since then we've spent a lot of time getting oriented within the community, learning to deal with cross-cultural experiences, and teamwork. The program is split into two phases, the first is a Canadian phase, in which we will be living and volunteering in Morden for three monthes or so. Then on Dec. 8, the entire group will fly to Indonesia where we will be staying in a town on Sulewesi Island called Dumbaya Bulan and once again volunteer in different jobs and live with host families for another three and a half monthes. An important part of this program is the work placements that we are placed in. Here in Morden they range from the Friendship Centre (Working with the elderly) to working at the Morden Art Gallery.

I must admit that when i first heard that i was going to be working in a fossil musuem for three monthes i was a little bit dissapointed. I used to be really big into fossils as a kid, mostly becuase my Dad was obsessed with them, but I THOUGHT I had outgrown them. We arrived today and i really didn't know what to expect. Canada World Youth tends to be pretty unorganized and we (There are three other partipants in the program working here with me, Pierre-Luc from Quebec, Nahla, and Mei) had no clue what to expect. Sadly the musuem has been somewhat tucked away in the basement of the community centre here, but once your inside the musuem you completely forget where you are. The museum is very nice, clean and well-kept, and of course, has some amazing fossils! As we were being given a tour of the museum and seeing the almost fully complete skeleton of Bruce, I remebered how amazing fossils and dinasours are and why I loved them so much as a kid. I also realized why there are people like Anita and Dave who devote their lives to studying and trying to understand what the world was like so many years ago. It is amazing enough to imagine just how different Manitoba, and the rest of the world looked 80,000,000 years ago, let alone the wonderful and spectacular creatures that inhabited the Earth during this time.

Although, I can't exactly speak for the rest of my counterparts, I think it is safe to say that we, so far, have been throughly impressed by the Museum and are all very excited for our time here. I know that personally I am really excited to be able to partipate in all of the Museum's activities and I really hope to learn as much as possible while I am here. Thanks for Listening!

-Adam Helfand-Green

Farewell!

2007-08-31T13:40:00.000-05:00

Its August 31st and it has come to the time for me to say good bye!

If I has to use two words to describe my time here at the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre, it would be ADVENTURE and FUN! Please let me elaborate..

Adventure is the perfect word to describe my summer job. Ever since I was a kid, I dreamed of finding my own prehistoric lizard! My back pack would be crammed with books and books related to these gigantic beasts. Now, by working at the CFDC, I finally got to live out my childhood dream. For once the books about dinosaurs have now been replaced with fossil excursion supplies! Everyday I get to hike through beautiful vistas, explore new dig sites, and most importantly find fossils! Thank you Dave and Anita for giving me this opportunity.

Fun is the second word I would choose because this is exactly what I experienced! I owe this to the summer staff. I got to work with eight of the coolest people! Here are few words that only us fossil crew members will know:

The Cobra
Rubik's Cube
Slushie and Bike
Big Brother Updates
Wedding Updates
Anthropology
HESPERONIS
Food Critics

Also, the volunteers played a major role to the overall fun! They were great company. Each volunteer managed to put a smile on our faces. I would like to also say thank you to the volunteers for being my number one blogger fans! You guys have kept me motivated every week to keep making the blogs entertaining. And I am sorry Paul we couldn't find your plesiosaur!

There you have it! From reading my blogs you have seen my perspective on what working at the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre was like. Thank you once agian to Anita, for letting me write these blogs every week!

I hope those of you who read my blogs can come down to the museum and experience these two words as well, fun and adventure!

-Kod a.k.a The Insider

Corn and Apple

2007-08-25T10:17:00.000-05:00

This week we've been doing some major cleaning for corn and apple... not for actual real corn and apples, but our annual Morden festival, Corn and Apple!

Corn and Apple festival is a time where the community celebrates Morden by running a three day fair. People from all over the place come to see the spectacle and for our free corn and apple cider. So all of this means that we're going to have LOTS of company!

We've been dusting every nook and cram, windexing every glass surface, and vacuuming every single dust particle. Also, we finally got the text panels for Bruce's room setup just in time for corn and apple. They look great! On the panels are cool pictures and a detail description of the two specimens that are in that room.

Including making the museum spick and span we prepared a gift shop downtown. The gift shop is located on Stephen street, next to John's Bakery. I had the privilege to design a window painting for the gift shop. I painted a huge elasmosaur that stretches its neck across the window and on the bottom of the window sill I painted corals and sea weed. So when your in line waiting for your cob, please check out my Di Vinci work!

But I better wrap up this blog, the museum opens in a few minutes, and I can already hear the corn and apple crowd coming!

-Kod

Manitoba-Montana Exchange Complete

2007-08-20T14:13:00.000-05:00

The 2007 Manitoba-Montana Paleontological Student Exchange was a great success this year. A total of 5 participants in Manitoba and 6 in Montana ventured into the worlds of dinosaurs and marine reptiles.

To re-cap the exchange in Manitoba was a bit wet to say the least but they still managed to find mosasaur fossils. In Montana the weather was the complete opposite, very hot. We helped field jacket dinosaur bones and worked on a Triceratops.

Thanks to everyone who participated and made the exchange a success including, Destination Sports Outfitters, Manitoba Culutre Heritage & Tourism and DAP Plaster.

Photos of the exchange can be viewed at http://www.discoverfossils.com/ under the field research section.

Action movie!

2007-08-20T14:07:00.000-05:00

Just like a ticking time bomb in a fast pace action movie, the fossil crew has 2 weeks left to find an elasmosaur! And like an intense action movie, the fossil crew braved the extreme heat and dangerous terrain last week to uncover ancient treasure! Okay, I am not proclaiming myself as Indiana Jones or anything, but last week was indeed action packed!

