Web Site Brings N.S. Dinosaur Dig to Schools, Homes

Nearly 1,000 students from all over Canada and parts of the United States are watching over the World Wide Web as museum researchers in Nova Scotia uncover the bones of a 200-million- year-old prosauropod dinosaur.

With new exhibits and an interactive Web page, the Fundy Geological Museum in Parrsboro is allowing everyone to participate in the discoveries being made during the study of Canada’s oldest dinosaur skeleton.

The Internet kept viewers updated regularly when researchers dug slabs of rock containing the bones from a cliff near Parrsboro last summer. Now, it carries weekly updates detailing the progress as the researchers, now working inside the laboratory at the Fundy Geological Museum in Parrsboro, carefully extract the bones from the rock slabs.

The Web site’s archives also tell the full story of the largest and most complete prosauropod dinosaur found in Nova Scotia.

Tim Fedak, the museum’s lab manager, said, “Prosauropod dinosaur remains are extremely rare in North America, and this specimen is of great scientific interest because of the amount and quality of the material preserved.”

The lab work began May 1 and is expected to take a year to complete. The lab technicians have already made a terrific discovery as bones from the skull and 11 teeth were recently exposed.

This is the first prosauropod skull found in Nova Scotia during the more than 30 years scientists have been researching the dinosaurs in this area. This specimen is of great scientific interest, but it is not yet clear if it represents a new species of prosauropod.

The Web site, http://museum.gov.ns.ca/fgm/lab/lab.html , was designed to encourage student participation. Currently, over 30 classrooms have signed up to it and are checking in every week.

The creation of the new exhibits and interactive Web page was made possible after corporate sponsors supported the project.
Sponsors include the Sable Offshore Energy Project, Clearwater Fine Foods, Leica Microscope Systems, and Oxford Frozen Foods Ltd.