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Mold, Cast, and Trace Fossils

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Fossil fuel is a general term for buried combustible geologic deposits of organic materials, formed from decayed plants and animals that have been converted to crude oil, coal, natural gas, or heavy oils by exposure to heat and pressure in the earth's crust over hundreds of millions of years.

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What happened to fossil in Alberta
Turn to page 10 and look at the description and discuss.

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Badlands - It's called Badlands for a reason…The name “Badlands” is an exact English translation of French term “les mauvaises terres” (bad lands). In 1743 this is how French Canadian explorers described the terrain as they traveled through the prairies.

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The Alberta Badlands are beautiful backdrop for films and music videos!

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Tom Cochrane - Life Is A Highway (Official Video)

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Badlands are dramatic landforms characterized by a network of deep, narrow and winding gullies, along with occasional hoodoo rocks. Their steep, barren slopes provide striking evidence of the force of erosion by wind and water - a source of continual change in their terrain.

Badlands are found in several places in Canada, most notably in southern Alberta. While those of Writing-on-Stone archeological site have great spiritual significance to the Siksika (Blackfoot) people, European explorers found badlands unfamiliar and difficult to navigate, which is the source of their current name.​

Distribution

Areas of badlands occur at scattered locations throughout the Prairies of Western Canada, where they stand in stark contrast to the gently rolling landscape of the plains. A small area of badlands is also found in Cheltenham, Ontario. It formed after rock exposed through land clearing in the 1900s began to erode into a distinctive badlands formation.

Badlands are particularly prevalent along the river valleys of southern Alberta, especially along the Red Deer River. They flank the river for 300 km, culminating in their most impressive display in Dinosaur Provincial Park, where world-famous dinosaur fossils have been discovered. The 7,825 ha park was designated a United Nations World Heritage Site in 1979, partly on the basis of its spectacular badlands, which are the largest in Canada.

Geography

Badlands form where weak, relatively unconsolidated (loose) sedimentary rocks such as shale, siltstone and poorly cemented sandstone are exposed to vigorous erosion processes. They tend to occur in arid or semi-arid regions, where rain often falls in short, torrential thunderstorms.

Rapid runoff caused by heavy storms quickly cuts rills (shallow channels) and gullies in the barren, clay-rich rocks, producing rates of erosion of several millimetres per year. Surface erosion is often accompanied by extensive subsurface piping (tunnel erosion) related to existing fractures in the rock. This frequently leads to the formation of sinkholes and slope failure (e.g., mudslides). Badlands are always changing.

Badlands form where weak sedimentary rocks such as shale, siltstone and sandstone are exposed to vigorous erosion (courtesy Canadian Tourism Commission & Ocean Images).

Many of Alberta's badlands were initially formed as a result of rapid channel downcutting (erosion) by glacial meltwater during the retreat of the Laurentide ice sheet about 13,000 years ago in the late Wisconsinan period ( see Glaciation). The steep valley walls, cut into the soft Late Cretaceous rocks that dominate the bedrock geology of southern Alberta, were ideal for the development of badlands.

Alberta Badlands

Flora and Fauna

The fossil record preserved in Dinosaur Provincial Park shows that the badlands of southern Alberta were once home to about 35 species of dinosaurs - among them, the carnivorous albertosaurus, which was discovered by paleontologist Joseph Tyrell in 1884. These fossils date back to the Late Cretaceous period, which ended 66 million years ago.

A number of species currently occupy Alberta's badlands. These include the prairie rattlesnake, the short-horned lizard and the western small-footed bat. In Alberta, the badlands are the only place where this species of bat is found, and it is considered a Species of Special Concern by the Province. The short-horned lizard is classified as Endangered ( see also Endangered Animals).

History and Importance

The southern Alberta badlands lie within the traditional territory of the Siksika (Blackfoot) people. Writing-on-Stone archeological site, which the Siksika call Áísínai'pi, is a traditional sacred site containing many pieces of rock art of great spiritual significance.

The French, who were among the earliest explorers in the interior of western North America, described such places as mauvaises terres à traverser, meaning "bad lands to cross." This is the source of the English term badlands.

