Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre facts for kids

The Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre is an awesome fossil museum located in Morden, Manitoba, Canada. It used to be known as the Morden and District Museum. You can find it on the lower level of the Access Events Centre. This museum is super special because it has the biggest collection of marine reptile fossils in all of Canada!

Amazing Fossil Collections

Check out this Hesperornis regalis exhibit!

The museum finds many of its fossils by digging in the Manitoba Escarpment area. This is part of the Pembina Hills in the Red River Valley. Most of the fossils they collect come from special rock layers called the Pembina and Millwood Members of the Pierre Shale.

The Discovery Centre also has many fossils of an ancient squid called Tusoteuthis longa. These squid fossils are the farthest north that these creatures have ever been found from the old Cretaceous seas of North America.

One of the most famous fossils here is "Bruce." Bruce is the world's largest mosasaur fossil that people can see! He belongs to the species Tylosaurus pembinensis. Bruce even got a Guinness World Record on August 22, 2014, and was featured in the 2015 Guinness Book of World Records. How cool is that?

The museum works with other groups like the Canadian Museums Association and the Virtual Museum of Canada.

Fun Programs and Activities

The Discovery Centre offers lots of exciting programs! They have special activities for schools, guided tours, and even summer day camps. You can also join their paleo tours or fossil dig programs. The museum has a huge amount of information about the fossils they've found from the Late Cretaceous Period.

The most famous fossil is still Bruce, the 43-foot (13 m) long mosasaur. He's the biggest mosasaur fossil on display anywhere in the world!

If you love digging for fossils, you can join their fossil dig programs every summer. These digs happen from May to October along the Manitoba Escarpment. In 2004 and 2005, they even dug up a 26-foot (7.9 m) long short-necked plesiosaur fossil!

Future Plans for the Museum

The Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre is working to build a brand new museum! They are currently raising money for this big project.

All the details of their fossil collection have been put online. This means that paleontology researchers and students from all over the world can now easily look at the fossils. Other projects include creating four education kits for students from kindergarten to grade 12. These kits will help bring the museum's amazing content into the Manitoba school curriculum.

Awesome Multimedia

A film producer named David Rabinovitch has made some cool films about the museum. He created a 4-minute introduction film and a 20-minute educational film. He is also trying to get money to make a full documentary film. This documentary will tell the story of how Bruce, the giant mosasaur, was found on the Manitoba Escarpment. It will show how he was dug up and brought to the City of Morden. This amazing discovery is what helped start the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre back in 1971!

Exciting Research Discoveries

Scientists at the museum are doing a lot of research on ancient marine life and geology. They are studying the ancient Western Interior Seaway, which was a huge ocean that covered parts of North America. They also look at what plesiosaurs ate by studying their stomach contents.

Researchers from countries like Japan, China, England, and the United States also visit to help with different research projects. These projects are all about the marine waters of the Late Cretaceous Period in Manitoba.

The Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre also hosts a special event called the Manitoba Paleontology Symposium every two years. This helps share new research and helps paleontology grow in Manitoba and across Canada.

In 2016, a scientist named Keiichi Aotsuka announced a new species of ancient marine bird. It was found in the museum's collection and named Hesperornis lumgairi.

Amazing Honours and Awards

The Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre has received many special awards and recognitions:

• In 2005, Travel Manitoba called it a "Manitoba Star Attraction."
• In late 2014, Guinness World Records gave the museum a record for the "Largest Publicly Displayed Mosasaur" for Bruce! This record was even put in the 2016 Guinness World Records book.
• In 2015, Canada Post released a stamp featuring the museum's Bruce Mosasaur. It was part of a special five-stamp Dino Series.
• Also in 2015, the centre played a big part in making the mosasaur the official fossil symbol of the province of Manitoba.
• In 2016, the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre became the seventh "Signature Museum" in the province of Manitoba.