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.

    The 19th annual STARS Lottery officially launches today with 3,200 prizes worth over $5.2 million retail.
    The STARS Lottery raised over $10 million net during the 2011 campaign and continues to be the single largest source of funding to keep STARS in the sky.
    “STARS flies an average of four missions a day in Alberta, and we could not continue to do this without your support of the STARS Lottery,” says Dr. Greg Powell, CEO of STARS. “Thank you for helping make a difference in many lives, every day.”
    The STARS Lottery includes five grand prizes worth over $3.7 million retail, including four beautiful show homes in Calgary, Sylvan Lake, Sherwood Park and Lethbridge, in addition to a home away from home truck and fifth wheel worth over $129,000.
    There are also two exceptional early bird packages to be won: a $100,000 cash prize, and a 2012 Mercedes ML350 with four-night Las Vegas vacation package for two at Mandalay Bay, plus $5,000 cash.
    In addition to the grand and early bird prizes, there are 10 vehicles, 35 vacations, 2,223 electronic prizes and 850 other great prizes, including cash, furniture, jewellery and luggage. Two lucky winners will also enjoy a flight of a lifetime aboard a STARS helicopter.
    STARS is a charitable non-profit organization that provides service 24 hours a day, seven days a week from bases in Calgary, Edmonton and Grande Prairie.
    Tickets are available by visiting www.starslottery.ca or by calling 1-888-880-0992. Ticket buyers are eligible for all 3,200 prize draws. After each draw, winning tickets go back into the drum for the remaining prize draws. There are 25,000 single $25 tickets for sale, 25,000 sets of 3 for $60, 106,000 sets of 6 for $100, and 20,500 sets of 18 for $250 for a total of 1,105,000 tickets.
    The early bird draw is March 15, 2012, with ticket sales cut off February 29, 2012 at midnight. The final draw is set for April 12, 2012 with ticket cut-off at midnight on March 21, 2012. If tickets sell out early, all prizes will be drawn on the early bird draw on March 15, 2012 with permission from the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission. The lottery license number is 321298.
    The faster the STARS Lottery sells out, the greater the net return will be to help someone in need.