fossil of the weekend #90

the very famous braincase of Troodon, found in what would become the staff parking lot at the tyrrell museum (it was found during final surveys of the museums construction site). it is currently on display as part the royal tyrrell museum's 25th anniversary display "alberta unearthed".

fossil of the weekend #89

a potentially new species of Prognathodon, a mosasaur, on display as part the royal tyrrell museum's 25th anniversary display "alberta unearthed".

fossil of the weekend #88

the amazingly complete skeleton of the fresh water skate Myledaphus, part of the royal tyrrell museum's 25th anniversary display "alberta unearthed".

fossil of the weekend #87

the articulated arm of the small theropod Saurornitholestes langstoni a part of the royal tyrrell museum's 25th anniversary display "alberta unearthed".

fossil of the weekend #86

a still unstudied titanoideid from alberta, part of the royal tyrrell museum's 25th anniversary display "alberta unearthed".

this large mammal was part of herbivorous group called the pantodonts which rose to prominence shortly after the extinction of the dinosaurs. for reasons unknown they too would eventually become extinct, and leave behind no living relatives today...

fossil of the weekend #85

a clutch of some of alberta's first ever discovered dinosaur eggs from devil's coulee, on display at the royal tyrrell museum's 25th anniversary display "alberta unearthed". these eggs are definitely hadrosaur eggs (as shown by fossil embryos found within) and were mostly likely laid by hypacrosaurus whose adult remains have been found in the same fossil beds.

fossil of the weekend #84

a double whammy of ceratopsian goodness today, brought to you by the royal tyrrell museum's 25th anniversary display "alberta unearthed".


first we have the holotype material of eotriceratops xerinsularis.

plus the beautiful reconstruction the museum made based on this material. very nice (also huge, which this photo doesn't really show off)!

fossil of the weekend #83

a skeleton of the cretaceous ichythosaur Platypterygius americanus, from the royal tyrrell museum's 25th anniversary display "alberta unearthed".

fossil of the weekend #82

a lovely skull of edmontonia from the royal tyrrell museum's 25th anniversary display "alberta unearthed".

fun fact, this is the same skull of "edmontosaurus" that was being prepped in john accorn's video on preperation still shown in the museum these days (though they covered up this mistake on the in house version with a re-recording, you can still buy the original version on DVD at the gift shop).

my readers get a choice!... plus fossil of the weekend #81

today's a big hatching day... only it is not for a person (or a dinosaur... or anything living in fact)!

it was 25 years ago TODAY that the royal tyrrell museum first opened!!!

now as my coverage of the dinosaur winter OH-lympics is dreadfully behind, i'm left with a choice. delay my posts about the 25th anni or pause my OH-lympic posts, and bring you the tyrrell stuff "live" (technically a day or two after they go down...). rather than make the hard call myself, i leave this tricky decision with you, my readers...

do i keep on posting vancouver, and touching on drum after that. or take a week off the OH-lympics and bring you the tyrrell's 25th anni? leave your preference in the comment section.

(i will disclaim as i'm leaving for drumheller as i write this, that i have no idea just how interesting or uninteresting the anni will be from a blogging point of view... just so you're forewarned)

to celebrate, i kick off the several weekends of fossils from the tyrrell's new celebration exhibit "alberta unearthed". this new display consists of 25 of the tyrrell's most impressive and cool fossil discoveries covering the entire range of palaeontology the province has to offer. (it is definitely worth a trip to see!)

the first highlighted fossil is this amazing 3 dimensionally preserved albertosaurus, prepared by tyrannosaur chronicles friend darren tanke!

fossil of the weekend #80

rather lovely fossil leaf from vancouver island at the royal british columbia museum.

fossil of the weekend #79

a rather nice ammonite found on vancouver island british columbia, at the royal britsh columbia museum in victoria (my post about this coming here in the fall... along with the wrap up to the OH-lympics!)

fossil of the weekend #78

seems the company that mines ammolite donated a big jewelfied ammonite to the royal british columbia museum too (the first museum i encountered one of these at was the royal tyrrell... maybe only royally appellated institutions get them?)

fossil of the weekend #77

a lovely ammonite at the royal british columbia museum.

fossil of the weekend #76

a fossil salmon, THE modern fish of british columbia (well their not fossils these days :P). like the peanut brained fool i am, i forgot to write down the exact identity of this (or any of the other fossils i saw at the royal british columiba museum)... so that's all i can tell you.

the post on the royal british columbia museum coming soon (for real this time!)

fossil of the weekend #75

yes much like everything else on this blog, i've been negligent on my fossils of the weekend (again).

as a sort of reboot, i offer a different take on my first ever fossil of the weekend...


a much better lite picture of my aunt black beauty, who prowls the "lords of the land" hall at the royal tyrrell museum.

fossil of the weekend #74

a nice plesiosaur tooth from vancouver island, at the royal british columbia museum in victoria.

fossil of the weekend #73

a really nice mastodon tooth at the royal british columbia museum (my visit to the museum coming up soon during my OH-lympic coverage).

[thanks to Bruce Mohn for correcting me. i called this a mammoth. as bruce pointed out the large cusps are a mastodon trait not a mammoth... i knew there was a difference, but couldn't remember it off the top of my head, and frankly mammals just aren't my thing. give me a saurian anyday!]

fossil of the weekend! #72

a rather nice fossil crab, at the royal british columbia museum.

stay tuned for my (mis)adventure there coming soon!

fossil of the weekend! #71

as part of peter's new promotion of both the dinosaur winter games, and us dinosaurs in it, he took us across george's straight to victoria for a special appearance at the royal british columbia museum. the post on this, dare i say, misadventure is coming up soon, but thought i could start previewing the museum through its fossils here on the weekends...

you're first sneak peek of the RBCM is this rather lovely belemnite. belemnites were very similar to squid (which they were closely related too) but had much harder "guards", aka inner shells, which is what you see here. due to these harder shells belemnites fossilize quite easily (at least this particular part of them).

the belemnites evolved during the devonian period, and finally went extinct in the cretaceous. they reached the height of their success in the jurassic and cretaceous.