Dinosaurs of B.C. fill the Okanagan Heritage Museum in Kelowna

There’s a new dinosaur exhibition at the Okanagan Heritage Museum in Kelowna showcasing all sorts of dinosaurs found in B.C., including the Iron Lizard, a newly-discovered species of dinosaur.

“We’re just so excited to have it here, because first of all, everybody loves dinosaurs, and second of all, the creature behind me here, Buster as he is nicknamed, is a newly discovered species of dinosaur and he was discovered here in B.C.,” said Amanada Snyder, manager Kelowna Museums.

“Back in the 70s, there was a geologist who was working along the railway near the Sustit River, which I believe is near Smithers or in the northern part of the province, and when he was looking down in this sort of crevasse area, he saw a claw and he realized this was from a dinosaur."

Some years later, a paleontologist from the Royal BC Museum did a little bit more digging in that area and she found multiple parts of Buster's skeleton.

Buster is a relative of the triceratops, and is on display in Kelowna along with a bunch of other ancient fossils.

Some of the very oldest fossils at the museum right now are about 145 million years old.

"There’s various bits of tyrannosauruses, not the T. Rex, but an earlier tyrannosaurus. Lots of different sea creatures, different plant life. So anything from pollen to T. Rex, there’s lots of things to discover," said Snyder.

Being the first stop of this travelling exhibition, the Okanagan Heritage Museum plans to bring as much attention to it as possible.

“We have lots of amazing programming for kids throughout the summer. Adults like dinosaurs too, so of course we will have some programming for them like Wine and Dinos, some different speaker series, and then we will have a special exhibition opening on June 15.”

For those interested in fossils, the BC dinosaur exhibition will be at the Okanagan Heritage Museum until Sept. 30.