Marine reptile skeleton dating back to age of dinosaurs discovered in southern Manitoba | 24CA News

Researchers in southern Manitoba have made the uncommon discovery of what could also be an entire fossilized skeleton belonging to a roughly 83-million-year-old marine reptile.

Excavations are nonetheless ongoing, however scientists have uncovered roughly 75 per cent of a mosasaur skeleton close to the small group of Miami, Man., about 110 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg.

Finding such an intact skeleton is uncommon, in line with Adolfo Cuetara, the manager director of the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre in Morden, about 20 kilometres southeast of Miami.

“Normally you’re only finding isolated bones, but this time it looks like we have a whole skeleton,” he mentioned in an interview with Radio-Canada on Monday.

In early July, a technician with the centre discovered a small bone whereas digging with a tractor on a plot of land that was once a bentonite mine, and which the Morden group bought in 2004.

Finding small bones is not uncommon, Cuetara mentioned, however utilizing hand instruments, that technician quickly realized that the bone was not an remoted discovery.

Over the following a number of days, the workforce discovered 15 vertebrae, all from the identical marine reptile, Cuetara mentioned.

Mosasaurs lived in the course of the Late Cretaceous (100 million to 66 million years in the past), a interval at which Manitoba was underwater.

Rare situations need to be met for total skeletons to be fossilized, Cuetara mentioned.

The physique must be buried shortly in sediment to keep away from contact with oxygen and micro organism, which break down the bones over time.

“Normally when animals die, the flesh is decomposed and the bones are moved by predators or scavengers or even currents, so that’s why most of the times we are finding just isolated pieces,” Cuetara mentioned.

Staff from the Morden fossil centre imagine this mosasaur, which is between six and 7 metres lengthy, is smaller than different mosasaurs present in Manitoba. The largest is the mosasaur on the Morden centre nicknamed “Bruce,” which measures 13 metres.

The reptiles grew up to 16 metres lengthy.

Once your complete skeleton is uncovered, employees will take samples of the encircling terrain and produce every thing again to the lab.

When that course of is full, a paleontologist will research every bone, measure them and evaluate them to different species to establish the precise species.

“It’s a process that takes normally years to do if you want to do it properly,” Cuetara mentioned.