MIAMI -- Researchers believe they have unearthed one of the largest fossilized creatures ever found in Manitoba.
VIDEO: T-Rex of the seaway found
University of Winnipeg archeology student Reid Graham examines a tooth from newly discovered fossil.
Bones from a mosasaur -- a marine reptile that was once at the top of the food chain -- were discovered this summer during a public dig organized by the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre in Morden.
"What's cool is that ours are the first eyeballs that have looked at this in 80 million years," said Joseph Hatcher, a visiting palaeontologist helping with the dig. "It's always a rush."
The new mosasaur, named Angus, will probably be more than ten metres long, he said. Manitoba's largest fossil discovery was "Bruce" in 1974, a 13-metre mosasaur. Bruce's skull is almost two metres long.
"He could swallow a horse," said Dave Wilkinson, the museum's executive director.
A field technician led a group up a steep hill near Miami to the dig site on Aug. 1. The ground had been shaved down by a backhoe to get closer to potential fossils. Until August, the site hadn't been explored.
"We've actually walked by this site 100 times this season and didn't see anything," said Hatcher, wearing a yellow T-shirt with the words Fossil Crew written on the back.
When the tour group began dusting and chipping away at the earth, a woman found part of the marine reptile's jaw. Further exploration found the pelvic bone, teeth and hip bone.
"I could tell by the size of the teeth that it was going to be big," said Reid Graham, an archaeology student working as a field technician for the summer who led the tour that made the finding.
A part of the mosasaur's flipper was discovered Wednesday while Hatcher and summer students dusted the area with paint brushes and chipped away with picks.
"I think I found part of the flipper," Graham announced to the crew Wednesday afternoon. The other students crowded around to look at what he found.
A team of students and Hatcher were dusting away Wednesday at the site to unearth more of the bones. Some of the crew dusted the ground on their stomachs while others hunched over sitting down.
"You almost have to be a contortionist or bend like a snake," Hatcher joked. "Whatever is the most comfortable."
Early in the excavation process, a second mosasaur was found in the same spot as Angus. Based on the size of its jaw, the second creature is probably around 7.5 metres long.
Once the crew finds mosasaur bones at the dig site, they take notes and map where it was found. They do that to create a "death scene" to figure out exactly how the creature died, said Anita-Maria Janzic, the museum's curator.
"Maybe there was a fight between the two mosasaurs or maybe there was a volcanic eruption," she said. "To take down a big one like that would be a tough thing to do."
The recent discovery of mosasaur fossils offers a much-needed boost to the museum.
It bought the 40 hectares of land near Miami, about 100 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg, to step up on-site research and promote tourist digs.
"The museum board purchased the land with this day in mind," Wilkinson said. "That paved the way for unrestricted access for likely spots."
Angus is still in the field, with only fragments of the bones visible. It will take until at least the spring to excavate both of the fossilized skeletons.
The fossil discovery centre houses the largest collection of marine reptile fossils in Canada.
meghan.hurley@freepress.mb.ca
PREVIOUS
