Did you know there is a dinasour named after the tiny village of Herschel Saskatchewan? Yes this isolated pocket on the Canadian prairie was a tidal pool during the Cretaceious period when a shallow inland sea covered most of what is now Saskatchewan. Bodies of marine life would be washed into the pool during storms and left behind when the tide retreated.
Checking out some of the fossils at Ancient Echoes
On our visit to the Ancient Echoes interpretive centre in Herschel we learned thousands of bones from shell fish, clams and snails- some hundreds of millions of years old, have been found in Herschel’s Coal Mine Ravine as well as the teeth and the bones of a large marine predator called the Mosasaur.
In 1990, 1994, and 1997, paleontologists excavated the remains of three plesiosaurs. 
In 2005 Tamaki Sato discovered a new dinasour species in Herschel and called it Dolichorhynchops hershelensis.
Plesiosaur Sculpture at Ancient Echoes
At the Ancient Echoes Interpretive Centre in Herschel Saskatchewan you can learn all about the life of the First Nations people who used to live in the area hundreds of years ago but you can also travel back in time millions of years and learn about the dinosaurs who once swam in this tiny prairie hamlet.
Other posts about Ancient Echoes…….
Candis Militer
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hello i just wanted to tell you i am the woman who worked on the dinosaur with David and the amazing welder guy Marlin who i like to call Merlin for obvious reasons. nice blog i plan on coming back often. Herschel is one magical place hidden in those rolling coulees.
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Dear Candis,
Thanks so much for making a comment. I usually try to include the name of the artists when I use a photo of an artwork on my blog but I was only in Herschel for an afternoon and evening and took so many photos. I made lots of notes but failed to write down the creator of the dinosaur and couldn’t find it on the internet. I agree that Herschel is a magical place as you can see from the number of blog posts I wrote about it. I want to use it as the setting for a novel I am trying to write.
MaryLou
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wouldn’t it be lovely to stay at the retreat while you write your novel? I look forward to reading it. have you read the play that the village wrote about the Earl visiting the ruins. I think that was the plot. they reenact the play down in the valley where all the petroforms are. Cheers Candis i am so glad i found your blog, it is very interesting MaryLou.
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