A Walk Through Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada - 22/7/18

[Paleoworld-101]

This report is a bit late, but better late than never! During late July through to mid August 2018 i was on a research trip to study a new Canadian dinosaur footprint site for my Masters degree project. I am based in Australia, and this was the first time i had been to Canada! So of course i had to make the most of it and pay a visit to the world renowned Dinosaur Provincial Park in southern Alberta, arguably the richest site in the world for dinosaur fossils. The park is the best exposure of the Dinosaur Park Formation (which it is now named after), which dates to about 76.5 million years ago during the mid-Campanian.

 

I had long read about this location and watched it on documentaries for so many years growing up as a kid. Finally being there in person was very surreal! I was quite lucky and managed to go on a long, extended walk through the park with one of the guides for about 6 hours in total. In this relatively short amount of time i observed so many amazing fossils. I must have been completely desensitised within the first 30 minutes! It really is incredible how much fossil material there is lying all over the park. In Australia, whole scientific papers are written about isolated or fragmentary dinosaur bones, yet here they were just lying everywhere!

 

The pictures really speak for themselves. As said, all of these fossils were observed in the field during a single days visit to the park. As this is a World Heritage site, nothing was taken, all finds were put straight back onto the ground after i took these photos. It's a VERY hard thing to do, but rules are rules. The only thing that was removed from the park on my trip was my best find of the day... a near-perfect 5.3 cm tyrannosaur tooth from Gorgosaurus!!!! This find was too special to leave behind, so the park tour guide GPS marked the location and brought it back for display, likely at the visitor centre or as a demonstration piece for their guided tours. To say that i have found a tyrannosaur tooth is a great honour! You may remember it from the July 2018 VFOTM poll.

 

Without further ado, here are the pics! It is going to take multiple posts to fit them all in, so scroll all the way down to see them all!

 

 

 

Various dinosaur vertebrae. Everything from hadrosaurs (duck billed dinosaurs) and ceratopsians (horned dinosaurs) to theropods (two legged meat eaters) and ankylosaurs (armoured dinosaurs). These were so common! I would probably pick a new one up every 5 minutes or so. 

 

 

Ankylosaur tooth

 

 

[Paleoworld-101]

More fossil vertebrae! I can't get enough of these! Most are dinosaur, but some of the smaller ones may be champsosaur?

[Paleoworld-101]

One last vertebra. This one is special, it's a beautiful large tyrannosaur vert from Daspletosaurus ! This was the top predator in the ecosystem. 

 

 

A tyrannosaur tooth still in-situ. 

 

 

 

Another small shard of theropod tooth. 

 

 

 

Two large dinosaur sacra (fused vertebrae from the hip region)

 

 

 

Dinosaur ribs

 

 

 

Turtle shell fragments from Trionyx

[Paleoworld-101]

A femur eroding out of a hillside. 

 

 

 

Hadrosaur jaws

 

 

 

A couple of smaller jaw fragments. Not sure if these are hadrosaur or something else. 

 

 

Various limb bones

 

 

 

Metatarsal or large digit

 

 

 

Possibly a section of horned dinosaur frill. 

[Paleoworld-101]

Dinosaur digits!

 

 

 

Probably a champsosaur tooth

 

 

 

Miscellaneous other dinosaur bones

 

[Paleoworld-101]

Final miscellaneous bones

 

 

 

And my prized find of the day, a beautiful Gorgosaurus tyrannosaur tooth!!!!! What a beauty!!

 

[Paleoworld-101]

Last but not least, the beautiful scenery of the park

 

 

Thanks for checking this report out!

[Dan 1000]

Nice report! It is so amazing to believe that so many dinosaur fossils are found just by walking around the park 

[Monica]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!  I need to get out to Alberta!!!!!   Thanks for sharing all of these wonderful pictures - great finds!!! 

 

I was just wondering - are there just too many fossils to be collected, or do the staff only collect the particularly important ones and leave the rest for visitors to see (and for nature to unfortunately eventually wear down)?

[Ludwigia]

Great report! Thanks for taking us along to this world famous site!

[Vieira]

Thanks for sharing.

 

A fantastic report with amazing finds

[Masp]

Looks like a trip worth making. The daspletosaurus vert and the gorgo tooth are my favorite.  Awesome finds. Would’ve been nice if you got to take a fossil or two home but a cool experience nonetheless. 

[Paleoworld-101]

Thanks guys!!

 

@Monica Yes, there are just so many fossils here that now only the best material is actually collected. This usually means anything articulated or reasonably complete. Isolated bones like the ones in my pictures are all pretty much ignored, which is sad, as yes they will inevitably just erode away. I think there needs to be a better system personally. It doesn't make sense to just let these great fossils be destroyed by the elements. But if collecting was allowed how could it be regulated to make sure only expendable material was taken? And how would you stop people then selling those bones for a profit? It's a hard situation, you want to save the fossils, but letting collectors take things opens up a bunch of other issues as well. 

[ynot]

Very nice, thanks for sharing the adventure.

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

Geez.. I miss that place so much - can't wait to get back there in a few years

Anyways, thank you so much for that wonderful report! The stuff you found (and the scenery you saw) is absolutely amazing - especially that Gorgosaurus tooth

-Christian

[dinosaur man]

On 10/10/2018 at 3:04 AM, Paleoworld-101 said:

One last vertebra. This one is special, it's a beautiful large tyrannosaur vert from Daspletosaurus ! This was the top predator in the ecosystem. 

100

 

 

A tyrannosaur tooth still in-situ. 

                                

Another small shard of theropod tooth.

 

Two large dinosaur sacra (fused vertebrae from the hip region)

 

Dinosaur ribs

  

Turtle shell fragments from Trionyx

  

I know this is a old post, but is the top Daspletosaurus vertabrae from the Dinosaur park formation or Oldman formation thanks!!

[Paleoworld-101]

On 31/12/2019 at 6:30 AM, dinosaur man said:

I know this is a old post, but is the top Daspletosaurus vertabrae from the Dinosaur park formation or Oldman formation thanks!!

It is from the Dinosaur Park Formation. 

[dinosaur man]

Thank you @Paleoworld-101!!