Adolfo Cuetara moved to Morden two years ago from Spain where he had been working with museums in Europe and North America to create replicas and sculptures of dinosaurs for over 20 years.

Since moving to Morden, Cuetara has helped build new exhibits for the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre; the museum was a major draw for him when picking where to move in Canada.

"Spain is a very little country," Cuetara said. "It's very difficult to work out of the country."

He wanted to make some changes to his life and, four years ago, started searching where he could relocate.

"Canada is one of the better countries in the world for this job."

One replica he brought with him from Spain was of a small Allosaurus, only seven metres long. A friend of his purchased it in Toronto, and eventually it was given to Cuetara.

An original sculpture he made for the CFDC is of an Edmontosaurus scaled down to be the size of a medium dog. However, the CFDC has a femur bone that came from the same family of dinosaurs as an Edmontosaurus, and it is about three feet long.

"During the years I was learning a lot of different skills, like assembling dinosaur [replicas]," said Cuetara.

"I made hundreds of custom steel supports for originals (dinosaurs reassembled from real bones). I made a lot of life-size dinosaur sculptures like the Mosasaur at the entrance of Morden."

Cuetara explained that he got started in this business after working as a pipe-fitter and welder.

"It's a long story," Cuetara said. In 1988 he went to the United States to work for a private company digging up dinosaur bones in Colorado and Utah. Afterward, he started working on his own for a museum in Europe, assembling all the skeletons, both originals and replicas.

"After 24 years of experience, I have some skills," he laughed."

He sees his work as assistance to the paleontologists in their scientific investigations.

"They can dig the bones, study the bones, polish the bones, but after that you need someone to exhibit the bones. People need to understand what the paleontologists are doing."

Cuetara calls himself an "expert in doing things the first time." His work is never the same twice and that's what he enjoys about it the most.