What We Are Working On: Report from the Field:
Palaeontology, 2009

Palaeontology Report 1 (August, 2009)

Unearthing a Giant

The Frenchman River Valley in southwestern Saskatchewan continues to give up its secrets from a time, long, long ago (try 65 million years ago). Right now (summer, 2009), staff and volunteers of the Royal Saskatchewan Museum are collecting the remains of a large dinosaur. The bones are slightly crushed and include ribs, some limb bones, and vertebrae. What type of dinosaur? We are not certain yet except that it likely belongs to an ornithischian (the group includes Triceratops and hadrosaurs). As of August 24th the excavation continues.

The site is called "Point of Despair", found by volunteer Warren Lissel. This picture illustrates some of the typical badlands where dinosaur fossils are found.

Here, Warren Lissel begins some of the removal of the immediate layer overlying the bone.

The top end and shaft of a femur is exposed.

The ribs are long and slender.

Large bones are encased in plaster of Paris before they can be transported out of the badlands.

For further information contact the Curator of Earth Sciences

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