Scotty the T.rex named Saskatchewan’s official fossil

REGINA – Saskatchewan has spoken! Scotty the Tyrannosaurus rex will now be the official fossil of our province.

Scotty is a 65 million year old T. rex skeleton – which was the first ever found here. Scotty was found on August 16, 1991 when an Eastend High School teacher Robert Gebhardt joined paleontologists from the Royal Saskatchewan Museum (RSM) on an expedition when he discovered the base of a tooth and a vertebra from a tail.

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READ MORE: Which dinosaur fossil best represents Saskatchewan?

In 1994, RSM paleontologists started digging out the fossil skeleton and more than 6,000 people visited the excavation site that year.

People started casting ballots in November of 2015 to choose the provincial fossil and with 14,208 votes cast Scotty the T.rex received 35 per cent of the vote.

The T.rex Discovery Centre, located at #1 T-rex Drive in Eastend, reopens for the season on May 21.