Canadian Museum of Nature

[FossilDAWG]

Back in July 2013 I visited the Canadian Museum of Nature. Their vertebrate fossil collection is probably rivaled (in Canada) only by the Royal Tyrrell Museum and the Royal Ontario Museum.

I've got lots of photos, but unfortunately I misplaced my notes. I can get some IDs from the museum web site but they don't list everything, so if people recognize anything and let me know I'll have 48 hrs to edit and add IDs.

To start, here are some marine Cretaceous exhibits.

First up, an elasmosaur that was collected on the Puntledge River, Vancouver Island. Pretty intimidating teeth on this one. The turtle is Archelon ischyros.

A couple more views of the Archelon:

Here is an unusual mosasaur, Kourisodon puntledgensis, also from Vancouver Island:

Platecarpus coryphaeus, a very large mosasaur from Kansas. The champosaur skull is a Terminonaris robusta from the Carrot River in Saskatchewan.

[FossilDAWG]

They also had a sampling of Cretaceous fish.

I saw little in the way of invertebrates, except for this Coon Creek crab, Avitelmessus grapsoideus:

[FossilDAWG]

Now on to the dinosaurs.

First up, an ankylosaur skull and thagmatizer:

A nice assortment of ceratopsians:

And a reconstruction:

[FossilDAWG]

They also had a diversity of hadrosaurids:

And tyrannosaurids. First Daspletosaurus:

And Tarbosaurus:

I believe this is a T. rex skull:

And some reconstructions:

[FossilDAWG]

A nice raptor:

A coelosaur, and a reconstruction:

One more skeleton:

A comparison of dinosaur dentitions:

Some flying dinosaurs. First some Archaeopteris casts:

Also Hesperornis:

And a pterosaur:

[FossilDAWG]

Some fresh water Cretaceous critters. A champosaur:

A soft shelled turtle:

Some other turtles:

[FossilDAWG]

They also had a variety of Tertiary mammals. First some brontotheres/titanotheres:

A horse:

An oreodont:

Some other mammals:

Edited January 17, 2016 by FossilDAWG

[FossilDAWG]

A sabertooth:

They had a display on whale evolution, with primitive whales from Pakistan. Three species represent the terrestrial ancestor of whales, a primitive aquatic species, and a more advanced aquatic species:

[FossilDAWG]

A modern Blue Whale:

Edited January 17, 2016 by FossilDAWG

[FossilDAWG]

And finally, some mineral displays:

And that's all, folks!

Don

[JohnJ]

Wow, Don...thanks for the tour.

[PaleoWilliam]

Wow!!

[Ludwigia]

Thanks for the tour, Don! Love to get there myself someday.

[Auspex]

I am impressed in particular by the early whale sequence! Not something I have ever come across before.

[bcfossilcollector]

I definitely need to go there. Thanks for posting.

[Pterodactyl]

Those are some awesome looking displays!

[Raptor Lover]

Very impressive museum! Thanks for the tour Don