Alberta's Dinosaur Provincial Park & The Royal Tyrell Museum

Dinosaur Provincial Park and the Centrosaurus Bone Bed

One of the world's great sources of dinosaur fossils is Dinosaur Provincial Park in southeastern Alberta, Canada. The park, encompassing a region of rugged and beautiful badlands, has yielded many spectacular finds from the Cretaceous period, about 65-70 million years ago, the last period of the dinosaurs.

While only credentialed scientists may freely roam the backcountry, there are several guided tours offered to casual visitors. The Centrosaurus Bone Bed Hike provides the tourist a chance to see this backcountry and enjoy a rare opportunity to view dinosaur bones in a natural setting while hearing a fascinating story of scientific discovery.

The Centrosaurus (shown left) was a member of the ceratopsian family. Its much more famous relative, the triceratops, also roamed the park.

The Centrosaurus Bone Bed occupies an area about the size of a football field. For the most part, there are bits and pieces of bone fragments scattered about with a few larger pieces (picture above right). There is one area, about 10 yards square, which has been worked on by palaeontologists, where the massive collection of bones is quite obvious (picture below right).

What makes the story interesting is that all of the bones here belong to Centrosaurus, and that most of the bones are in fragments. Also, it was determined that an ancient river bed ran through this site. The palaeonologists studied the site for ten years and theorized the following story: The Centrosaurus, traveling in a large herd, attempted to cross the river while it was in flood. (Scientists can observe this herd behavior today in Africa.) Many of the animals drowned and washed up on an adjacent sandbar, now the site of the bone bed. Predators then had a field day, ripping the carcasses apart. The remains were eventually covered over by sand and preserved, resulting in today's fossil bone bed.

The study of this site contributed to the now generally accepted idea that many dinosaurs traveled in great herds. An outstanding detective story.

At left is a photo from the partially excavated bone bed. It covers an area about 5 yards across.

Right, a nearby rock is covered with small artifacts left by passers-by for the benefit of future visitors.

The Royal Tyrell Museum

The Royal Tyrell Museum is located about 90 minutes northwest of the park, in Drumheller, Alberta. While less well known than some of world-famous museums (it is fairly new) the quality of its exhibits and works is definitely world-class.

The Museum staff performs ongoing research at Dinosaur Provincial Park and maintains a field station and exhibits at the park. All fossils collected at the park are catalogued and curated at the museum.

Below and right are ceratopsian skeletons on display at the museum. At right is a triceratops.

Left, an Albertasaurus (a relative of the t-rex) hovers over a fallen Centrosaurus.
Right, a Chasmosaurus.