Matthew Black -Edmonton Journal
mblack@postmedia.com
Researchers in northern Alberta have made another mass fossil discovery west of Grande Prairie.
© Provided by Edmonton Journal
Researchers in northern Alberta have made another mass fossil discovery west of Grande Prairie.© Provided by Edmonton Journal
The Pipestone bonebed west of Grande Prairie is home to thousands of dinosaur fossils.
Palaeontologists with the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum in Wembley uncovered back, skull and foot bones from a Pachyrhinosaurus, a four-legged dinosaur that lived in present-day Alberta and Alaska more than 72 million years ago.
The museum says the discovery came last week while crews were excavating a prior find of fossilized Pachyrhinosaurus juvenile skull and leg bones.
“The fact that we’re finding animals of all ages in this one bonebed gives us an unprecedented ability to study these dinosaurs’ growth from hatchling to adult,” said the museum’s curator, Emily Bamforth.
Crews also discovered teeth from a tyrannosaur, raptor, a rare mammal as well as a tiny insect locked inside a grain of amber.
“The fossil plant material and amber allows us an opportunity to study the paleoenvironment at this one snapshot of geologic time,” said Bamforth.
The fossils were all found in the Pipestone bonebed, about 17 km south of Wembley.
The site was discovered by a high school teacher in 1974, spans the size of several football fields and is now considered by researchers to be among the world’s densest sites in the world for fossils.
The bonebed is also known as the “River of Death” after the apparent flooding that happened there that wiped out thousands of dinosaurs.
Taking the fossils out of the ground comes only after careful work.
Museum personnel map the fossil areas to the centimetre and strategize how to remove the remains without causing damage.
Crews cleared mud from this fossil in the Pipestone bonebed in late June of 2022 west of Grande Prairie, Alta. (Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum)
The museum welcomes the public’s help for its teams excavating fossils through its “Palaeontologist For a Day” program.
Volunteers get to observe crews at work up-close and, like last week, can sometimes be there when a major discovery is made.
“They are all pretty excited to think they are the first to ever see these new fossils,” Bamforth said.
“This is a great opportunity to see one of the densest dinosaur bonebeds in Canada.”
Palaeontologists with the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum in Wembley uncovered back, skull and foot bones from a Pachyrhinosaurus, a four-legged dinosaur that lived in present-day Alberta and Alaska more than 72 million years ago.
The museum says the discovery came last week while crews were excavating a prior find of fossilized Pachyrhinosaurus juvenile skull and leg bones.
“The fact that we’re finding animals of all ages in this one bonebed gives us an unprecedented ability to study these dinosaurs’ growth from hatchling to adult,” said the museum’s curator, Emily Bamforth.
Crews also discovered teeth from a tyrannosaur, raptor, a rare mammal as well as a tiny insect locked inside a grain of amber.
“The fossil plant material and amber allows us an opportunity to study the paleoenvironment at this one snapshot of geologic time,” said Bamforth.
The fossils were all found in the Pipestone bonebed, about 17 km south of Wembley.
The site was discovered by a high school teacher in 1974, spans the size of several football fields and is now considered by researchers to be among the world’s densest sites in the world for fossils.
The bonebed is also known as the “River of Death” after the apparent flooding that happened there that wiped out thousands of dinosaurs.
Taking the fossils out of the ground comes only after careful work.
Museum personnel map the fossil areas to the centimetre and strategize how to remove the remains without causing damage.
Crews cleared mud from this fossil in the Pipestone bonebed in late June of 2022 west of Grande Prairie, Alta. (Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum)
The museum welcomes the public’s help for its teams excavating fossils through its “Palaeontologist For a Day” program.
Volunteers get to observe crews at work up-close and, like last week, can sometimes be there when a major discovery is made.
“They are all pretty excited to think they are the first to ever see these new fossils,” Bamforth said.
“This is a great opportunity to see one of the densest dinosaur bonebeds in Canada.”
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