It took 65 million years, but T. rex 'Scotty' is Saskatchewan's favourite fossil

Proving it pays to be patient, a 65-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex has won a popularity contest to become Saskatchewan's official fossil emblem. Fossilized bones of the creature, dubbed Scotty, were uncovered in Eastend, Sask., in the 1990s.

The rare find was up against six other contenders, but the T. rex proved to be the most favoured.

"We have a beautiful skeleton," the Royal Saskatchewan Museum's paleontologist Tim Tokaryk said. "[It is] 65 per cent complete: Head to most of the end of the tail, and he's one of the most massive T. rexes known."

A copy of the Scotty skeleton is on display at the T. rex Discovery Centre in Eastend. The centre opens for the summer tourist season this weekend.

According to the Royal Saskatchewan museum, in August of 1991 high school teacher Robert Gebhardt while on an expedition with museum expert discovered the base of a tooth and a vertebra.

Several years later, excavation work began and the site yielded a specimen noted for its relative completeness.

In the emblem contest, there were 14,208 votes cast and Scotty received 4,923 (35 per cent) of the votes.

Eastend is about 375 kilometres southwest of Regina.