Measuring more than 30 feet from snout to tail fluke with vicious crocodile-like teeth, Omaciw (pronounced oh-matchee-oh) hunted the shallow inland sea that covered southwestern Saskatchewan in the late cretaceous.
Fast-forward 70 million years (give or take) to 1994 when a new breed of hunter, the kind who carries a gun, stumbles on some odd-looking rocks along the south shore of Lake Diefenbaker.
Carefully excavated and preserved by Royal Saskatchewan Museum staff, Omaciw's skeleton is a stunning specimen of Tylosaurus, a behemoth eel-like predator that lived near the end of the era of dinosaurs.
In December, he is coming to Yorkton.
His temporary home, for approximately three months will be the Western Development Museum.
Although the exhibit is months away and has not been officially announced, the buzz is already in the air.
"I am so excited about this exhibit," said Lisa Washington, the City's community development manager.
It wasn't the easiest of tasks finding space in Yorkton for the beast. In fact, the Time Square area of the museum doesn't quite fit the dimension requirements for the exhibit, but the RSM has come up with a solution.
"We're doing a bit of modification," said John Snell, RSM manager of public programs.
"[The space is] a bit small, but we will make it fit and it will look great in there.
Randy Goulden, executive director of Tourism Yorkton, is seeing big opportunities for the city.
"The potential for school tours alone is huge," she said.
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