MidCanada Entertainment in association with Myth Merchant films is pleased to announce production on a documentary about the most significant dinosaur discovery of all time. Produced for Discovery Channel Canada and Discovery Channel US, the one-hour documentary is called Dinosaur Resurrection. Click here for a sneak preview.

As the sun was setting on the last day of the 2000 digging season in Montana, paleontologist Nate Murphy uncovered what many are calling the "Holy Grail" of paleontology: A 77 million-year old, fully intact, dinosaur cadaver.

Murphy is staking his reputation on the "Dino-mummy," potentially the most important dinosaur find in history. "For the first time in more than 150 years science now has more than just bones to help reconstruct how dinosaurs looked and lived," says Murphy. "For a paleontologist, if you can find one complete specimen in a lifetime, you've hit the jackpot. To find one with so much detail is like going from the horse and buggy to a jet engine. It will advance our science a quantum leap."

Dubbed "Leonardo" for the graffiti scratched on a rock near its burial site, the Cretaceous four-year old is the most complete duck-billed dinosaur ever found. In 2002, Murphy presented Leonardo for review to his highly sceptical peers. "Once we saw Nate's findings, the feedback was overwhelming," says Utah's chief paleontologist Jim Kirkland. "The specimen is certainly the best mummy dinosaur ever found. I'm very interested in how Leonardo's organs were preserved. There are examples of organs preserved with some of the new feathered-dinosaurs found in China, but these are carbon films, whereas Leonardo's tissues are preserved in three-dimension.

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Since its initial discovery, Murphy has exhumed the 23-foot long dinosaur and locked it away in an airtight vault at the Judith River Dinosaur Institute Laboratory in Malta, Montana. If successful, Murphy will be the author of another world first: A detailed model of what a living dinosaur looked like - from the inside out.

For more than a century scientists have tried to piece together dinosaur physiology and morphology from fossilized bones. Did dinosaurs have cheeks? How did their heart, respiratory and gastro-intestinal tract work? "Imagine aliens trying to reconstruct how we looked and functioned from our skull," says Murphy. "Buried deep inside Leonardo are the answers to all these questions. We may even be able to learn what his last dinner was." With the only existing dinosaur mummy awaiting study, Murphy is learning an entirely new science - forensics. From the study of desiccation rates to human mummy preservation, the paleontologist is set to become the world's first "dinosaur coroner" - paleontology's answer to CSI.

A find of Leonardo's magnitude doesn't come without critics and Murphy knows he has a lot to prove. To assist him he's assembled an elite team of world-class dinosaur experts from across North America and Europe including superstar paleontologist Bob Bakker. Bakker is Murphy's right hand man, and no stranger to controversy. Bakker is generally accredited with the 'Dinosaur Renaissance' and many of his revolutionary ideas on the characteristics of dinosaurs, like the convention-challenging notion that they were warm blooded is now widely accepted.

The producers have obtained exclusive access to what promises to be the single most important discovery in the history of paleontology. Directed by Emmy Award winning producer/director Michael Jorgensen, the epic documentary will be shot in high-definition with stunning CGI and 5.1 sound. The one-hour doc will follow Murphy's journey from the first x-ray of Leonardo, to the final CT scan as each layer of mystery is peeled back to reveal the anatomy of a complete dinosaur. This information will allow Murphy to cast Leonardo's organs in resin in a matter of hours. For the first time ever it may be possible to hold an anatomically accurate model of a dinosaur heart in your hands.

For more information contact:
Kevin Dunn, Producer
MidCanada Entertainment 866.430.4MID