Scotty the T. rex

Scotty is 10th on my list of the 10 most awesome rocks in Canada.

On July 1st, the Royal Saskatchewan Museum and the Eastend Historical Museum held a joint event called "Canada Rocks! A Canada Day Celebration" at the T.rex Discovery Centre. There was live rock music, rock painting, and a rockn’ great Canada Day cake! That afternoon I presented “Canada Rocks! The 10 Most Awesome Rocks in Canada”. Canada is a huge country, whose rocks preserve 4.3 billion years of history, from Earth’s earliest moments right up to the end of the last glaciation. From my original list of over 30 fascinating geological and paleontological places in Canada (so many to choose from!), these were the top 10 I included in "Canada Rocks!"

  1. The oldest bedrock on Earth – 4.3 billion years old - Hudson’s Bay, Quebec
  2. The world’s largest glacial erratic – 15 600 tonnes - Okotoks, Alberta
  3. Fossils of the oldest complex multicellular life in Earth’s History – 565 million years old – Mistaken Point, Newfoundland
  4. The best record of Late Cretaceous dinosaur diversity on Earth – Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta
  5. The world’s largest visible impact crater – 70 km in diameter (6th largest ever recorded) - Manicouagan Crater, Quebec
  6. Some of the world’s oldest animal fossils – 508 million years old- The Burgess Shale, Yoho National Park, BC
  7.  The Monteregian Hills, QC – A range of hills in southern Quebec, including Mont-Royal in Montreal, that are the solidified magma chambers of a Cretaceous volcanic chain.
  8. The ‘Coal Age Galapagos’ and the  world’s oldest amniotes – 300 million years old - Joggins, Nova Scotia
  9. Important transitional fish-to-tetrapod fossils from the ‘Age of Fishes’ – 385 million years old - Miguasha National Park, Quebec
  10. The world’s most massive T. rex fossil – Eastend, Saskatchewan!

Five of these are designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, recognized internationally for their importance on the global geological and paleontological stage. Canada really is the place to be if you are interested in Earth’s history. So take some time this summer to visit some of these sites!