We karate chopped the start of the week with two paleo tours. The first paleo tour group found a mosasaur vertebrae, which is very well preserved. It is hard like a diamond and just as precious. The second group actually did collect diamonds! Pembina diamonds that is! Pembina diamonds are selenite rocks that grow naturally in the shale. Unfortunately, they aren't real diamonds, otherwise I would be a millionaire!

At the end of the week the fossil crew went back to the CFDC site with a volunteer, Dave Simpson, to work on the fish specimen. Dave is like the reinforcements the good guys send in a movie when the good guys need help. And help is exactly what Dave did. He helped us find two large fish vertebrae and something we haven't seen before at that dig site, a Hesperonis bone!! This find was the extra boost we needed. The fossil is about 5 cm long and in good condition. Who needs the wish list, when we have Dave? The fossil crew will continue to excavate in the area in hopes of finding more hesperonis bones!

So will this action packed movie have a happy ending? Will the fossil crew find a huge specimen before the summer is up? And will the recently recovered hesperonis bone lead to the very first complete hesperonis the museum has ever seen? Stay tuned to find out.

-Kod

4 Simple Rules

2007-08-12T15:48:00.000-05:00

There are several rituals and things you must do in order to have a successful excavation. The following is a list of 4 things I like to in order to find an amazing specimen:

1. Rub the Wish List
In our work area is a list of things we need to find. This step may sound funny, but rubbing the wish list is an absolute must before we search for the new Bruce. On this list the fossil crew has reserved a spot solely for rubbing and nothing else. By touching the list we hope to gain better luck and wisdom. So far it seems like we need to rub the list a little harder, we haven't brought an Elasmosaur home yet!

2. Think like a Mosasaur
This may seem even more peculiar than rubbing a list, but it served to be a very useful strategy. When your out at the dig site, there is vast amount of shale to look through, it's almost overwhelming to think where to begin. However, if you imagine your self as a scaly marine reptile with 3 sets of teeth, it improves your chances of finding a fossil. For example, by taping into the mind of a mosasaur you can imagine where he would have ate a plesiosaur and left the bones to fossilize. Stephanie and I like to say "If I were a mosasaur, where would I die?" Okay, I know its kinda far fetched, but at least I get to be a mosasaur for a day!

3. Pack Lots of Water
Packing lots of water is less of a ritual than it is as a survival tactic. Some days we will be out in the field for the entire day in the scorching heat. So it is very important to bring lots and lots of water. Staying hydrated is our number one motto.

4. Get Dirty
Here at the CFDC, we like to say, "if you didn't get dirty, then you didn't have fun!". You can't help but get dirty at the dig site. At the end of the day your usually covered head to toe in shale. The best part is when it gets on your face and you don't know about it. So next time if you see me, and it looks like I have a beard, its actually shale! Getting dirty is apart of the job. Once I worked on a fish specimen, and I got up and I realized I had been wallowing in a cow pie! Why do I always have to do the "dirty" work??

So there you have it folks, these are the 4 absolute must to do things before we search!

-Kod

Busy week

2007-08-05T09:45:00.001-05:00

Foremost, I apologize for the short length of this blog. I got into a bit of a biking accident, and it has limited my ability to write a lengthy blog! So kids, the next time your biking, always bike with two hands and remember that a slushie is not more important than your elbow! I kinda learned that the hard way.

Other than my fiasco with the bike, this has been a quiet but busy week. Corinne was gone all week, enjoying her wedding holiday! Congrats Corinne! So when she comes back, we will all have to call her Mrs. Bueckert now! Also, Anita has been gone all week too in Montana, taking part on the student exchange. By the sounds of the Montana blogs, it seems like shes been finding lots of fossils. With those two gone, it sure has been quiet in our museum. However, we had our hands full with programs.

This week we had several days doubled booked with paleo tours, and Ryan almost had Dino Day camps every single day of this week as well. Most of the paleo tour groups worked on the fish site at our new property. Lately there have been larger fossils surfacing next to the fish, right under a layer of jarosite. Those fossils are currently unidentifiable, but hopefully with the help of our summer program participants we will be able to find more fossils and identify it. Perhaps it's a Plesiosaur with an ammonite in its belly?

In the end, it was quite a busy and fun week. But we can't wait until Corinne and Anita gets back, and I can't wait until I can jump on my bike again!

-Kod

Montana - Day 6

2007-08-04T22:00:00.000-05:00

Our final day was a nice easy pace after the past couple of days. We began at the Triceratops site, but sadly did not find any new fossils to help complete the skeleton. Lots of pictures were taken and will be posted soon.

After a couple of hours we made our way to a new look out to view the K/T boundary. The boundary marker where the Cretaceous and the Tertiary meet, or the point where dinosaur fossils are not found above this level. Most research conducted on the K/T boundary is from this locality.

So after the hard week we put in we came back to base camp early, had a nice BBQ while relaxing before the big travel day back to Manitoba.

Montana - Day 5

2007-08-03T23:01:00.000-05:00

WOW!!!!! What an eventful day! I'm not even sure where I should begin. We had a history lesson this morning visiting 3 quarries previously excavated 102 years ago by renowned paleontologist, Barnum Brown.

Out of the 3 quarries an original rock hammer was found now currently in the Garfield County Museum. The third quarry we visited is the type locality for Tyrannosaurus rex. It was neat to see the original pictures of them transporting the field jackets on horse drawn wagons and then to stand right there at the same spot.

We headed back to base camp for a short break until dinner. The evening ahead of us was going to be a challenge. The objective was to load the Torosaurus onto a flat bed from a 10 foot high bank where it was discovered.

I don't know where to begin. Wood was breaking, the jacket was sliding, the truck jumped its blocks and eventually the engine had flames twice. Needless to say we pulled together as an awesome crew and eventually winched the 800 pound jacket onto tires. At this point it was too dark and we couldn't strap it to bring it into town. That joyful task of unloading will be saved for another day.

Montana - Day 4

2007-08-02T23:25:00.000-05:00

Back to the Triceratops site for some more. The day was off to a great start. Two of our participants located several new ribs going back into the wall. The interesting part was the ribs are located on a fault and we could see where they had shifted from.

A crocodile tooth was the highlight of the day for me. Its the closest thing to marine fossils here in Jordan, how could I not be excited. The tooth was only a centimetre in length but the preservation was very nice. That was the first fossil crocodile tooth I'd ever held in my hand.

The day was broken up by looking at some of the geology at North(Long) Point. The view was amazing and included the Fort Union Formation (Paleocene sandstone), the Hell Creek Formation (Cretaceous mudstone) and the Fox Hills Formation (Cretaceous sandstone). Lots of pictures of the trip have been taken and will be posted on the CFDC website http://www.discoverfossils.com/.

Today was one of the longer field days we've put in. We came in for a quick dinner and then headed back out to begin work on a Torosaurus we'll be bringing back to base camp tomorrow evening. We made a great start and should have it transported back by late evening.

Montana - Day 3

2007-08-02T00:34:00.001-05:00

We were off to a great start this morning. The entire CFDC crew and a student from Scotland headed to the Triceratops site and began to plaster a field jacket of the skull. We reviewed the preliminaries and made a really good jacket. The jacket will be heading off to Philadelphia in the fall.

The afternoon was spent in the Garfield County Museum where we saw some marine reptile fossils from the Bear Paw Shale (the equivalent of the Pierre Shale in Morden) and of course lots of Triceratops material.

The evening was spent visiting the Hell Creek Bar, where scenes from Jurassic Park III were shot. It was amazing knowing so many paleontologists have visited this exact bar and sat where we were sitting.

Montana - Day 2

2007-07-31T20:36:00.000-05:00

Things were off to a great start this morning. The weather was nice and cool with a great breeze. You could barely feel the heat. However it did reach 42 C and we were a bit tuckered towards the end of the day.

We began prospecting at a different site, just west of the one yesterday and within minutes our rookie participant discovered the remains of a soft shelled turtle. " I just thought it looked interesting by its texture but never thought it would be something" remarked Jennifer Cassils after excavating through hard siltstone.

After much deliberation, it's suggested that the turtle belongs to the genus Trionyx from the Hell Creek Formation, approximately 65 million years old.

Our paleo student, Chris West worked on his very first field jacket today. He helped the group to jacket a frill from a Triceratops. Way to go!

I don't know what we'll be doing tomorrow but I'm sure it'll be exciting.

The Heat Is On

2007-07-31T09:37:00.000-05:00

The forecast calls for heat, heat, and more heat! Yes, it is true, the fossil crew braved the extreme hot weather last week. Every single day of the blazing heat wave, the fossil crew was in search for fossils.

Last week, monday, was a one day excursion. Thankfully, Evan took time the night before to haul a 200 pound battery and solar panel up to our dig site. This allowed us to hook up an electrical fan and provide little refuge from the 40 plus weather. Despite the heat, the group left with a smile and had a great time!

The next day, tuesday, was a paleo tour. This time I was responsible for taking the group out. At first I was skeptical about the 33 plus weather, with 100% humidity, making it feel well over 40. But we made the best of it. No, we didn't cook eggs on the sidewalk, instead the group opted for a tour of the Manitoban escarpment. So I showed them Spencer's ditch and Mt.Nebo, and we even managed to fit a little bit of digging time. So far 2 points for the CDFC and 0 points for the heat!

Last wednesday was recorded to be one of the hottest days in manitoba, with the humidity making it feel 50 plus! Again, this did not stop the fossil crew. But more accurately put, this did not stop Dave Lumgair. Dave Lumgair is the person who discovered Bruce on his farm yard in 1974. He is now retired and still invites the CFDC to his property to find more fossils. So this is what we did, we went to his farm to try to find a new mosasaur. Instead we found the brink of heat exhaustion! As we were panting, faces red, and trying to climb up the hills, there was Dave, with a smile as he effortlessly hiked up all the hills. I couldn't not believe it! Dave appeared like he was not affected at all by the heat. At the end of the day, as we were all hanging by a thread, Dave was still enthusiastic, ready to explore more of his farm! It was incredible to see how much endurance he has!

At the end of wednesday, it finally rained. The rain replenished the land as it also replenished our spirits. This week really showed our resilience and our dedication to our field work. So whether its rain, shine, or heat wave, we'll be out there looking for fossils!

-Kod

Student Exchange - Part II

2007-07-30T22:07:00.000-05:00

We began the second part to the Manitoba-Montana Paleontological Student Exchange yesterday July 29. Participants from Manitoba traveled to Jordan, Montana. I'm glad to say we arrived safely!

Things are extremely hot!!! It was our first day out in the field and the temperatures reached 44 C. At least its a dry heat and we survived. The day began with field jacketing a lower jaw and beak from a Triceratops. Everything flipped safely.

