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Canada Post stamps elasmosaur

One of the five featured dinosaurs on new Dinos of Canada stamp series
Elasmosaur_single_400
The Comox Valley elasmosaur - one of five dinosaurs featured in Canada Post’s 2016 Dinos of Canada stamp series.

The mystery about the prehistoric creatures depicted in Canada Post’s exciting new Dinos of Canada stamp series is whether they are the hunters or the hunted.

The series, unveiled May 26, depicts five beasts from Canada’s geological past as reflections in the eyes of their prey or the predators stalking them. They are vividly illustrated by Sergey Krasovskiy, one of the world’s top paleo-artists.

The Comox Valley elasmosaur is one of the five featured dinosaurs.

The vicious marine reptile had a neck nearly seven metres long that helped it hunt its prey 83 million years ago.

It was discovered in 1988 by a father and his 12-year-old daughter prospecting for fossils in the Comox Valley.

The other featured dinos include the  Acrotholus audeti and Troodon inequalis  (Alberta);  Cypretherium coarctatum (Saskatchewan); and Dimetrodon borealis (Prince Edward Island).

About the stamps

The four-colour stamps measure 40 mm x 40 mm. They are available in booklets of 10 permanent stamps printed by Lowe-Martin.

The uncut press sheet measures 480 mm by 650 mm and features an enlargement of a tyrannosaur, whose eye is the frame for a single stamp among seven other souvenir sheets. Each souvenir sheet measures 159 mm by 105 mm and consists of five stamps. The cancel image on the Official First Day Cover features dinosaur tracks. The cancel site is Courtenay, where the Courtenay and District Museum and Palaeontology Centre is home to the Comox Valley elasmosaur.