EASTEND, Sask. – The T. rex Discovery Centre is billed as the home of Canada’s largest Tyrannosaurus rex – a beast dubbed Scotty that would have stood about six metres tall and over 12 metres long.
Soon it will have a life-size replica of the animal’s skeleton, mounted for display.
Fossilized fragments of the creature were discovered in 1991 near Eastend, Sask., in the Frenchman River Valley. Roughly 65 million years old, they make up one of the most complete T. rex skeletons in the world.
The replica, created by Research Casting International in Trenton, Ont., is set to be unveiled March 16 by Lt.-Gov. Vaughn Schofield at the centre, 140 kilometres southwest of Swift Current.
The community-owned centre, which has a variety of fossil displays, opened in 2000 in Eastend to showcase the area’s rich paleontological history. After years of declining attendance at the facility, the Regina-based Royal Saskatchewan Museum said earlier this month it would take over operations in the spring.
A marketing strategy is being planned to raise the centre’s profile as a tourism destination in southwest Saskatchewan.
Eastend is approximately 320 km southeast of Regina.
Comments