Tomorrow we're off to a new site to jacket a larger ceratopsian (horned dinosaur) and to begin prospecting for that ankylosaur I promised their curator I would find!

Luck be a FOSSIL tonight!

2007-07-21T13:56:00.000-05:00

For the last few days, there has been a dry spell of fossils. Until wednesday, July 22, the "fossils gods" smiled upon me.

A day before the luckiest day of my life, Anita, Yvonne, Conor, and I went surface collecting on our new property. As we were searching, Anita told us how Joe Brown, a volunteer, was walking along the shale and randomly found a shark tooth! Shark backbones are very rare to find, let alone a shark tooth! However, Joe Brown is one lucky guy, he's the same guy that found Betsy and Monty! He makes it look so effortless too. With that story in mind, we were all determined to find our very own tooth.

As I was walking along the shale, thinking "where would Joe Brown look?", I hear Anita yell "I FOUND A FOOOSSSILLL!!". We all quickly ran to see what she found. Sure enough she found a tooth! It was a mosasaur tooth, with a high degree of preservation. But it was not just any other mosasaur tooth, it was a pteragoid tooth. Pteragoid teeth are teeth that run along the roof of a mosasaurs mouth. Man, Anita sure has talent! But was this the end of my luck? Would I ever find my own tooth too?

The next day July 22, Evan, Stephanie, Daesha, and I went back to the dig site to look for more fossils. More determined than ever, I said to Stephanie before we started to look, "I am going to find me a shark tooth!". So we began. First ten minutes, nothing. We walked, and walked. Then, something caught my eye. It was small, had a pointed end, and looked like a tooth! I called, "EVVANNN". He came running over and YES it was a tooth! I was so elated! Then, 2 minutes later I found a small SHARK backbone. About 30 seconds after that one, I found another tooth. But this time, the tooth was a SHARK TOOTH!! Finally, my very first shark tooth! In the end, I found 4 teeth and a shark backbone within ten minutes! That was the most luck I ever had in my entire life! I felt so lucky, I actually bought a lottery ticket that day. I am going to keep my fingers crossed!

Also, this week we were lucky enough to receive a giant t-rex from the Elm Creek School. His name is Rexy. So hopefully Rexy will bring some more luck to our museum!
-Kod

Monsters of the Deep RULES!

2007-07-13T13:59:00.000-05:00

This week I finally got a chance to check out the monsters of the deep exhibit at the forks. As I walked into the exhibit, I was completely stunned to see a gigantic Elasmosaur with its neck wrapped around the entire room. Its head was literally 1 foot away from my face. For a split second I thought I was in Jurassic park! That wasn't the only cool thing there...

Next to the Elasmosaur was a 15ft long Xiphactinus, with its mouth wide open. It's really neat because you can look at every angle of the fish.

My favorite part is the death scene! Along the wall, the CFDC worked really hard in creating a display, showing a group of sharks viscously attacking a Mosasaur. What made it really cool was fossils along the floor, making it look like the sharks had tasty mosasaur meal for supper. One rib piece actually had a shark tooth stuck in it. I can't wait until the display goes into our museum!

The second room was devoted to sharks and fossils. It was really interesting reading all the text about sharks and watching the mosasaur DVD. It looked the kids really enjoyed the room too, playing with our microscope and constructing a stegosaurus.

So next time your at the forks, drop your fried mars bars, and check out the exhibit!!

-Kod

Dinosaurs are on the Loose!

2007-07-12T09:33:00.001-05:00

Dinosaurs are on the loose in Elm Creek School! On Monday June 11 2007, many eyewitnesses including Evan Nordquist from the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre, saw a large group of dinosaurs from Lisa Salazar’s K-1 class.
They all gathered together and sang dinosaur songs.

Later they all stampeded into a nearby classroom, which had been converted into the “Elm Creek Discovery Centre” to view various dinosaur sculptures that the class had made.
One of the displays came from the CFDC to show aspiring little paleontologists some real fossils from the creatures that lived in Manitoba during the time of the dinosaurs.

The Latest Buzz

2007-07-06T10:16:00.000-05:00

With Dino Day Camps, Paleo Tours, and 2 Day Excursions all starting this week, we've been busy bees. Maybe that’s why our fossil crew t-shirts are yellow and black? However, its has been a great start to our summer programs, so let me fill you in on all the "buzz"!

We had our first dino day camp participant. I sat there envious as they played gastrolith monster, herbivore and carnivore food quest, and my favorite, pirates of the cretaceous. Since this student had so much fun, he decided to join the paleo pop-in that same day. Days like this makes me wish I was a 1st grader again, so I can make my very own gastrolith shaker.

Also, this week we had our first two paleo tours. Although it was scorching out, it didn’t stop the participants to find really awesome fossils. One group worked on a potential specimen that was found last week, while the other group found surface fragments. On one of the paleo tours, I was elated to find my first Mosasaur tooth. Now all I need to find is a Plesiosaur with an ammonite in its belly.

Evan has been busy too, conducting 2 day excursions. There are two of them this week. So Evan and his group will have their hands full with field jacketing, working on specimens, and adding new fossils to our collection

If this week reflects what the summer has in store, then its going be one exciting summer!

-Kod

A Plesiosaur at the End of the Road!

2007-06-29T13:55:00.002-05:00

It was the last week of June and we had high hopes of finding an amazing specimen, but torrential rain managed to dampen our spirits. At the beginning of the month, I constructed a wish list to boost morale and to provide good "field" karma. On the list are five rare specimens that have not yet been found. The list includes a juvenile mosasaur, a complete hesperonis, a giant archelon shell, a shark with teeth, and a plesiosaur with an ammonite in its belly. You might think we're crazy, but we're optimistic!

