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Marine Marvels
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Marine Marvels
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by Nicole Doucette
Walking into UBC’s Earth Sciences Building, you find yourself face to face with a set of very sharp teeth. These are attached to a 13-metre-long resin-cast skeleton of an elasmosaur, a majestic creature that inhabited the ocean 80 million years ago.
"We hope to ignite a sense of amazement and curiosity in visitors as they imagine this majestic sea creature swimming through a Cretaceous sea,” says Kirsten Hodge, Director of UBC’s Pacific Museum of Earth (PME). "Complete specimens of this marine reptile are rare, but partial and fragmentary skulls give us a nearly complete look at its fantastic features, potential diet and ecology."
The skeleton was installed in late summer 2018 and is a nod towards the PME’s focus on illuminating Earth's evolution.
UBC's elasmosaur was made possible by the support of Wheaton Precious Metals, a Vancouver-based mining sector company that also supported the construction of UBC’s Earth Sciences Building. The skeleton assembly and installation was led by Mike deRoos of Cetacea Contracting, a Salt Spring
Credit: Faculty of Science
Island-based company that specializes in the design and articulation of marine and terrestrial skeletons, as well as science outreach.
For more information on the elasmosaur skeleton, visit: https://science.ubc.ca/news/ ubc-museum-welcomes-ancient-sea-monster
To explore other exhibits at the Pacific Museum of Earth, visit: https://pme.ubc.ca/