Conservation

Today, the culturally and scientifically significant badlands of southern Alberta draw thousands of visitors every year. However, visitor access to both Dinosaur Provincial Park and Writing-on-Stone archeological site is controlled and monitored to prevent unnecessary erosion and other environmental impacts ( see also Conservation). Research by paleontologists and archeologists continues in these parks, while their stewards try to balance the obligations of caring for these unique sites.

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Badlands are dramatic landforms characterized by a network of deep, narrow and winding gullies, along with occasional hoodoo rocks. Their steep, barren slopes provide striking evidence of the force of erosion by wind and water - a source of continual change in their terrain.

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Rock Formations

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so before i set out looking for the lost quarrys of francis slate, there is a few science things i need to remind myself of (and maybe introduce you rookies on the innerweb to). not so much for what i'm looking for with the quarrys, my buddy did a fantastic job taking me through how to find those.

no, rather while i'm looking for these quarrys, i'm just as likely to find totally brand new fossils. which could be totally awesome, and lead to some major fame in the world of palaeontology....

it's just when you're finding fossils there are some key things to keep in mind...

the most important rule of fossil hunting is location, location, LOCATION.

as you'll remember the point of darren's lost quarry project is to retrieve the locational info for otherwise well known and understood dinosaurs. now i already discussed why this is important in my last post about the lost quarrys , but right now i'm going to look at the overall science of stratigraphy.

stratigraphy is a fancy way for saying the science layers. the reason scientists make up more complicated words like this is so that they don't have to say long sentences like that every time their talking to each other. plus they'd sound funny if called themselves things like layertoligists!

as you can see the alberta badlands offer us a great view of sedimentary rock, without any vegetation or top soil blocking our view.

when looking at this sedimentary rock hopefully you're noticing the fact it has visible layers. these were NOT painted on the valley walls by the drumheller chamber of commerce, like some visitors think (seriously! i've been asked if this why the hills around drumheller look this way by people visiting the ...).

rather these layers are nothing more than different piles of soil, dust, and dirt that were moved here a long time ago (in this case millions of years ago) and dumped here. after one pile (aka layer) was finished being laid down, some new force started bringing in the materials of the next pile that was laid down. with this ongoing process of pile being made on top of pile, over a long time you end up with nice sedimentary layers like these.sedimentary rock is really the only one out of the three basic rock types that contain and preserve fossils properly. the other two being igneous and metamorphic, are volcanically formed. all that heat and pressure from being volcanic destroys fossils pretty good (only in some BARELY metamorphosed rocks can you sometimes get fossils remains, but their typically very damaged!). so that of course tells you that to find fossils look in sedimentary rock, but there is so much more you can get out of sedimentary rock...
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a neat thing about when you find sedimentary rock, is instantly you know you have found somewhere that was once a lower area in the time the layers were being laid down. how do i know that... why it is sedimentary, my dear watson! (get it!)

in order for the layers to be made they need soil, dust, and dirt to be brought in from somewhere, and these mini rocks aren't going to move on their own. they need gravity to move them (whether it be them tumbling along on their own or being moved by water flowing downstream), and thus they came from a higher spot to this lower one.

the only unfortunate thing about this is, in the case of fossils defiantely, you rarely get glimpses of the high places, as no layers or fossils get laid down there...
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because each layer was laid down in a different fashion than the layer above and below it, it has a different story to tell (even if there are no fossils... these rock only stories can be very important to other layers with fossils!). each of these marked spots on the photo are like a chapter in this hill's prehistoric record book (some layers have so much going on they could be a whole story on their own, that alone a chapter in a story!).

these layers tell us their stories in a few key ways.

each layer was laid down at a specific time that is different from the others. meaning anything you find in that layer is a record of that exact period of time, whenever that may have been.

some sedimentary layers can be laid down in very fast events like a flood or sandstorm in a matter of days or even hours!... others though can be super slow like the build up at the bottom of a lake or in the middle of a plain over thousands of years. meaning just the amount of time captured in that layer tells a story... but the layers put together tell an even bigger story.

a constant rule in geology is the law of superposition, which states that the further up the pile of layers you go from the bottom, the you are the closer you get to the present. which makes sense when you think about it. the older layers have to be in place before any newer layer can be put on top of it!