So at the beginning of this week, the fossil crew was pumped to find one of the five allusive specimens. However, it rained and rained... and rained! Could the rain have been caused from global warming? Perhaps bad karma? Anything could have caused the mini monsoon, but one thing we were certain on, it was unexpected. There was so much rain, a creek developed between one of our dig sites, blocking the passage way. We cringed as we heard violent winds tore up the Miami area, probably damaging our recent finds. Things looked like they were going the wrong direction, but there was light at the end of the tunnel.

At the end of the week, the rain finally stopped pouring. It was non stop sunshine, perfect for our staff dig. We packed up the museum van again, with even higher hopes of finding one of the wish list specimens. We headed to the CFDC property, where Anita cleared our first new quarry. This site is virtually untouched. Within the first ten minutes, the staff started to uncover fossils! Little did we know, Yvonne, our administrative clerk, is an expert at finding fossils. She was finding them left and right. Yvonne has my vote for paleo star of the week! Although the rain prevented us to get a good head start in the field season, we managed to uncover what we hope is a fish specimen.

This fish will remind us that when life throws you a road block, there might be a plesiosaur, with an ammonite in its belly, at the end of the road!

-Kod

That’s a Wrap!

2007-06-26T11:41:00.000-05:00

The fossil crew and I have reached the climax of the school tours, with three school digs back to back this week. Once we complete those tours, it’s fossil hunting time for the fossil crew! However, there are a few things that I will miss about the school tours. I will miss all the great questions, like “Do Mosasaurs eat humans??” and the classic, “is that real??”. For the kids that were scared of the life-like paleontologist, it’s okay, she scares me too!

I will also miss the fan mail! This year I received a huge poster with lots of shiny dino stickers from the Elm Creek School. It’s great. Unfortunately, no jingles about how awesome of a tour guide I am and I think the schools also missed my request for baked goods this year! I am just kidding! I am very grateful for any sort of fan mail, it always makes my week.

Thanks again to all the schools that participated in our summer programs this year. This has been one of our busiest and most successful years. When I saw the June calendar showing all the school tours for that month, I nearly had cardiac arrest! However, the fossil crew and I manage to complete the tours with impeccable ease, considering we recruited two new members into the fossil crew. Great job Stephanie and Daesha!

Thanks again schools for making June so much fun

Ps- I am still accepting baked goods.

-Kod

The Insider

2007-06-26T11:38:00.000-05:00

Hi, my name is Kodley and I am a summer student at the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre! This summer I will be your insider to all the exciting CFDC events. I’ll bring you behind the scenes as the fossil crew discovers new fossils and excavate on untouched dig sites. Follow my blogs this summer because it is going to be one “dino-mite” year!

-Kod

In Search of Fossils

2007-05-16T11:57:00.000-05:00

It's that time of year again. The 2007 field season is upon and we'll be going strong until the end of October. I know the turtle isn't a fossil yet, but it was a nice surprise to see him crossing the road right in front of our van. This could be a good sign. Who knows maybe we'll find an giant sea turtle.

Earlier that day we did indeed find a fossil, a partial dentary (lower jaw) of a mosasaur. However it was recovered from the bottom of a ditch. We did go back to try and examine where it came from. It's quite possible it's from the Niobrara Formation. This is not normally where we find fossils in this area. This is a first for me.

Manitoba Schools Science Symposium

2007-04-04T15:13:00.000-05:00

The Manitoba Schools Science Symposium (MSSS) is one of the many opportunities the CFDC has to promote fossils and paleontology within the province of Manitoba.

On Friday April 27 I will be providing a session entitled Fantastic Fossils for the Friday Activities portion of the MSSS. We'll be exploring fossils and how they're formed including a fossilization activity where students create a miniature environment and include sugar cubes as the remains from an organism. We conduct an experiment to see what really happens to the remains.

The CFDC will also be participating in the Special Awards portion of the MSSS on Sunday April 29. We will be judging projects in all levels for the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre Earth Science Award. Projects selected will exhibit innovative research relating to the field of Earth Science.

Recipients of the award will receive a plaque and an invitation to join me, the CFDC's curator on a personal excavation to one of our dig sites.

Good Luck to everyone and hope to see you there!

Spring's Here, Right?

2007-04-04T14:27:00.000-05:00

So I know it's been way over a month since my last blog and its horrible of me, but wait until you hear what we've been up to.

Summer grant applications have been submitted for summer staff to include Youth Program Co-ordinators, Interpretive Guides and a Field Technician. The summer staff will be responsible for the public programs.

In 2007 we will have 3 youth programs, Dino Day Camp, Paleo Pop-in and Mad Science. We're very excited about the new programs and hope it will encourage students to take part in science.

Summer staff will also provide tours for the general public both at the museum and at the dig sites. We're offering both 2 & 1 Day Excursions, Paleo Tours (1/2 day family digs) and School Digs.

So after filling out all the applications, the sun began to shine and the temperature was getting warmer. I even switched to sandals. It was great. I was so excited for the field season, I mean it's less than a month away. We started to prep the van and did an inventory our field supplies. But this last week seemed to be in reverse. We had snow and below 20 degrees Celsius.

Let's hope after Easter things will be brighter and warmer. I'll keep you posted on how the sites fared after the winter.

Sticky Stuff

2007-02-15T11:44:00.000-06:00

There is only so much one can do in a day and sadly our replicas have suffered. BUT NOT ANYMORE. Time and effort have been put into replicating some of our nicer fossil specimens for displays. Over the past month the CFDC has been very fortunate to have obtained a couple of volunteers with experience and knowledge of molding, casting and painting.

