Free Republic

Scientists hail it as perhaps the best-preserved dinosaur specimen ever uncovered. You can’t even see its bones. That’s because, 110 million years later, those bones remain covered by the creature’s intact skin and armor.

On Monday, March 21, 2011 the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Drumheller, Alberta received word that the remains of either a plesiosaur or an ichthyosaur had been discovered in the Milllennium Mine operated by the petroleum company Suncor Inc. This mine is located about 30 km north of the town of Fort McMurray (population ~50,000) in northeastern Alberta (about 800km north of Drumheller), and is one of the places where bitumen rich sand is mined and refined into various petroleum products. On Wednesday, March 23, 2011 myself and technician Darren Tanke flew up to Fort McMurray expecting to see...