Nova Scotia Students Become March Break Paleontologists

N.S. MUSEUM--Nova Scotia Students Become March Break Paleontologists

Two Nova Scotia students are spending their March break trying out life as paleontologists and working with 200-million-year old dinosaur bones.

Rebecca Murray, a Grade 11 student from Halifax, and Ross Chiasson, a Grade 8 student in Bedford, are helping to uncover Canada's oldest dinosaur at the Fundy Geological Museum in Parrsboro.

Rebecca and Ross earned the four day stint in the Project Prosauropod lab as the result of a provincewide essay contest sponsored by the museum and PromoScience, a program that helps raise awareness about careers in science.

By day, the students are using current paleontological techniques to prepare the prosauropod dinosaur bones, which were collected along the shores of the Bay of Fundy. At night they are camping inside the museum with their lab supervisor Kathy Goodwin.

Both students have said they are enjoying their new responsibilities. "It's awesome," said Ross.

"It's amazing to think that this is the first time these bones have been exposed in 200-million years," said Rebecca.

Rebecca and Ross will wrap up their work at the museum on Thursday, March 17.

To learn more about Project Prosauropod visit the museum's website at museum.gov.ns.ca/fgm/lab/lab.html .