Last week we constructed a new mold of a mosasaur pelvic girdle (hips and flippers) and let me tell you it was sticky. Both of us would prefer to use other materials but this product has the best effect and its soft enough not to harm the fossils. Today we applied a support jacket to the outside of the sticky mold and can hardly wait to see how it'll turn out. In the image above you can see a mold for a mosasaur skull currently on display.

Once the molds have been completed casts will be poured and handed over to another volunteer for painting. Alas a replica is born. Currently the volunteers are working on a display for the South Central Regional Library in Morden and things are looking great! Thanks for all the hard work.

Morden-Montana Exchange

2007-02-08T15:40:00.000-06:00

It's almost that time of year again. Fossil Finding Time!!!! This year the CFDC is expanding its excavation to include a trip out to Jordan Montana. The Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre (CFDC) and the Paleo World Research Foundation (PWRF) are providing an opportunity for students to gain field experience in different environmnets with different kinds of fossils. Here in Manitoba we'll provide students from the United States a chance to work in shales and excavate marine reptiles from the Pierre Shale Formation. In turn, Montana will allow for students to work in the Hell Creek Formation discovering dinosaurs.

This is a first for the CFDC and we anticipate an ongoing partnership with PWRF. This year only a few will participate, but I'm sure there will be more opportunities down the road. The first part of the exchange will take place along the Mantoba Escarpment. One of the first specimens the students will excavate is a marine bird Hesperornis discovered at the end of last years field season. Four semi-articulated vertebrae and a possible rib were found and prepped for the winter. I anticipate a 50% complete skeleton. I can hope can't I? No matter, I'm sure it will be exciting.

Volunteer Appreciation

2007-02-07T16:43:00.000-06:00

Last week the CFDC had its annual Volunteer Appreciation at the museum. It was a great success. Without the hard work and time our current volunteers contribute, the CFDC wouldn't be where it is today.

In 2006 over 30 volunteers contributed over 700 hours to board meetings, lab work, field work, fossil preparation, cataloguing, data entry, replicating fossils, special events, museum tours and many other tasks.

The CFDC was also pleased to have guest paleontologist Joseph Hatcher, Curator of Paleontology from the Paleo World Research Foundation provide a presentation for us on the Hell Creek Formation of Montana. The CFDC and Paleo World Research Foundation are organizing a student exchange for the 2007 field season.

Thanks Joey for a great presentation. We're all excited about the upcoming project.

Mayors and Mosasaurs Oh My!

2007-02-07T16:08:00.000-06:00

Recently the Mayor of Morden presented a mounted replicate skull of a mosasaur, currently on exhibit at the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre, to the Mayor of Winnipeg. Both were very pleased and delighted with the prehistoric beast.

Lets hope it doesn't scare any visitors but stirs some interest. It sure is something to talk about. I mean its not everyday you see a mosasaur skull in an office!

Job Fairs Great Success

2007-01-29T17:33:00.000-06:00

Recently I attended both Summer Job Fairs for the University of Manitoba and the University of Winnipeg. The turn out was great, over 300 students visited our booth. I was exceptionally pleased to see the amount of interest from Anthropology and Archaeology students. I encourage those seeking experience with the excavation process to submit a resume for one of 4 positions possibly available for Interpretive Guides.

The atmosphere in the summer can not be described in a blog. Every aspect from field jacketing to the public and the smell of the shale (only those who know the smell, know what I'm talking about) keeps you coming back for more.

If you missed us at the job fairs all infomation regarding the positions avaialable are on www.discoverfossils.com under employment.

Summer Employment

2007-01-07T17:55:00.000-06:00

Every field season the CFDC hires young enthusiastic students to run the summer public paleontology programs. Some of those programs include public digs, museum tours and day camps. We are always looking for students who have an interest in paleontology and would like to spend the summer out at digsites or working with youth aged 5-14. If you might be interested you can find positions and their description at the CFDC website under employment. I hope to see some of you out there. Below is one of many images of summer students working at one of the museum's fossil sites. www.discoverfossils.com

Hidden Treasures Discovered

2006-12-16T16:35:00.000-06:00

Last week a volunteer and I removed panneling concealing shelves of field jackets from the 70's and 80's. I've heard stories from individuals who excavated specimens at that time, that there was a fish fossilized in another fish. This stirred our imaginations and one of the first things we did was look for that field jacket. There are some jackets we haven't gotten to yet but we have discovered a fairly complete shark vertebral column and a fish with its tail still intact. Who knows what else we will find.

Times Square Hits Town of Morden!

2006-12-04T16:29:00.000-06:00

Well, all I can say is wow! The Town Council have really excelled themselves with the new sign project on highway 3 at junction 3rd Street in the town of Morden. It really is the most impressive electronic signage I have seen in a small town.

CFDC is so lucky to have a series of ads already on the sign.

To all you Morden locals, please check it out and tell us what you think.

To everyone else in the world, please be patient while we get some pics to post on our blog.

Laters

Dave

Soft Tissue Discovered!

2006-11-29T09:25:00.000-06:00

Recently I received an article in an email from a colleague about soft tissue from a dinosaur. I know, can you believe it? I couldn't.

Earlier in 2006 a Tyrannosaurus rex femur (thigh bone) was recovered from Montana. The 70 million year old fossil was found to have soft tissue within it. Somehow the soft tissue had resisted fossilization. It is said the tissue includes blood vessels, bone cells and possibly blood cells. As to whether or not DNA can be extracted is yet to be determined. The likely hood of DNA surviving is extremely rare.