now there are geologic events hat can happen after layers are all in place that can mess up this order. sometimes it'll make them all suddenly sideways, or sometimes pushed slightly out of order, but as these usually have to do with mountains or earthquakes i won't worry about them today. i'm in the badlands, and here the layers are nice and undisturbed! (other than a very minor tilt you'll see later on)

the very mechanism that laid down any layer is important too. especially to us fossil hunters!
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sure this hill in front of me looks like a jumble of randomly coloured and textured rocks, but standing here i can tell you a lot about the changes that happened in this spot 70 million years ago. remember i'm no genius either! i simply know the different types of sedimentary rock and what they represent.

sure you need a professional geologist to tell the detailed story, mine will seem pretty simple in comparison. yet what i can tell you is still neat.

in this hill something like this went down in this very spot! a river once flowed during the bottom layer, and than it was replaced with a lake, that later turned into a swamp, till another river washed that away again, with many more layers and events above that. it may lack specific details, but it works great for fossil hunting! (its once you've found the fossil and worrying about it scientifically you need to find out more details...)

if you can figure out what sort of prehistoric environment(s) are recorded in the hill than you can guess what types of fossils are to be found in them. so if you are looking for specific fossil types, you need to tailor your searching to rock deposits that are more likely to have what you are looking for.

now as i'm looking for a francis slate dig site that had dinosaurs in it, i need to find rocks that were laid down in a dinosaur's environment. which means i need land based deposits, not oceanic. which may sound silly to worry about in the middle of canada, but back in the cretaceous there was an ocean within at most a few kilometers from where i stand now! every now and then this ocean would occasionally flood over this area. meaning i could find rocks from either land or marine (a different word for saying oceanic) environments.
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so as i head out looking for quarrys and fossils in the coming weeks here are the types of rock i'll be seeing, and what they might mean...
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well the name says it all, sandstone is a "stone" made of sand. all sandstone is, is sand that has been tightly squished together by the pressure of being buried under all the other rock layers above it.

i like to think of it as the rock version of sandpaper. it has the same texture and look, and it is even rough like sandpaper! only unlike sandpaper, sandstone comes apart. the reason is again this is tightly bunched bunch of sand. that's it. just sand! there is nothing actually holding it together once it is exposed out in the open (compared to buried deep in the ground that pushes them together).
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simply touching it, getting it wet, or even just having the wind blow over it slowly erodes sandstone back down into ordinary sand. which will once again be carried away, and possibly go onto form a new sandstone layer somewhere else!
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so what story does sandstone tell. well sand is of course small particles, but as far as sedimentary rock building blocks are concerned sand is pretty big. after all you can make out a sand spec with your bare eye. some of the other sedimentary elements are so small i couldn't tell you what they look like, and without a microscope you couldn't check even if i did.

not our friend sand. it's pretty big. so because of this something stronger had to move it here. in most cases this is fast moving water (though in a desert fast wind can do the trick, but as alberta wasn't a desert in the cretaceous it must have been water). that could mean two things. either the ocean which is the most very powerful and fast moving water system on earth, or it could have been a river.

for dinosaur fossils i want a river, but not being a geologist i couldn't tell you which sandstone is river based or marine. i'll need to look at the other layers around it to get my clues...

another well named "rock". this is simply mud that has either dried out and/or been buried and turned to stone. unlike sandstone it doesn't have a clear building block to look for. mud is made of those smaller particles i was talking about earlier taht are too small to make out with the naked eye (though how you dress your eye is another problem i don't want to worry about right now!). instead of a sandy grained layer surface you'll get a smoother one like this, or the popcorny texture one in the picture below.

mudstone being made of these smaller bits shows you that it was slow moving water (as mud has to be wet after all!). the reason you can tell this wasn't fast water was it would wash these small light particles away before they could form a layer, unlike bigger heavier sand which it couldn't wash away as easy (and again why you can tell sandstone is fast water!).

water only moves slowly on land. in the ocean water is always moving, and with force. on flat bits of land water can not just slow down, but come to a near stand still (compared to the ocean anyway). meaning mudstones only form in lakes, swamps, or extremely slow rivers. meaning if you have mudstone you are looking at somewhere that was on the land!

why does mudstone form this crazy popcorn texture though you're asking? after all mud doesn't look anything like this. if you find a layer like this, whether it has fossils or NOT, it is a great find!

