Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre Largest Collection of Marine Reptile Fossils in Canada

2007 Field Season

2006 Field Season

The CFDC field season runs from May to October with all excavation conducted on the Manitoba Escarpment within the Morden - Miami area.

This page will highlight the past, present and future field seasons highlighting accomplishments and goals

2008 Field Season

What an exciting season this has been. Below you will find images from our two biggest finds

this year. Public participants from our Paleo Tour Program discovered a large Mosasaur

similar to Bruce (our 43' Mosasaur). This is a significant find for the CFDC being the first large

Mosasaur found since the 1980's. A rare find indeed. This might be our second largest Mosaur

in our collection depending on what we have yet to uncover.

The other exciting find was with one of our School / Youth Digs where discovered some Mosasaur

fossils that soon led to a death assemblage. Within a designated area we have uncovered over

180 fossil specimens from Mosasaurs, fish, Pleosiosaur, birds and sharks. This is the first

recorded death assemblage within the CFDC collection. It is anticipated that the information

gained from this site will provide insite to sea currents of the Western Interior Seaway in this area.

We are currently excavating these two sites till the end of September publicly. If you wish to join

us in helping to uncover more of these exciting finds, please see our Adventure Tours and

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Here we have Anita Janzic, the Curator along with Joseph Hatcher our visiting Palaeontologist, Keiichi our Japanese intern and Skye our local highschool intern working on the new Mosasaur site (Angus) on the CFDC property.		These are Angus' hip bones almost as large as Bruce's. They are fairly well preserved and will provide a a lot of information about Angus.
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Here you see one of Angus' lower jaw. On the right side is where it would connect to the skull with the teeth on the left.		This is just one of the teeth we found belonging to Angus. It measures 3 centimetres without the root making it just a little smaller than Bruce's teeth.
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This is the only vertabra we have found so far, but we anticipate finding more vertabra with further excavation.		This is another jaw section from Angus. You see two teeth partially covered that are still attached to the jaw.
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Here you see some of our summer staff with Joseph Hatcher and one voluteer working on the death assemblage.		The grid you see here is used to map out the death assemblage. All the red flags are adjacent to fossils that have been collected.

2007 Field Season

May 18 - 25 July 29 - Aug. 5

Manitoba Montana

The Manitoba-Montana Exchange is a joint venture between the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre

(CFDC) and the Paleo World Research Foundation (PWRF) to promote and interpret the Western

Interior of North America during the Late Cretaceous.

The exchange is targeted for students to help facilitate awareness of the large collection of marine

vertebrate fossils Manitoba has to offer and the abundant dinosaur fossils of Montana. Both CFDC and

PWRF will search and excavate for 1 week at each other’s dig sites. Montana students will visit

Manitoba from May 18-25 and Manitoba students will visit Montana July 29 – August 5. During these

weeks the students and staff will collect data, search and excavate fossils and collect rock samples.

The data and samples collected will be analysed to further comprehend the ecology and climate of

the Western Interior Seaway.

This exchange program will be facilitated by:

Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre

Anita-Maria Janzic

Curator

And

Paleo World Research Foundation

Joseph Hatcher

Curator of Paleontology

www.paleoworld.org

MANITOBA

MONTANA

____________________________________________________________

2006 Field Season

The 2006 field season was a great success. A total of 31 new specimens were collected from 8 active sites and almost all were fully excavated and transported to the CFDC. The new specimens range from Aves, Chondrichthyes and Osteichthyes to Mosasaurs and Plesiosaurs.

The objectives for the 2006 season were as follows:

Increase the collection of marine vertebrate fossils for future scientific research

Understanding the environment of the Western Interior Seaway by means of examining the Pierre Shale Formation

Obtaining data from current dig sites to assist with future research

Providing new fossil specimens for exhibition and education

Collaborative research projects on the Pierre Shale Formation with the University of Winnipeg for an Undergraduate Thesis.

Elevation Survey of the CFDC property

All excavation took place within the Morden-Miami Area along the Manitoba Escarpment. Most specimens recovered were solitary finds but a few were semi-articulated and articulated. A brief description for some of those specimens is provided below;

B.06.01.03 - Hesperornis ?

This specimen is still in the rock unit, it was discovered at the very end of the field season in early October from a school dig. Currently it consists of 4 semi articulated vertebrae in moderate condition. A possible rib or humerus was also located. Due to the lateness of the season the specimen was documented and prepped for winter. This is the first semi articulated Hesperornis I have discovered within the past 3 years. There maybe an association to specimens B.06.02.03 (vertebra) and B.06.03.03 (femur).

M.06.02.03 – Mosasauridae

A 50 % complete articulated mosasaur skeleton. Preservation is not very good, but the quantity was worth excavating. There were numerous roots within the dig site and additional care went into recovering this specimen. Most of the specimen consists of vertebrae with a possible scapula recovered. Currently the remains have been taken out of its jacket but not fully prepared. This specimen will be on display at the CFDC for the summer of 2007 once fully examined.

P.04.01.15 – Polycotylidae aka Betsy

This was the third season at this sight and the hard work has paid off. The skull was missing from this specimen and based on the faults and the locality of the teeth and dentaries we were successful. A lot of time was spent at this sight manually removing ~ 2 metres of clay from the Millwood Member. The base of the skull was recovered including the pterygoid, squamosals, quadrates and other fragments not yet identifiable