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Experience the Royal Saskatchewan Museum
Room being made for two-storey replica of the world’s largest dinosaur
Something old is about to become something very new at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum (RSM) in Regina as T. rex comes to the Queen city this year.
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Renovations have been underway since 2018 at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum to accommodate a full-scale replica of “Scotty” — nickname for a 65-million year old T. rex. This skeleton was found in southern Saskatchewan 25 years ago. A replica of those remains has been on display at the T. rex Discovery Centre at Eastend, Sask. for four years. Now a lifesize copy of the skeleton is coming to RSM this spring.
Photo Courtesy of James Morgan
An RSM research team in Saskatchewan’s Frenchman River Valley originally discovered Scotty, the most massive T. rex in the world, in 1991. The fossilized remains were painstakingly removed – almost completely by hand – over the next twenty years from the rock in which they were embedded. With the hard work of employees, students and volunteers completed in 2014, a perfect replica was unveiled in Eastend March 2015.
With an investment by the Saskatchewan Ministry of Central Services and a grant from Heritage Canada’s Cultural Spaces Fund, the RSM launched a three-phase redevelopment of the facilities including a complete redesign of both its upper and lower gallery entrances and exits. The massive project to be completed by May 2019, will feature a two-tiered viewing and gathering space with Scotty as its star attraction.
While “Scotty” may be the star at RSM in 2019, it is not the only attraction here. Established in 1906, the natural history museum offers exhibits and programming in Life Sciences and Saskatchewan First Nations, and a new addition to the Earth Science Gallery last year was the world’s only T. rex coprolite, more aptly – fossilized poop! This one-of-a-kind coprolite is famous, with a copy displayed in the Smithsonian Museum, and is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest coprolite in the world. The RSM has the original, found in Saskatchewan, on display.
By: Lee Hart
