Earth Sciences Unit: Saskatchewan's Fossil Mammals
The Royal Saskatchewan Museum has been collecting from the Tertiary deposits (65 to 2 million years old) in the Swift Current, Cypress Hills and Wood Mountain areas of southern Saskatchewan for approximately 50 years. During the first half of that period the RSM carried out field research and facilitated the collecting and research of colleagues from eastern museums.
In 1975, Dr. John Storer initiated a long term research project by the RSM on the evolution of Tertiary mammals (approximately 44 to 14 million years ago), a project that is now being continued by Dr. Harold Bryant, the present Curator of Earth Sciences. To date, detailed scientific study of the mammals from five sites has revealed evidence about the evolution and extinction of various mammals. For example, during this period horses developed high-crowned teeth for grazing, and by 34 million years ago the large rhino-like brontotheres had become extinct. Climates were becoming cooler and drier, and these changes were probably one factor influencing mammalian evolution.
Frank McDougall, a graduate student at the University of Saskatchewan, has been studying the geology of the Cypress Hills Formation in the hills north of Eastend. His work will help to sort out the relative ages of the fossil localities in this area.
Some of the results of this research are described and displayed in the Earth Sciences Gallery.
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For further information contact the Curator of Earth Sciences.
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