The article is from the California Academy of Sciences, Science Now and I would encourage you to have a look. Images of the soft tissue are available at the site.

http://www.calacademy.org/science_now/headline_science/T-rex_soft_tissue.html

FINALLY A BIG ONE!

2006-11-23T13:00:00.000-06:00

This morning I was working hard in the lab on Betsy's final field jacket removing matrix and separating stomach contents surrounding the pliosaur. So far the remains from the stomach contents have been microscopic to say the least, milimetres in size. So you can imagine my surprise when a larger fish vertebra was recovered amongst the smaller items. The vertebra (backbone) is approximately 1.2 cm in diameter. That's 7-8 times larger.

That was not the end of my excitement for the morning. Soon after about 15 cm away I found a second fish vertebra of approximately the same size. They are currently being cleaned and I will present the images in a future blog with other remains recovered from the stomach contents.

Only 1 Field Jacket Left

2006-11-18T14:36:00.000-06:00

Following up on "Betsy" (a short-necked plesiosaur discovered in 2004) we are now down to the final field jacket. Yesterday with the assistance of volunteers we were able to cut the remaining jacket down to a workable level and lifted it onto a work bench. This is the largest jacket from this specimen, approximately 1 metre by 1.5 metres, weighing almost 400 pounds. Most of the skeletal remains including, hips, shoulders and numerous vertebrae are within this jacket.

Lab Update....Skull Revealed

2006-11-14T10:36:00.000-06:00

Since Betsy's skull was brought into the lab a couple of weeks ago, I have been working hard with a volunteer to prepare it for display in 2007. Approximately 15 hours have been contributed thus far and almost all of the remains have been exposed in the field jacket. It is fractured in many places but overall the preservation is very good for this area.

I have noticed some interesting things while extracting the skull; stomach contents have been found within the skull region including many fish teeth possibly from Enchodus approximately 1cm in length. The interior of the skull also appears to be flipped and is in the opposite orientation of how it should be. Once I have a closer look I will hopefully have more answers about the specimen and possibly some clues as to where the rostrum (front of the skull) is located at the site.

Manitoba Paleontology Symposium

2006-11-09T09:47:00.000-06:00

Save the date; SEPTEMBER 27-29, 2007

The CFDC is creating a Manitoba Paleontology Symposium (MPS) to be held at the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre! The MPS will allow for Manitoban paleontologists to network and be informed on the current research emanating from the province. This is also an opportunity for other paleontologists originally from Manitoba studying elsewhere to show the province what they have contributed to paleontology. Other paleontologists conducting research relating to the paleontology of Manitoba are also encouraged to attend and present.

The MPS will consist of platform and poster presentations and a Paleo Expo highlighting paleontology resources. There will also be a welcome reception, banquet and field trip to the Manitoba Escarpment. Currently platform and poster presentations are being accepted. More information is available on the CFDC website www.discoverfossils.com.

SEE YOU THERE!

Student Assistance

2006-11-09T09:34:00.000-06:00

Through the assistance of the University of Winnipeg, Chris West, a future paleontology student was recently hired to assist with the Betsy Stomach Contents analysis. He will be dissociating the fossil remains from the matrix, sorting them and cataloging them in a lab at the university.

It is encouraging to find students in Manitoba pursuing a career in paleontology. There are many paleontology resources our province has to offer that are under utilized. In that respect the CFDC will be hosting a paleontology symposium targeting the promotion of paleontology (both invertebrate and vertebrate) within Manitoba.

I hope Chris will enjoy his time with the CFDC and hope it will lead to future contacts and networking. Welcome aboard.

Field Season Completed

2006-10-28T15:27:00.000-05:00

The field season has officially come to an end for the CFDC. Many new specimens were brought in this year, consisting of fragments and solitary bones to partially completed skeletons. One of the last specimens removed from the field was M-06-02-03 (shown above) a partially articulated and complete mosasaur approximately 5 metres in lenght. It will be prepared and identified over the winter months.

A more detailed description of the specimens collected this year will be provided on the CFDC website www.discoverfossils.com under Field Research.

I'd just like to thank all of the field volunteers who helped to make this past field season a successful one. Hope to see everyone back again next year.

Collection Room Tidy Up

2006-10-28T15:04:00.000-05:00

The Collection Room will undergo a tidy up in November and December in preparation for the upcoming Manitoba Paleontology Symposium in 2007. Some of the larger shelving units used to house field jackets will be taken down and moved to the opposite side of the room creating space for work stations and researchers to examine specimens. This new space will also allow for a new saftey storage area and support casting station. We hope the space will be more efficient and have an open feel to it.

New Bird Fossil

2006-10-28T14:48:00.000-05:00

The saying "finds happen either at the beginning or the end of the field season" is absolutely true. On one of the last field days, a school was out with us and discovered the remains of a marine bird. Currently the fossil remains consist of 4 vertebrae (backbones) and possibly a rib. Although the remains seem small (2.5cm in length), this is a large size for birds. This specimen is from the genus Hesperornis as shown above and was anywhere from 1-1.5m in length. Pretty big for a bird. Unfortunately due to the lateness of the season the specimen will have to wait to be excavated at the beginning of next field season.

Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Conference

2006-10-26T15:21:00.000-05:00

What a succes. I spent the last week in Ottawa for a paleontology conference to present my poster on the stomach contents from Betsy. The conference also included a memorial symposium for Dr. Elisabeth (Betsy) Nicholls entitled Global Perspective on Marine Reptiles and Their Evolution . Good stuff! There were also valuable sessions on preparation of fossil material including paraffin wax.

