For the past 75 million years, an abundance of fossils have sat within the iconic rocky outcrops of Canada's Dinosaur Provincial Park, waiting to be discovered by palaeontologists across the globe.
Last year, the University of Reading's Dr Brian Pickles and volunteer Teri Kaski were lucky enough to make a find; Teri came across the skeleton of a hadrosaur, completely covered in fossilised skin- otherwise known as a dinosaur 'mummy'. With only a handful of these known across the globe, the discovery has the potential to transform what we know about the appearance and anatomy of the hadrosaur.
Recently, UNE palaeontologist, Dr Phil Bell, and a group of UNE postgraduate students were invited to help excavate the precious specimen. We had a chat to Dr Bell about what the experience was like, and what it means for future research in this space.
Image: Dr Phil Bell (left), Dr Brian Pickles (right) and a group of students from the University of Reading and UNE.
Tell us about what you were doing at Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta, Canada?
I was in southern Alberta helping teach students from the University of Reading (UK) field skills on how to find, excavate and identify dinosaurs. Dinosaur Park is a UNESCO world heritage site, one of the most beautiful landscapes that I’ve seen and certainly the best in the world for finding dinosaur fossils. They have a saying there: “If you throw your hat and it doesn’t land within 10 paces of a bone, then you’re not in Dinosaur Park!”
Our chief goal was to excavate the skeleton of a hadrosaur (‘duck-billed dinosaur’) that my colleague, Dr Brian Pickles from the University of Reading, had found last year. Only the tail and foot were exposed but they are covered in fossilised skin. The preservation is such that the entire skeleton should be intact and entirely covered with skin – what’s colloquially called a dinosaur ‘mummy’! Since one of my main areas of research is dinosaur skin, I was particularly excited by this find.
What was it like to be involved in such a rare discovery?
Brilliant! Being back in the field was like salve for the soul after the last few years. The specimen was actually found by a volunteer last year but we couldn't get to it again until international travel reopened. It's one of the biggest and most logistically difficult excavations any of us have been involved in, so there's a lot of work still to do. The specimen will stay in the ground until we can complete the work next year.
Image: All the individual scales on the tail are preserved as rounded bumps in ironstone. Everywhere the bones emerged from the rock, so too did the skin.
How common is it to find a dinosaur 'mummy?’
Complete dinosaur skeletons are rare, so to have one that is entirely shrouded in fossilised skin is exceptional. There are a handful of fossils from North America that I would put in this category after 150 years of exploration. A fossil like this then has the potential to explode what we know or what we thought we knew about their anatomy and appearance. I can hardly wait until it's out of the ground but even then, it'll be several more years until the fossil is cleaned up and ready for research.
How did you go about removing it?
To remove it is an enormous task. Two people jackhammered for 10 days straight while the rest of us shovelled and moved 800 wheelbarrows and around 100 tonnes of rock. It’s hot, exhausting work and we’re still not done. While most of the heavy lifting is done, we won’t be able to get the block out until next year – there is still a huge amount left to do.
Image: The fossil is protected by strips of hessian drenched in reinforced plaster at the centre of the image. Removing the fossil required two people to jackhammer for 10 days straight while others shovelled and moved 800 wheelbarrows and around 100 tonnes of rock.
What’s next for the dinosaur ‘mummy’?
Next year we will return to Alberta to finish removing it. Even once it’s back in the lab, it’ll be years before it’s ready to be researched. But after 73 million years in the ground, what’s a few more? Palaeontology is all about the long game.
What else did you and the others find?
It wasn’t all mummy’s and skin. I had the stroke of luck of finding a pachycephalosaur skull. Pachycephalosaurs are the ‘bone-headed’ dinosaurs, often depicted ramming each other with their thick, dome-shaped skulls. These animals are rare and they’re one of my favourite dinosaurs, so finding a pretty complete skull was a real treat. Despite the huge backlog of things waiting to be prepared back at the museum, we’ll get this one fast-tracked so we can start research on it soon.
Image: A pachycephalosaur skull found by Dr Bell as it was starting to weather out of the ground. It is on its side and upsidedown. The back of the skull is to the left, the nose would have been to the right but is missing.
You can find out more about the dinosaur 'mummy' discovery here.
