We're open!
Special video
Handy info for your museum visit
Rediscover the museum with Martin the Moose and John, our Chief Marketing Officer. From increased cleaning, directional visitor flow, downloadable floor map and more, many measures have been put in place to ensure a healthy, safe and enjoyable experience for our visitors.
Come and see your old friends!
Museum galleries open
All of our galleries are open, with special measures in place to direct visitor flow safely. If you haven't been eye-to-eye with our spotted turtle recently in our Water Gallery, now is the perfect time to head to the museum and enjoy a spacious, relaxing stroll through our amazing exhibitions. Remember to buy your tickets in advance, online. Don't forget your mask!
New exhibition opening September 25
Planet Ice: Mysteries of the Ice Ages
Journey across more than 80,000 years of Earth's history in this world-premiere exhibition. Explore the power of ice and cold in shaping the world we live in today. See amazing artifacts, models and real specimens! Enjoy memorable multimedia experiences.
In the field
Quarry quest
Field research is resuming! With most summer fieldwork delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, palaeontologist Dr. Jordan Mallon was happy to be back in the Saskatchewan badlands this August, having made the 2,800-km drive out west from Ontario. He and his student Mat Roloson were on a quest to relocate and document historical Triceratops quarries, including a site in Grasslands National Park where the well-recognized Triceratops that stands in the Museum’s Fossil Gallery was found in 1962.
Behind the scenes
Amazing amphipod
This tiny but fearsome-looking skeleton shrimp, Liropus minusculus, was collected in 1970 in a submerged cave on a reef of Santa Catalina Island, off the coast of California. Forty-three years later, museum biologist Ed Hendrycks and a visiting scientist named Dr. José Manuel Guerra-Garcia discovered it to be a new species and published their findings in 2013 in the journal Zootaxa. This caprellid amphipod was the first of its genus to be discovered in the northeastern Pacific. The holotype male specimen and paratype female are both in the museum's collections (holotypes and paratypes are the specimens used to define and determine new species). In 2014, Liropus minusculus was listed by the International Institute of Scientific Exploration as a "top 10" new species that year!
Editor: Laura Sutin
Questions or comments can be sent to lsutin@nature.ca
Photos:
Polar bear and spotted turtle images: Anne Botman
Fieldwork (Jordan Mallon): Emily Bamforth
