Royal Saskatchewan Museum: Galleries & Exhibits: Archived Exhibits: Paleo on the Prairies

Archived Exhibits: Paleo on the Prairies

Paleo on the Prairies

The exhibit looks at the history of fossil collecting and research in Saskatchewan and the role of the RSM in that regard. The exhibit has three themes:

Some early history,
Palaeontology at the RSM - a selected history, and
Collaborations.

Some early history

Saskatchewan fossils played an important role in the early history of fossil collecting and research on the Canadian prairies.

Early work in the Cypress Hills:
In the 1880s, geologists working in the eastern portion of the Cypress Hills collected fossils that were sent to noted American palaeontologist Edward Drinker Cope (1840-1897) for identification. The fossils, now known to be about 35 million years of age, included the remains of the rhino-like brontothere, three-toed horses, the small deer-like Leptomeryx, and many other mammals, fish and reptiles.

Brontothere

Skull of 'Edmontosaurus saskatchewanensis', a duck-billed dinosaur.
Skull of Edmontosaurus saskatchewanensis, a duck-billed dinosaur.

First new dinosaur from Saskatchewan:
In 1919, a new species of duck-billed dinosaur was discovered in the Killdeer Badlands by Charles M. Sternberg during his work for the Geological Survey on Canada. He named this new species Thespesius saskatchewanensis. Later the name changed to Edmontosaurus saskatchewanensis.

Using Sternberg's 1921 photograph, RSM Staff were able to relocate the site in 1996.

Sternberg Quarry in 1921.

Sternberg Quarry in 1996.

Palaeontology at the RSM - a selected history

The Royal Saskatchewan Museum began to develop its fossil collections shortly after it came into existence and has a long and varied role in the investigation, preservation and scientific study of the fossils of Saskatchewan.

Beginning of a fossil collection at the RSM:
Some of the earliest fossils in the Museum collection were dinosaur bones donated by a member of a famous family of fossil collectors. Charles H. Sternberg and his three sons, Charles M., George and Levi all collected in western Canada at various times in the early 20th century. On a trip east from Alberta in 1916, George Sternberg dropped off a crate of fossils at the Museum in Regina. This wooden box remained unopened until 1984. Several fragmented but sturdy duck-billed dinosaur bones that were wrapped in newspapers from 1916 were put back together. One of these bones is the "touchable" duck-billed dinosaur leg bone in the Earth Sciences Gallery.

Charles M. Sternberg and crew collecting dinosaur bones in 1914 in the Alberta Badlands.
Photograph courtesy of Natural Resources Canada, Geological Survey of Canada.

Salvage operations on the South Saskatchewan River:

Gardiner Dam construction in the late 1950s. Saskatchewan Archives Board, photo #R-A11511-1

Gardiner Dam construction in the late 1950s.
Photograph courtesy of Saskatchewan Archives Board.

In the late 1950s the decision was made to build the Gardiner Dam, thus turning part of the South Saskatchewan River into Lake Diefenbaker. Surveys were conducted to salvage both archaeological artifacts and palaeontological specimens.

Between 1959 and 1961 a joint project between the RSM and the National Museum in Ottawa resulted in the discovery and excavation of many skeletons of marine reptiles. One specimen, a several-metre-long lizard-like marine reptile called a mosasaur, is on display in the Earth Sciences Gallery. More recent collecting by the Museum, often in collaboration with other institutions such as the University of Alberta, has added to the Museum's collection of marine reptiles and other fossils.

South Saskatchewan River excavations by McCorquodale in 1962.
South Sask. River excavations by McCorquodale in 1962.

These sediments along the South Saskatchewan River preserved marine life during the latter part of the dinosaur era when Saskatchewan was covered by a shallow inland sea. In addition to mosasaurs, Saskatchewan was home to plesiosaurs, which were reptiles similar to many descriptions of the Loch Ness monster; ammonities, which were shelled invertebrates related to the octopus and squid; and many fish. Before the Gardiner Dam salvage project the fossils of the area had been ignored by palaeontologists, who tended to concentrate instead on the dinosaur fossils of Alberta.

Calf Creek mammal site:

The ‘Hunter Quarry’, a fossil locality in the Cypress Hills of southwestern Saskatchewan, has produced thousands of mostly mammal bones that were deposited approximately 35 million years ago. In the 1930s, Harold “Corky” Jones of Eastend, who found the site, showed it to collectors from the Geological Survey of Canada headed by Mr. Fenley Hunter. Many of the large bones are from brontotheres, an extinct group of large browsing mammals distantly related to rhinoceroses.

Reconstruction of the Calf Creek Locality on display in the Earth Sciences Gallery.

The richness of Hunter Quarry attracted a lot of attention. By the late 1950s and early 1960s scientists from a variety of institutions including the University of Michigan, the Florida State Museum and the Royal Ontario Museum were working cooperatively with the Royal Saskatchewan Museum to collect not only the large bones from the Hunter Quarry, but also the thousands of small bones and teeth from a second site, the Calf Creek Screening Locality, on the other side of the coulee. A mechanized screen was used to help separate the fossils from the sands and gravels at the site. The RSM's collections now include several thousand specimens from this locality, and over 70 different species of mammals and another 20 species of other animals have been identified. This diversity of species paints a very complete picture of animal life in southwestern Saskatchewan 35 million years ago.

Mechanical screening at the Calf Creek Locality.

Microfossils from the Calf Creek Locality.
Microfossils

Pasquia Hills project:

Dickson Hardie (left) at rock exposure along the Carrot River.

In the mid-1980s, the Royal Saskatchewan Museum briefly explored rock exposures along the Carrot River near Arborfield in the Pasquia Hills area of Saskatchewan. There they met Dickson Hardie a local farmer who over the years had discovered numerous fossils along the banks of this river. His collection consisted of cemented bones and teeth of hundreds of marine animals. Laboratory and field research on these fossils has provided a glimpse into the marine life of eastern Saskatchewan approximately 92 million years old.

The several sites along the river have yielded fossils of numerous species, including sharks and other fish, some as long as 4 metres, and plesiosaurs. Also included are at least five species of toothed birds, the oldest assemblage of its kind in North America. Some of these species were new discoveries. A new loon-like species was given the name Pasquaornis hardei. The name is based on the area where it was found, the Pasquia Hills, and the original collector, Mr. Dickson Hardie.

Skull of 'Big Bert', the Carrot River crocodile.

At a nearby slightly younger site, another unique specimen was discovered. Here, in the fall of 1991, the Royal Saskatchewan Museum and the Canadian Museum of Nature uncovered remains of a primitive crocodile. During the fall of 1991 and much of the summer of 1992, using shovels, pick-axes, and explosives, a 6 metre skeleton including a metre long skull was retrieved. Its scientific name is Terminonarus robustus, but everyone calls it “Big Bert”. Bert is so well preserved that the wafer-thin bony plates around one of its eyes are still in position. The scars along its snout reveal battles won and lost. A shark tooth embedded in one of its ribs suggests the body was scavenged after death. Big Bert lived a big life.

Since its beginnings almost 100 years ago the fossil collections at the Museum in Regina and its Fossil Research Station at the T. rex Discovery Centre in Eastend have grown to include over 27,000 catalogued items, together with many additional fossils waiting to be documented.

Collaborations

The importance of Saskatchewan fossils is evident from the fact that scientists from elsewhere study our fossils and collaborate with RSM staff on palaeontological research.

"Scotty", the Tyrannosaurus rex update:

"Scotty", the T. rex, probably Saskatchewan's most famous fossil, was discovered in 1991 and excavated over several years starting in 1994. By 2001, most of the large plaster blocks containing its bones had been dismantled. Most of the bones of the skull and jaw had been recovered and the RSM was therefore able to produce a replica of the skull to show how Scotty's head would have looked during life. One skull bone that was missing was the braincase; it was reproduced based on information from other specimens.

"Scotty's Skull" exhibit

The contents of one unprepared block – called "snowball" because of its shape – remained a mystery. When it was collected in 1995, only bone fragments were visible on its surface.

'snowball'
"snowball"

When preparation began in earnest in 2005 and the rock was reduced with air hammers and micro jackhammers, it contained not only a large, complete rib, and some of the top neck vertebrae, but also the braincase. When this bone was prepared it was determined that the back part of the skull of Scotty was wider than is depicted in the reconstructed skull.

Rear view of 'T. rex' skull with the braincase highlighted in colour.
Rear view of T. rex skull with the braincase highlighted in colour.

Despite the fact that approximately 30 relatively complete T. rex skeletons have been discovered, Scotty is still one of the most complete. Scotty is also a large T. rex. The prepared portion of the skeleton includes the skull bones, limb bones, vertebrae, and ribs. One of the smallest bones in the skeleton was also recovered – one of the finger bones (metacarpal).

Dr. Philip Currie:

"Scotty" the T. rex has attracted the attention of Canada’s leading dinosaur palaeontologist, Dr. Philip Currie. Many children develop a fascination for dinosaurs and dream of becoming a palaeontologist. Dr. Currie realized that dream. After graduating from McGill University he came west, first to the Provincial Museum of Alberta in Edmonton, and then to the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, where he was instrumental in the development of that museum's collection and scientific study of the fossils in and around Dinosaur Provincial Park and elsewhere. His research on dinosaurs is diverse and has taken him well beyond Canada’a borders to China, Mongolia and more recently South America. One focus of this research is the relationship between birds and dinosaurs.

In 2005 he left the Royal Tyrrell Museum to accept a professorship at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. There he continues his research into all things dinosaur, including the study of "Scotty", Saskatchewan's famous T. rex.

Dr. Philip Currie

Currie's research on tyrannosaurs:
One of Phil Currie's discoveries is that tyrannosaurs many not have been solitary animals but may have lived in groups. This idea is based on his research on bonebed deposits in Alberta and Montana that contain more than one individual of relatives of T. rex, Albertosaurus and Daspletosaurus. The bonebeds indicate that the remains of animals of a variety of ages were deposited together.

Research in South America suggests that T. rex may not have been the biggest carnivorous dinosaur. Gigantosaurus is equal in size and perhaps larger than T. rex. And just this year Dr. Rodolfo Coria, together with Dr. Phil Currie announced the discovery of at least seven individuals of Mapusaurus roseae, a new species of carnivorous dinosaur from 90-million-year-old sediments in South America. Mapusaurus is equal in size to Gigantosaurus.

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