The Royal Saskatchewan Museum, Regina

Where Gumbo Was #487

Gumbo was visiting an excellent Natural History Museum located in Regina, the capital city of Saskatchewan. Congratulations to George G, the only one who recognized where Gumbo was!

The Royal Saskatchewan Museum was established in 1906. The building of the current museum home began in 1953, and the “Saskatchewan Museum of Natural History” opened in 1955. Queen Elizabeth bestowed the name “Royal Saskatchewan Museum” in 1993.

The museum sits in a lovely park-like setting and contains many interesting exhibits. The best known of these is Scotty, the most massive Tyrannosaurus Rex in the world. Scotty was discovered in Saskatchewan’s Frenchman River Valley in 1991, but it took until 2014 to painstakingly free the fossil from the surrounding stone, Scotty is larger than the Chicago Field Museum’s SUE by 400 kg and more than 50 cm in length.

(T Rex’s had a second set of ribs which protected their viscera)

Displays of other dinosaurs are located in the nearby Earth Science Gallery. Including examples of the changing flora and fauna in the province over the ages.

(Edmontosaurus — one of the duck-billed dinosaurs)

(Triceratops)

(Giant bison)

The First Nations Exhibit shows aspects of the lives of Saskatchewan’s indigenous people in a variety of dioramas and informative displays.

I found the exhibit on a “Sacred Place” to be informative as I was unaware such places existed in Saskatchewan.

For me the highlight of the museum was the exhibits in the Life Sciences Gallery, where 16 amazingly life-like dioramas demonstrate the different ecoregions within the province. These galleries opened in 2001 and contains numerous informative plaques about the animals that live in these systems, and how they are often inter-related. The realism of the displays was captivating, as you can see from the following images: