The Royal Tyrrell Museum speaker series, after taking attendees on a balmy trip to Australia, is bringing things back home with presentation about one of the major finds of 2011.
The Suncor ankylosaur, an armoured dinosaur, made international news in the spring of 2011. Workers at the Suncor Mine noticed rocks riddled with odd textures and patterns.
The workers sent photos to the Tyrrell Museum, where scientists initially thought it was a plesiosaur, a marine reptile, flipper. Dr. Don Henderson, curator of dinosaurs, and Darren Tanke, technician, flew north and found something unexpected, an ankylosaur.
“It was unexpected to find a dinosaur in this location because the (rock) formation was laid down in the sea and dinosaurs are land animals. As well, ankylosaur finds are rare, so this was a significant find,” said Dr. Henderson.
The Tyrrell team and Suncor had the difficult task of removing the 110 million year old fossil. Now, the fossil is at the Tyrrell Museum and is currently being prepared.
Dr. Henderson will present the story of removing the fossil from the oilsands at the third speaker series talk of 2012. The talk will be held on Thursday, January 26, at 11 a.m. in the museum auditorium. For more information visit www.tyrrellmuseum.com or to view previous talks, youtube.com/user/RoyalTyrrellMuseum.
