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 #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 #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 #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 #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! #70

a wall mounted cast of gryposaurus at the royal tyrrell museum. there are a few bits of skin impressions around this skeleton, can you spot them all?

fossil of the weekend! #69

a cast skeleton of Euoplocephalus and a (crazy!) pursuing Albertosaurus, at the royal tyrrell museum.

fossil of the weekend! #68

a rather nice (though slightly crushed) skull of albertosaurus, on display at the royal tyrrell museum.

fossil of the weekend! #65

a cast skull of carnotaurus on display at the royal tyrrell museum.

fossil of the weekend! #63

the mounted cast skeleton of my aunt black beauty (a tyrannosaurus rex, of course) at the royal tyrrell museum. in anticipation of their upcoming 25th anniversary display!

fossil of the weekend! #62

okay so i've been a naughty little theropod, and not kept up on my nearly perfect attendance fossil of the weekend feature...
`

i can't even claim it was a slight lapse. no i've only done one so far this year! that's nearly 4 months of no weekend fossils... and i was doing so well before!
`

no more slack from me, and though i missed the weekend by a bit, here is a late installment.

one of the most complete tyrannosaurid skeletons in the world, on display at the royal tyrrell museum (and not a cast of it either mind you). it is either a gorgosaurus or albertosaurus, depending on which side of the gorgo/alberto debate you sit upon. for formalities sake i'll say a gorgosaurus.

fossil of the weekend! #61

a cast skeleton of a dromaeosaurus at the tyrrell museum.

fossil of the weekend! #58

a hypacrosaur skull from the tyrrell's collections. i posted it due to events about to happen next post...

fossil of the weekend! #57

a titch late of the weekend i know, but still i did remember in the end...

one of the fine and huge teeth of my aunt, black beauty, the second tyrannsoaurus rex found in alberta. from the collections of the royal tyrrell museum.

fun fact about my aunt's fossils, due to the potassium rich sediments she was buried in, my aunt is now slight radioactive! not that your in danger after 5 minutes exposure to her, but the museum has had to put in special ventilation to all her storage and display areas so that the radiation doesn't build up. kind of cool!

fossil of the weekend! #53

an ornithomimid claw i found in the alberta badlands around drumheller.

fossil of the weekend! #52... one year of them!

who knew that after a year i'd have stuck with this whole posting a picture (nearly) every weekend successfully?!? not me... of the many weekly features I tried to kick off a year ago this is the only one i've managed to stick with the whole time (though i'm getting pretty good with my featured avian cousin of the week these days).

though i know you've seen them before, i went with my big discovery (well okay tony's) of francis slate's albertosaurus bonebed for the one year highlight. these two teeth were the most important and cool fossils i saw or encountered this year, and as of such they are the only ones that came to mind for this post...

so despite them being familiar to many of you, enjoy them again, and relive my excitement at finding them through the backlinks provided.

fossil of the weekend! #51

oops! just caught that i owe you one fossil of the weekend from last week... sorry about that.

here is a rather nice head on shot of styracosaurus (dug up by barnum brown during the great canadian dinosaur rush, from alberta) from the american museum of natural history. (photo kindly provided by my talent agent peter bond and lillian the albertosaur).

fossil of the weekend! #50... a centrosaur whammy!

in celebration of my meeting up with my old childhood friend norman a. centrosaur, i'm hitting you with a centrosaurtastic fossil of the weekend.

this also times rather well with my 50th installment of this feature on the blog (though i know i should really be making a bigger deal out of the 52nd, and it represents the one year mark...), but it also because i have used some of the pics before elsewhere on the blog. so it feels like cheating to claim they are the fossil of the weekend...

of course the real joke about centrosaur fossils in alberta, is that despite their insane abundance in dinosaur provincial park, they are very hard to find on display!

the tyrrell has this one and...

this one here. of course both are representing dead animals in this display. not exactly lending to the festive feeling i'm aiming for... especially since i really like norman!

sadly due to the renovations, the tyrrell removed a couple free standing centrosaur skulls they had on display. though i know of another spot in alberta you can see them...

as for this particular i state for the record i think it is a cast of the last centrosaur in this post, but i haven't been able to confirm it. take a close look and let me know what you think...

there are (or at least were... come to think of it) a couple free standing centrosaur skulls at the university of alberta in edmonton when i was younger (and of course didn't own a camera). however i suspect the skull of a centrosaur on display at the melbourne museum in australia is a cast of one of these skulls.

the only photo of a complete (undead, uh no wait, undead undead centrosaur) centrosaur i have is this one from the american museum of natural history (photo kindly provided by my talent agent peter bond and lillian the albertosaur).