Canada’s biggest and best triceratops skull on display in Alberta | 24CA News
After seven years of work, the very best preserved and most full triceratops cranium coming from Canada — also referred to as the “Calli” specimen — is on show for the primary time since being present in 2014 on the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alta.
A museum news launch calls the specimen “unique” due to the place it was found, the age of the rock round it, and the way nicely it was preserved.
Following the floods that tore by way of Alberta about 10 years in the past, the Royal Tyrrell workers had been engaged in flood mitigation paleontology work when the triceratops cranium was found in 2014.
Triceratops fossils are uncommon in Canada. This cranium was discovered within the foothills of southwestern Alberta — an space the place dinosaur fossils usually are unusual — and nicknamed “Calli” after Callum Creek, the stream the place it was found.
Transported by way of helicopter in large, heavy chunks, the cranium and a lot of the jaw items had been extracted over the course of a month in 2015. The remainder of the triceratops’ skeleton was not discovered.
Roaming the earth roughly 68 to 69 million years in the past, the museum says this cranium was buried in phases, evident by the fossilization course of.
“Paleontologists know this because the specimen was found in different rock layers, and the poorly preserved horn tips suggest they were exposed to additional weathering and erosion,” reads a museum weblog concerning the triceratops cranium.
“The rest of the skeleton likely washed away,” noting that the decrease jaws had been discovered downstream.
From 2016 to 2023, Royal Tyrrell technician Ian Macdonald spent over 6,500 hours making ready this fossil, eradicating over 815 kilograms of rock that encased the cranium. This triceratops cranium is the biggest cranium ever ready on the museum and its third largest on show.
According to Macdonald, it was apparent this was going to be a memorable venture due to how “unusually beautiful” the specimen was.
‘It’s at all times been a really satisfying venture to work on simply because it is such a high-quality specimen, just like the bone is superbly preserved,” he said.
“All the grooves and pits and ridges, like all that element is beautiful and it’s extremely ever-so-slightly deformed, but it surely’s primarily three-dimensional and stuff. So it has been a really rewarding venture the entire means by way of.”
He added that his work was far from straightforward and there were many challenges along the way.
“It wasn’t simply merely taking the rock off the bone. There was numerous different fairly technical points to determine … and that was fairly enjoyable.”
The triceratops is the largest and most famous ceratopsian, which were a group of beaked herbivorous dinosaurs alive during the Cretacious Period.
An “extraordinary specimen,” the triceratops skull is part of Fossils in Focus, the Royal Tyrrell Museum’s newest installation focusing on the latest finds and research, on display now.
Caleb Brown, curator of dinosaur systematics and evolution at the Royal Tyrrell Museum, believes that this is a fine addition to the museum’s collection.
“Triceratops is likely one of the most iconic dinosaurs that folks consider after they consider dinosaurs. It’s one of many prime three for positive,” he said. “We truly did not have an authentic triceratops till now. So this sort of fills in that hole … it is the best-preserved, most full triceratops specimen from Canada.”
