Major Manitoba fossil milestones highlight the potential for future discoveries in the province

A trio of fossil finds through the years helped put Manitoba on the mosasaur map, and the milestone of those finds have all been marked in 2024.

A trio of fossil finds through the years helped put Manitoba on the mosasaur map, and the milestone of those finds have all been marked in 2024.

The discoveries span back 50, 90, and 140 years ago, with each find helping paint a clearer history of the creatures that used to call the Manitoba area home.

The first documented mosasaur to be found in Manitoba happened while the railway was being built near Miami, Man.

"When they were trying to build the railway, they found these mosasaur bones and they documented that finding," said Adolfo Cuetara, the executive director of the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre in Moden.

Jump forward to 1934, when the next significant milestone was achieved as the first paleontologist excavated a mosasaur.

Charles M. Sternberg and his team set up shop at Spencer's Farm—just northwest of Morden—and worked on digging up the specimen.

"(He) was working for the Government of Canada, the current Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa. He came to excavate this mosasaur, (which) in the end, was a new species."