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

Bruce holds the Guinness World Record for the largest displayed mosasaur. (Source: Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre)

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.

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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."

The last discovery is Manitoba's biggest, when Bruce the giant mosasaur was discovered near Thornhill Man. at Lumgair's Farm.

It is the world's largest mosasaur and is the official fossil emblem for Manitoba.

Cuetara said these discoveries helped shape Manitoba's footprint on the world stage for fossil encounters.

"That's how our museum started. They started to pile up fossils in garages and living rooms, in houses, and finally the City of Morden decided to give a space just to build a museum. That's why we're here now. We are the result of 140 years of history."

Given it's been 50 years since Bruce was found, Cuetara was asked if they are due for another major unearthing.

Coincidentally, he said plans are already in the works. The owner of the farm where Bruce was found is now 90 and has recently donated 18 acres of his land so more digging can get started.

"Bruce was found in an area that was mined at the time. They were mining all the bentonite, the white clay that they use for a lot of things. He thought that it would be nice to keep going with those important discoveries."

Farmland donated by David Lumgair to the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre where they will search for the next large mosasaur fossil in Manitoba. Uploaded Dec. 6, 2024. (Adolfo Cuetara/Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre)

Initial work has already started in the area Cuetara mentioned, and then digging will start in the spring.

"We have high expectations that starting next year, we can find very neat things like 50 years ago."

The reason fossils are so common in Manitoba is that the interior seaway stretched across most of the Prairies and flowed from the Gulf of Mexico all the way up to the Arctic.

Manitoba had a mixture of shallow sea with islands, Cuetara said, which resulted in creatures like the mosasaur. Manitoba was also home to hesperornis—a large flightless bird that had some similarities to a penguin.

"It was a diving bird that was habituating what is Manitoba today. (It was) on those islands with huge nest colonies. So that's the reason why we have so many bones."

Cuetara expects there to be many finds in the near future that could further grow Manitoba's footprint on the fossil world.

"The potential of Manitoba is here, and we are showing that potential every year," he said. "We are investing a lot of effort in the scientific side of our facility, and the results will be starting to come next year in 2025. So it's going to be a very exciting year."

Layers of bentonite at the Lumgair farm where fossils are commonly found. Uploaded Dec. 6, 2024. (Adolfo Cuetara/Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre)