Saskatchewanians have had their say: Scotty, the Tyrannosaurus rex, will be the next provincial emblem.
Scotty is a 65-million-year-old T. rex skeleton – the first found in Saskatchewan. Scotty was discovered on August 16, 1991, when then high school teacher Robert Gebhardt from Eastend joined Royal Saskatchewan Museum (RSM) palaeontologists on an expedition.
He discovered the base of a tooth and a vertebra from the tail, both suggesting that they belonged to a T. rex. In June 1994, RSM palaeontologists began excavating the T. rex.
“I would like to thank the public who took interest and participated in this campaign, along with the RSM who facilitated the selection of the next provincial emblem,” Parks, Culture and Sport Minister Mark Docherty said. “Scotty the T. rex will make a wonderful provincial emblem.”
The process of selecting a provincial fossil was led by the Ministry of Parks, Culture and Sport through the RSM. Since November 2015, the public have been able to cast paper ballots at the Provincial Fossil Campaign 2016 exhibit at the RSM in Regina, and in April 2016 voting opened province-wide online.
Scotty spent time on display in Creighton in the late 2000s.
