What We Are Working On: Report from the Field:
Palaeontology, 2002
Palaeontology Report 1 (August, 2002)
Drought! What drought? This year’s fieldwork began as the prairies started to turn green in May and will probably end with the first blanket of snow. However, the large volume of rain at some of our field locations delayed the start of some projects and has put us behind schedule. On the bright side, we’re getting lots of lab work done.
New finds in the Frenchman River Valley
We spent parts of May and June prospecting for fossils in the Frenchman River Valley, primarily in sediments deposited just before the extinction of the dinosaurs (approximately 67-65 million years ago). We found parts of the skull and other portions of the skeleton of a crocodile-like reptile called a champsosaur. Although individual bones of these animals are fairly common in sediments of this age, discovery of a partial skull and skeleton of one individual is rare in North America. We will finish collecting this skeleton in the fall. We also found parts of a skeleton of a duck-billed or horned dinosaur. So far only ribs and a few other bones have been exposed, but the skeleton appears to continue into the hill.
Exposed ribs of a duck-billed or horned dinosaur.
University connections
Collaboration with palaeontologists and students at other museums and universities has always been important to research at the RSM. Both the University of Alberta and the University of Saskatchewan have participated in our field research this summer.
Dr. Michael Caldwell of the University of Alberta and several of his students joined us in the southwest for approximately 10 days in June. Their research focuses on late Cretaceous non-dinosaurian reptiles, including marine reptiles called mosasaurs and terrestrial lizards similar to those living today. We jointly surveyed the southern shore of Lake Diefenbaker, north of Swift Current, where 75-70 million-year-old, mostly marine, sediments are exposed. With a field party of 10, we covered a considerable amount of ground. One of the many discoveries included a skeleton of a mosasaur. This specimen will not be collected until next summer.
U of Alberta crew and RSM staff and volunteers outside T.rex Discovery Centre.
Masters student Sean Bell and undergraduate Taran Meyer, both from the University of Saskatchewan, joined Harold Bryant in the Cypress Hills northwest of Eastend in June. We screened sands and finer gravels at a 34-32 million-year-old site rich in microvertebrate fossils for the teeth and bones of mostly smaller mammals such as rodents and rabbits. Both Sean and Taran are sorting and identifying the teeth found in Cypress Hills sediments. This research will increase our understanding of mammal evolution in Saskatchewan.
Excavation of “Scotty” continues
Field activities out of the RSM Fossil Research Station at the T.rex Discovery Centre in Eastend during July and August have focused on the continuing excavation of our Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton known as Scotty from the Frenchman River Valley. Between May and mid-August, over 53 cm (21 inches) of rain fell at the quarry site. Crews returning to the site after rains had to face numerous challenges: bridge washouts, removing over 30 cm (12 inches) of silt washed into the quarry, and retrieving equipment (including a nearly 45 kilogram (100 pound) compressor) that had been moved by the flooding!
Delays due to the weather have been offset by an often large crew of staff and volunteers, including RSM staff Tim Tokaryk, Wes Long, and Mel Vovchuk, summer staff Scott Chapman and Jonathan Perry, Sarah Werning a volunteer from the United States, students from the University of Alberta, and several of our volunteers. They have moved much earth and rock, extending the quarry well back into the hill behind the area excavated in 1994 and 1995.
T. rex quarry in June 2002.
The T. rex skeleton does not resemble a 12-metre (40-foot) chicken lying on its side with all the bones in anatomical sequence; instead the bones are scattered, as in a giant omelet. The good news is that, this year, the bones we are finding are in a single layer and are usually not stacked upon each other as they were when we excavated in 1994 and 1995. The bad news is that the bones are still encased in extremely hard rock; so far this season we have destroyed two pneumatically-powered hand chisels.
This year’s discoveries include an astragalus (ankle bone), a tooth, toe bones, and other unidentified bones. A femur (thigh bone) and sacral vertebrae (fused vertebrae in the hip region) await removal. Excavation will continue through August and into September, as required, but it is still uncertain when this chapter in the story of Scotty the T. rex will end.
Another croc
We also plan to complete the excavation of the partial skeleton of a 60 million-year-old crocodile in the Big Muddy valley. This animal is smaller and younger than “Big Bert”, the crocodile discovered several years ago in the Pasquia Hills. The skull was taken out last year and is now on display at the T.rex Discovery Centre; the remainder of the work was scheduled for August but, with the delays in the collecting of the T. rex skeleton, the crocodile will have to wait until September.
Big Muddy crocodile skull on display at T.rex Discovery Centre.
For further information contact the Curator of Earth Sciences