This little T-Rex, fearsome as he may appear, seems to be a life sized juvenile. Prowling the lawn in front, he has been appointed guard dinosaur for a rock and fossil shop/museum in Parrsboro, The Parrsboro Rock & Mineral Shop & Museum. Made of concrete and standing about six feet tall, he is just the right height to look many people directly on the eye, scaring away any who may have come with nefarious intentions.
The rock shop/museum which our T-Rex guards has a bit of history attached to it. Founded in 1948, it is the
oldest registered rock shop in Canada, which later became a combination rock shop and museum. This came about after the proprietor had amassed a considerable collection of rare fossils to complement his already impressive collection of rocks and minerals representative of the local geology. The majority of the fossils in the collection are local, the proprietor, Eldon George having been the first real fossil hunter in Nova Scotia.
In its large collection of rocks, minerals and fossils are the
world's smallest dinosaur footprints, each the size of a penny. The footprint fossils were discovered locally on March 31, 1983 by Eldon George, proprietor of the shop.
Much like the find on Bonanza Creek at Dawson City in the Yukon which started the Klondike Gold Rush, Eldon's find touched off a "Gold Rush" style influx of fossil hunters to Nova Scotia.
See a description of the shop/museum and the find below.