Promotion of the CFDC was evident and greatly received by colleagues. Emphasis was placed on the upcoming MPS in Morden of 2007.

The Canadian Museum of Nature was fantastic. The new gallery space was stunning and even had that new paint smell. Well done to those who put in all that hard work.

Networking was very productive. There may be a few excavation projects with other institutions in the upcoming field seasons. I'll keep you posted once I have more particulars.

I'd like to thank the CFDC, Town of Morden, the Canadian Museums Association and the Department of Canadian Heritage for funding assistance to attend this conference.

Why no blog?

2006-10-24T11:59:00.000-05:00

Wow, I just looked at the last posting and couldn't believe its been a month already. I must apologize and will keep up with the postings once a week. That being said, October has been an extremely busy month. I will post about 5 blogs over the next few days to bring everyone up to speed on what's been happening.

My apologies again but there will be some exciting stuff you have to check out, both from the CFDC and interesting news in the paleo world.

Winding Down

2006-09-24T16:47:00.000-05:00

The field season for the CFDC is coming to an end soon. I hope the weather stays nice until the end of October.

I am currently finishing up a few things with my volunteer fossil crew. Some last projects include bringing in 4 remaining field jackets of a mosasaur and the back of Betsy's skull, shown on the left.

Betsy Skull

I will be composing a piece for the Morden Times, our local newspaper describing the fossil finds found by the CFDC, visitors and researchers in November.

Road to Success

2006-09-15T16:01:00.000-05:00

Recently the CFDC purchased 109 acres along the Manitoba Escarpment southwest from the Town of Miami. The potential for fossil preservation is fantastic, with majority of the fossils in the CFDC collection being collected from that area. The only problem was road access. There wasn't any leading into the property.

Thanks to the Rural Municipality of Thompson we now have the beginnings of a road. This road will allow groups to travel to the dig site and view fossils being excavated.

I can not tell you how excited I was. On Thursday, I took our Executive Director for a ride to drive on it, and all I kept saying was "this is awesome". The scenery just takes your breath away.

So in the spirit of things, all I can say to the R.M. of Thompson is "this is awesome"!

New Tooth

2006-08-30T18:00:00.000-05:00

Today the CFDC fossil crew were out at Betsy's site (a plesiosaur discovery in 2004) continuing our search for the "nose". No luck with that, however we did stumble upon a nice tooth. Let's see if anyone out there has any guess as to what animal this tooth belongs to.

The search goes on.

THANKS!

2006-08-30T09:08:00.000-05:00

Our summer season is winding down with our summer staff departing at the end of this week; their tasks consisted of running Day Camps, digitizing and organizing artifact collections, and conducting field work and public programs. I'd just like to say thank-you to all of them for all the hard work they've done over the past few months. We've had many many laughs and it sure would be nice to see your smiling faces next year.

I'd also like to say thanks to our administator who's done an absolute wonderful job. You'll be missed!

Thanks also to all who gave a helping hand during the course of the summer. With the assistance of its dedicated volunteers, the CFDC will continue to conduct field work until the end of October.

Corn and Apple Festival

2006-08-30T09:03:00.000-05:00

Well, as you can see in the pic, the CFDC had it own booth at the Corn 'n Apple Festival in Morden. Although not much of our gift shop stock was sold, we were very successful in being an information centre directing the curious public to the museum for a visit. A new booth will be made next year with some great jazzy paleo stuff to draw people to it.

Our newly redesigned Bruce Gallery, with great new images and murals plus sound effects, was open for the occasion. Actually, a lot of children were really scared with the sounds and so we had to turn the volume down! What a great weekend! In fact, we had more than 500 visitors to our museum over the three day festival, this is about three times more than usual.

Great job all those Board Members, staff and volunteers concerned. Let's do it all again next year. That's all for now.

Dave Wilkinson

Bruce Banner

2006-08-24T17:19:00.000-05:00

The banner to be displayed behind Bruce just arrived this afternoon and is being hung as we speak; the finishing touches to this exhibit area will be done over the next week. The space is looking fantastic. I hope those of you who come for the Corn & Apple Festival will take advantage of the time to visit us - it's worth the trip!!! Here's a sneak peek....

Bruce is getting a facelift!

2006-08-18T13:15:00.000-05:00

The CFDC is undergoing some major changes to its "Bruce" exhibit (for those who don't know, Bruce is the largest mosasaur in Canada). A life size mural, in addition to audio sounds of the deep, are being added to the exhibit to enhance the attraction; the CFDC will have an unveiling of its completed exhibit in a few months. For the time being, we will post progress on our website which will also feature a sound bite of the underwater experience. Hope to see you at the unveiling!

More on the New Mosasaur

2006-08-18T13:11:00.000-05:00

This past week the fossil crew has been working hard on the new mosasaur that was discovered. We've continued working back and have discovered more vertebrae, a tooth and other fragments yet to be identified. The gridding has been completed on the specimen and field jacketing will start this weekend. Once in the lab and I've had the opportunity a closer look, I'll add this information and images to the CFDC website.

New Mosasaur

2006-08-14T12:52:00.000-05:00

This past weekend the CFDC had a new mosasaur discovery. We'll be heading out to the site this week to continue excavating. All I can say at the moment is that it appears to be 50% complete, consisting primarily of vertebrae (backbones); the preservation is fair and looks a bit weathered. I hope to have some images uploaded to our website at the end of the week.