a neat thing about mudstone is that because it was made of such fine silty material it used to catch all sorts of particles when it was mud. this makes sense, as if you think about it, mud can be very sticky when you step in it (thus why you can get some great fossils stuck in it too!). as there was a lot of volcanoes going off in british columbia during the late cretaceous, there was a lot of volcanic ash and soot floating around in the air. some of it made it into alberta, and some of this ended up getting stuck in the mud around here.

it is these bits of volcanic ash, called bentonite, that cause this popcorning effect in the mudstone. bentonite is like a very tiny rock version of a sponge, and not only does it soaks up water like a sponge. it swells up as it does so. meaning if i took this photo while it was raining, all the cracks between the "popcorn" would be gone, as all the bentonite would have expanded to fill in the gaps. it's only when the mudstone dries out and shrinks that these mini fissures appear in the hillsides.

there is a good reason i didn't take this picture when it was raining though. because the bentonite expands when it is full of water, it gets really squishy on the microscopic level (picture squishing a soaked sponge, it is squishy too). when you step down on it, your weight pushes the water out of the bentonite and causes it to shift. not that you can see this (again we're talking microscope tiny), but what you do notice is how slippery bentonite is when it shifts under you. it is seriously like stepping on a banana peel in a cartoon! so a good safety tip is not to go fossil hunting in the rain or just after it has...

why is finding a bentonite layer good than? well the cool things about volcanic rocks is you can use them to find out the age of the layer. in a normal layer of mudstone (as in not popcorny) or sandstone there is no way to accurate figure out how old it is. however as bentonite is ever so slightly radioactive it is possible to find out its rough date or origin. meaning if you find more than one bentonite layers in an era you can figure out roughly when the layers in between these mudstone layers occurred (though not preciously).

these layers are of course what brought people to the alberta badlands in the first place, as in the olden days coal was the main form of fuel. nowadays it is handy for a fossil hunter, but not great. when i go looking i only want to see one coal seam. more than that can be bad news for finding fossils, though not always...

coal seams are the direct fossil remains (why we call it a fossil fuel) of a former swamp. the coal is all the dead rotting vegetation that would have built up at the bottom of the swamp as the generations of plants grew on top of the last only to die themselves and themselves be grown on top of... after being buried underground, all the pressure and compression from the rocks above would crush this vegetable matter into its dense burnable form.

so the fact that coal is a sort of fossils itself sounds like it should be great for finding dinosaurs and other fossils right? i hear you say, traumador it sounds even better than that, as a swamp would have had lots of plants for animals to eat and thus attract them. we should find tons of dinsoaurs there right?... sadly wrong...

the problem is what the coal was before it turned into coal. rotting plants in the concentration they are in a swamp produce a ton of acid. acid eats away at everything organic, even hard parts like bones and shells... so coal is terrible for finding fossils in as it would have dissolved them long before being buried.

mind you it is not impossible. one of the royal tyrrell's new ceratopsians, eotriceratops, was miraculously found in a coal seam! though their still studying how it stayed preserved, i'd venture it was because ceratopsian skulls are big and tough... though it was still fairly damaged, and this was a fluke find frankly.

coal generally is not good for looking for fossils. however a coal seam or two is a good clue that your other layers above and below it are from land based environments. after all, have you ever heard of a swamp in the middle of the ocean!

this is the last type of rock around drumheller i'm going to bump into. however ironstone is a fossil hunters nightmare no matter how you break it down (if you can break it down! its tough as, yo!!!)

ironstone IS a type of sedimentary rock, BUT unlike the other layers i just discussed it was not deposited in a proper layer like the others, nor was all of it formed in the cretaceous during the time of the dinosaurs (though as you'll see we're not sure when all of it formed). for you see ironstone is an intruder rock.

ironstone is just a giant ball of concentrated rust. seriously. it was once nice shiny iron, but than it was rusted away by water. this water than carried that rust into the ground as it seeped through the itsy bitsy cracks inbetween the rocks of the badlands. whenever the water passed through something too tight for the rust, well the rust was left behind, and as more water came through more rust it was left to build up around the rust that came before it. so after a while you'd get big of the stuff. a nodule is just a geologist word for bunch or cluster of something.

one of the things that can block the flow of the rust through the layer were fossils... meaning you can get a dinosaur bone or petrified wood totally encased in ironstone (there is a few bits of wood in the ironstone pictured above). which is terrible on all fronts! you can't see the fossil, and even if you do, ironstone is still a kind of metal so, it is really hard to get off the fossil!

