The Exploration Place

The plants growing in our Gaia gallery are not just decoration. They are part of a working ecosystem. The living wall is a closed aquaponics system where waste from the fish and axolotls in the tanks below feeds the plants, and the plants help filter and clean the water in return. It is a self-sustaining loop, built right into the gallery.

The wall itself was designed and built completely in-house, at roughly a tenth of the cost of bringing in an outside company. Many of the plants started as cuttings donated by community members, so pieces of local gardens are quite literally growing in the museum.

The star of the Dinosaurs of BC exhibit is Ferrisaurus sustutensis, nicknamed "Buster". Buster is from the only dinosaur species ever named from British Columbia. These dinosaurs were small by dinosaur standards, measuring about 1.75 metres long and weighing roughly 150 kilograms, or about the size of a bighorn sheep or a large wild boar.

Buster was a hornless relative of Triceratops, discovered in northern BC, and formally described in 2020. That means the closest dinosaur discovery to home is right in our own backyard.

See where Buster fits among the giants in Dinosaurs of BC, on now until September 13.

Royal BC Museum