How technology has helped bring the latest Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre exhibit to life

The Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre has unveiled its newest exhibit, which is dedicated to the Styxosaurus.

The Loch Ness monster of prehistoric times is the newest exhibit at the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre in Morden.

The Styxosaurus is now on display. Adolfo Cuetara, the executive director of the centre, said the fossil was first found back in 1983 near Miami, Man., however, the centre didn’t have the ability to make a proper display for it.

Now, thanks to the help of technology like 3D printing and AI mapping, the centre is able to showcase a complete replica of the creature along with the originally discovered fossil in a display case.

“This animal has a very special adaptation to the life on the sea because from the total length, half of the length is only the neck,” said Cuetara. “Like the Loch Ness monster.”

Over an eight-month period, the centre used the original fossil to help map out a 3D-printed replica that has more than 400 bones.

“Overall, the process of paleontology, we are applying this technology, and it’s incredible what we can do. Actually, with this exhibition, we are trying to stretch what we can do with this technology,” said Cuetara. “The lifelike sculpture, for example, is 20 feet long for the Styxosaurus and it was all 3D printed. So we model that digitally and we 3D print the whole animal. So it’s opening a lot of possibilities.”

The Styxosaurus, which is a type of plesiosaur, was one of the many sea creatures that swam through the Western Interior Seaway – a stretch of ocean that went straight through Manitoba.

Cuetara said that while it had a massive body and long neck – weighing around 4,000 pounds – its head was quite small, an adaptation the centre believes was used to hunt smaller fish.

“We have a theory that it can probably introduce its head and neck inside a school of fish without being noticed and it could catch fish more easily. The fish couldn’t see the big body just a few meters behind.”

He notes the Styxosaurus would also swallow rocks to help with its digestion, which would crush the fish in its stomach as it swallowed them hole, and would also help with buoyancy.

Cuetara said visitors can expect to see similar types of exhibits in the future because of the technology that they now have, noting there is another big one in the works right now.

The only challenge moving forward is finding the space to show all these massive creatures.

For those who go visit the centre, it is holding a naming contest for the Styxosaurus. Cuetara said usually the paleontologists name the creatures but because this was dug up by mining operators, it has so far gone nameless.