REGINA – Scotty the world’s largest T-Rex will be the star attraction again this week for Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Regina.
It is Family Week at the museum, with families encouraged to come down to see what winter activities are happening. One of those is the T-Rex Talk, a new week-long program daily at 2:30 pm where people can ask questions of Scotty and have the dinosaur answer back.
Scotty is the T-Rex whose fossils were uncovered in Saskatchewan in 1991 and which is the largest T-Rex to ever be found. It is the province’s official fossil and the showcase attraction for the museum.
Minister of Parks Culture and Sport Alana Ross took part in demonstration of what the daily T-Rex talk would be like. She posed a question to Scotty on what life was like when the dinosaur roamed Saskatchewan.
“Back then, Saskatchewan was just as beautiful as it is now,” said Scotty, who noted that instead of prairies there were broadleaf forests.
“And the winters weren’t nearly as cold. They were dry, but not so much snow as you have today. There were plenty of crocodiles, turtles, and small mammals, but no humans to keep me company like you do today.”
Ross also asked Scotty about why its arms are so small.
“Well, if you look a little bit further up, you’ll see my giant jaws,” Scotty replied. “Who needs arms when you have a mouth as big as mine? I use my mouth for all kinds of things, especially hunting, and those small arms didn’t make a difference because my teeth were so massive.
Rebecca Hay, Earth Science Program Specialist, explained that it is actually one of the interpreters at RSM portraying the voice of Scotty.
“All of us are kind of taking turns, having a chance to play that role,” said Hay.
“But what we did is we brainstormed our questions and thought about, what did we think that the public of Saskatchewan would ask a dinosaur from here?”
The interpreters also prepared to have information ready about Scotty for any question that could be posed.
Minister Ross agreed it was a great selling point to the museum that it had the worlds largest T-Rex fossil on display,
“Well, I think that’s pretty amazing. So to me that’s a huge selling factor and something we want to share with the world. It’s pretty great to have that here and to have been discovered, you know, so close by.”
Scotty’s talks are not the only activity for visitors to RSM this week. Hay also said they are opening the SaskTel Be Kind Online Learning Lab which is open between 1 to 4 p.m.
This week, “it’s arachnids, so spiders and stuff like that. So, they get to look at actual specimens, make a spider web, do some matching of spiders to the types of web, and just learn a bit more about what types of spiders are actually here in our province.”
There is also Storytelling with Skylar Anderson and Teddy Bison planned for Friday Feb. 21 between 1 and 2 p.m. in the auditorium, in celebration of Indigenous Storytelling Month.
On Monday, Feb. 24, Storytime with Elder Hazel also takes place between 10-11 a.m. in the Buffalo Room (First Nations Gallery). That is for children from ages three to six to attend with their parent or caregiver.
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