ironstone also tends to form above sandstone. the bigger tightly packed bits of sand don't allow the rust to follow the water through it. this has lead to some trouble figuring out when the ironstone formed. there are many geologist who think this is evidence that the iron was dissolved during the time of the dinosaurs as otherwise how would the rust make it to lower down sandstone layers. other geologists argue the ironstone was laid down well after the cretaceous, and the different layers of ironstone represent different qualities of both the rust AND sandstone. there are a few who think it is a mix of the two, and that some ironstone is cretaceous aged, and some of it is more recent.

answering this isn't easy. ironstone isn't volcanic and so it can't be dated.

i'm a little interested as to what the answer is, but at the same time i hate ironstone. so i'm not losing sleep over it!

anyways that does it for the sedimentary rocks around the albertan badlands. there are other types elsewhere in the world, but i won't worry about them today, as i'm not going to see them here.

so now time for a quiz people of the webwide world!

what is the general story of this hillside from the bottom up?

once geologists get a grip on an area's layers and the story they tell us we can begin to understand the setting that any fossils we find was living (or at least died) in. the amazing thing about alberta unlike most places elsewhere in the world is that we have a HUGE sequence of layers that are nearly uninterrupted for 15 million years. that is extraordinarily uncommon on its own, but for all of these chunks to bear fossils (granted some more so than others) just makes it all the more rare.

now that can be a lot of layers to sort out, and keep track of.

to help simplify geologists and palaeontologists look at a number of things to try and figure out "chapters" in the layers that help them not only figure out what they are looking at, but more important still talk about them with everyone.

these "chapters" in the rock are called formations , and they represent a series of layers that all were laid down in a set period of time (usually determined by radiometric dating), contain the same types of fossils (the back up if you can't radiometrically date an area), and/or represent the same general environmental setting.

now i've provided diagram (made by the nice guys at prehistoric insanity) that shows not only all of alberta's key cretaceous geologic formations , but what major spots in the province line up with them. it has a lot of detail, and if clicking on the picture here on my blog doesn't give you a blown up version here is a link to it on a different site.

as you can see right away due to the slight shift to the whole province caused by the long ago up thrust caused by the formation of the rocky mountains, all the layers are slightly tilted (they go downward towards the west). additionally in the picture you might notice that all the places are shown in holes. these are valleys that cut into the layers allowing us to see them, as normally they are buried under the ground.

okay technically all these towns are in the SAME really long valley that runs through all the formations, but for pointing out where these towns and places are in the geology, i thought it'd be easier to show them in seperate holes (to see exactly which exact layers are exposed around them).

as i'm stuck in drumheller, i'm going to be searching for things in the horseshoe canyon and the bearpaw foramtions. the horseshoe is named after the famous horseshoe canyon just outside drumheller, and represents a really flat flood plain (aka on land). the bearpaw is named for the bearpaw sea, which was an inland ocean (meaning an ocean back then where there is land today) that covered the middle of all north america and split it into 3 subcontinents, and was just off the shore underwater...

so out of these two formations, i want to stick to the horseshoe formation as its the only one with dinosaurs. lucky for me these are the rocks directly surrounding drumheller and the museum. the bearpaw layers are about 10-15 minutes drive out of town towards east coulee. so i won't be heading out there just at moment...

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so before i set out looking for the lost quarrys of francis slate, there is a few science things i need to remind myself of (and maybe introduce you rookies on the innerweb to). not so much for what i'm looking for with the quarrys, my buddy did a fantastic job taking me through how to find those.

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Alberta Late Cretaceous- Bear Paw Sea

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Alberta was a lush tropical forest near a sea.

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Fossils are the remains or traces of plants and animals that lived long ago. Fossils give scientists clues about the past.

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-Fossils tell us about how creatures lived and where they lived.
-Fossils tell us the type of environment (landforms, climate,)
-Plant fossil tell us about climate and landforms
-Marine and fish fossils tell us about bodies of water present
-Dinosaur fossils tell us- size, types of species, habits, whether they travelled in herds or alone, diet, etc.

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The fossilized remains of plants and animals, or traces of their activities, are protected under the Government of Alberta's Historical Resources Act which is one of the strictest fossil protection laws in the world. Violation of the Act is punishable by fines of up to $50,000 and/or one year in prison.

