Tim T . Tokaryk
From preface of my forthcoming book: “It could have been the T. rex, known from its common name “Scotty”. The most massive of all known tyrannosaur specimens. It could have been the seven metre long ancient crocodile that would have swam the Saskatchewan seas some 95 million years ago. So beautifully preserved that the wafer-like ocular plates set behind the eye forming a ring, were still preserved. The bite-marks along the snout revealed a violent struggle for life. Or how about the new species of shark that I would name after my endearing grandmother. It could have been little seeds found in coprolites, seeds that were new to science, that look like little pumpkins the size of a grape. Or, the new species of archaic birds, giant marine reptiles, that lived during the Cretaceous Period, or even mammals that lived during and after the extinction event 65 million years ago, also new to science. The ultimate question is, as often asked of me, “what is your favorite fossil that I had found?” Based on the above, and many, many more, there is no single creature that I have discovered, collected, or described that is my favorite. In reflection mode, I think it is because I had the opportunity not to be confined to a specific time or group of extinct or extant species like so many specialist today (I consider it a luxury to sit on one group of organism or time period), but to be led by my curiosity throughout the last nearly 100 million years of life in Saskatchewan, each point marking life adapting to an environment always in flux and in change.”
I am former Curator of Vertebrate Palaeontology for the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, but adjunct professor of geology at the University of Regina. My interests lay in vertebrate and paleocommunity constructions during the Cretaceous and Tertiary of North America, with specific reference to non-mammals. In addition, I have a almost pathological interest in the history of natural sciences in addition to how science is performed and understood on a broader scale.
I am former Curator of Vertebrate Palaeontology for the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, but adjunct professor of geology at the University of Regina. My interests lay in vertebrate and paleocommunity constructions during the Cretaceous and Tertiary of North America, with specific reference to non-mammals. In addition, I have a almost pathological interest in the history of natural sciences in addition to how science is performed and understood on a broader scale.
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