Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre
| Established | 1971 |
|---|---|
| Location | Morden, Manitoba, Canada |
| Type | history museum |
| Curator | Victoria Markstrom |
| Website | www.discoverfossils.com |
The Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre, formerly known as the Morden and District Museum, is located in Morden, Manitoba in the lower level of the Access Events Centre. The museum currently houses the largest collection of marine reptile fossils in Canada. (Janzic and Hatcher 2008; Nicholls 1988)
Field excavations occur along the Manitoba Escarpment area of the Pembina Hills in the Red River Valley. Most fossils that are collected are from the Pembina and Millwood Members of the Pierre Shale.
The Discovery Centre also houses numerous specimens of the Cretaceous squid Tusoteuthis longa; these specimens represent the northern most known occurrence of these molluscs in the Cretaceous seas of North America. (Nicholls and Isaak, 1987).
The Discovery Centre offers school programs, guided tours, summer day camps, paleo tours, fossil dig programs and much more. The museum has a large database of research information pertaining to the fossil collection from the Late Cretaceous Period.
The prized specimen is a 43-foot (13 m) long mosasaur fossil, the second largest in North America.
Fossil dig programs continue each summer from May to September along the Manitoba Escarpment. A short necked plesiosaur specimen 26 feet (7.9 m) long was excavated in 2004/5, and the Executive Director Anita Janzic has published two scientific abstracts on the specimen and its stomach contents. (Janzic 2007; Janzic 2006)
The Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre is in the early fundraising stages to build a new museum just west of the town of Morden, Manitoba with a net zero energy theme. The plans also include a new field station on the Manitoba Escarpment.
Details of the entire fossil collection are being digitized and uploaded to the internet in a groundbreaking move to provide access to the fossil collection to paleontology researchers and students worldwide. Other projects include a series of 4 education kits for grades K - 12, which will bring the museum content and subject matter into the Manitoba school curriculum.
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