Fossil trove unearthed in southern Saskatchewan

Scientists at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum uncovered several multimillion-year-old fossils around the province over the summer.

Emily Bamforth, curatorial assistant for paleontology, discovered a skull from an Edmontosaurus — a duck-billed dinosaur — near Shaunavon, Sask. It’s only the second skull discovered in the province since the first was found in 1924.

“Skull material, especially of duckbill dinosaurs and theropods is very rare,” Bamforth said Wednesday. “But (it) is a treasure trove of information about the species and about the animal itself. So finding a skull, any skull, is very significant.”

The Edmontosaurus was common in Saskatchewan near the end of the dinosaur era. Bamforth estimates the skull is 65 million years old.

She said her team will go back next summer to see if they can find the rest of the dinosaur including the front of the skull, the lower jaw and its body.

Bamforth also found a handful of teeth from an ankylosaur that date back 74 million years.

Ryan McKellar, curator of invertebrate paleontology with the museum, discovered pieces of amber that contained parts of insects, including a new species of wasp. He said the species were around during the Cretaceous period.

“I almost did cartwheels when the students turned up the first insect from Saskatchewan amber,” McKellar said. “We’ve been working very hard for this.”

The team also discovered the skull of a baby elasmosaur, a longnecked plesiosaur that lived in water, and a tibia or shin bone of a juvenile bronotothere, a 38-million-year-old rhino-like mammal.