Massive dinosaur skull hits auction block in Vaughan
200-pound mosasaur could fetch $100K

YorkRegion.com
Sept. 26, 2014
By Adam Martin-Robbins and Nick Iwanyshyn

Having trouble finding a unique gift for that special person in your life who just seems to have everything?

Perhaps the skull of a gigantic predatory marine lizard, called a mosasaur, which terrorized the world’s oceans more than 70 million years ago, would fit the bill?

Granted, it will cost you more than $100,000. But, on the upside, you don’t have to be Indiana Jones or travel abroad to get it. You simply have to drive over to Fossil Realm this weekend and plunk down your money. That’s right, there’s a 4.5-foot, 200-pound dinosaur skull for sale, right here, in Vaughan.

And that’s not all.

The local firm also sells a cornucopia of prehistoric curiosities and collector’s pieces from mammoth tusks and cave bear skulls to meteorites and petrified trees.

“There will be thousands of pieces (on display)... everything from rare trilobites to megalodon shark teeth, the largest predatory shark that ever lived,” co-owner Jim Lovisek said. “We’ve got just amazing pieces that no one else has in Ontario, for sure.”

And you can check it all out - for free - during Fossil Realm’s open house and sale running Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Whether you buy something or not, you’re virtually guaranteed to learn a bit about the myriad objects on display.

“We love to give information on fossils and minerals,” Lovisek said. “We have families who come that just want to learn and have an outing.”

A biologist by training, Lovisek began collecting and selling fossils and minerals back in the early 1980s, when he opened a gift shop at the nature camp his family ran through Branksome Hall, a Toronto private school.

His son Peter, who co-owns the firm, sold his first fossil as a teenager, 15 years ago.

Since then, their collection has grown to include thousands of rare and valuable items from around the world.

“It was from the love of actually teaching kids about minerals and fossils that we both got a really great interest in the material itself and we actually started collecting things and discovering,” Jim explained. “It’s sort of like the excitement of new discovery; you go to a place and you never know what you’re going to find.”

Four years ago, they set up shop in an industrial plaza in Vaughan where they store, showcase and sell their pieces either by appointment or through open house events held four to five times a year.

The pair also regularly attend trade shows and do a fair bit of business online through their website.

They’ve collected and sold some highly sought-after pieces to discerning collectors, interior designers and even museums.

Back in the spring, Jim appeared on CBC reality show Four Rooms where he sold a rare ammonite (the fossilized shell of an extinct mollusk) to buyer Jessica Lindsay Phillips for $12,000.

“Not only are they unique and aesthetic pieces, but they never go down in price. They’re better than the stock market,” Jim said. “We’ve sold things that have just gone crazy in price because you can’t find them anymore.”

For instance, Peter sold a cave bear skull for $2,400 about 13 years ago. Today, it’s worth $12,000.

Currently, they have a “very rare” fossil sea lion skull, which a scientist from the Canadian Museum of Nature is interested in acquiring.

As for the mosasaur skull, it was discovered in Morocco.

It’s a complete skull, found in pieces encased in a solid piece of rock, Jim said.

It was sent to a laboratory in Utah where the bones were removed from the surrounding rock and assembled into a 3D skull.

The skull comes from a mosasaur estimated to be about 35-feet long.

“This was a big one for its time,” Jim said. “It was a real sea monster. It could eat anything it wanted. There was nothing bigger in the ocean.”

“It’s really the type of piece that inspires awe and wonder into all types of visitors - young and old, newcomers and longtime collectors,” Peter added. The Lovisek’s aren’t just interested in selling pieces to the well-heeled or veteran collectors, they’re also keen to get kids interested in collecting fossils and minerals.

They stock plenty of items that cost less than $1and at this weekend’s event, you will be able to pick up a grab bag of five different fossils - all identified - for $5.

“We like the idea of just getting them started,” Jim said. “I think it’s important that they get access to things.

Today, kids are too onto computers and don’t get out anymore and do things.”