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Philip Currie is an internationally renowned palaeontologist whose scientific accomplishments have led to a greater understanding of dinosaurs and their scientific significance. He has served as a seminal force in developing Alberta's reputation as a centre of excellence in palaeontology and as an inspiring mentor for up-and-coming Canadian scientists.

Philip John Currie was born on March 13, 1949 in Brampton, Ontario to Robert and Esther Currie. Eldest son Philip was joined by three brothers, Stephen, Mark and Michael and the family eventually relocated to Oakville. Phil's early years were marked by success in school, by a love of art encouraged by his mother's work as a painter and by an ever deepening interest in the world of science. At the age of six Phil had his first introduction to palaeontology in the form of a toy dinosaur that spilled out of a box of breakfast cereal and into his bowl. In time it was supplemented by various books and comics featuring dinosaurs as well as a considerable collection of limestone rocks with outlines of ancient marine life which Phil had carefully selected from the shores of nearby Lake Ontario. The encouragement of a particularly supportive fifth grade teacher and the discovery of a book called "All About Dinosaurs" more or less cemented Phil's belief that his future lay in palaeontology.

Phil attended the University of Toronto where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Zoology in 1972. The same year he married his first wife, Marlene, and the couple moved to Montreal where Phil began working on a Master of Science degree in Biology from McGill University. Phil balanced his studies with his role as a new dad to sons, Tarl and Devin, and his work as a lab assistant and geology technician at the Redpath Museum in Montreal. As he started his doctoral thesis at McGill, Phil wrestled with the realization that there were alarmingly few palaeontology-related positions to be had across Canada. A rare opportunity at the Provincial Museum of Alberta prompted Phil to apply even though he was convinced he would be unsuccessful without a PhD on his resume. However, the interviewers were fully convinced they saw something special in the young candidate and gave him the job.

In 1976, Phil moved his family to Edmonton and settled in as curator of palaeontology at what has since been renamed the Royal Alberta Museum. He held down the position while completing a PhD in absentia from McGill and also welcomed third son, Brett, to the family. His summers were spent combing the Alberta badlands for fossils. Within five years, Phil and his staff had retrieved so many specimens from Dinosaur Provincial Park that the collection threatened to overwhelm the museum. It was becoming increasingly clear that Alberta's rising prominence as a paleontological centre warranted a new provincial institution dedicated to the field.

In 1981, the newly-minted Dr. Currie became vice chair of a planning committee for a new Alberta institute that would eventually become the world-class Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology. The museum, located just outside Drumheller, opened to the public in 1985 with Dr. Currie serving as assistant director of collections and research and, later, as head of the dinosaur research program. Phil split his time between the museum, service as an adjunct full professor at the University of Calgary and the ongoing search for fossils. His pursuit of new information eventually expanded to rich sites in north western Alberta and to digs in China, Antarctica, Mongolia, Argentina and Australia. He has also travelled extensively to serve in a curatorial and advisory capacity for numerous Canadian and American institutions. In 1993, Phil's first marriage had come to an end but a new chapter began when he met fellow scientist and noted palaeobotanist Eva Koppelhus. The couple were married in 1998.

In 2005, Phil scaled back his duties at the Tyrrell to take on new challenges as the Canada Research Chair in Biological Sciences at the University of Alberta. His work at the school has included mentoring the next generation of Canadian palaeontologists, producing cutting edge work on dinosaurian biomechanics and building the school's reputation as a highly regarded research lab and fossil collection facility.

Phil Currie's contributions to science, education and public awareness in the field of palaeontology over the years are remarkable. He has played a lead role in protecting and promoting Alberta's rich bounty of dinosaur fossil material. At the same time, his field research and pioneering lab techniques have shed new light into the origins of birds and served to reconstruct much of what we know about the evolution of meat eating dinosaurs, from anatomy, diversity and environment to herd behaviour and migration patterns. Those observations on ancient Earth biology have impacted the scientific world's understanding of the planet's past and, in turn, offered new and broader perspectives on potential evolutionary and environmental developments to come.

"Expect to work hard, always have a game plan and don't be afraid to pursue your passion."
Advice from Phil Currie to the next generation of scientists and to young Canadians in general

Together with his colleagues Phil has named 25 new dinosaurs (and other fossil reptiles) and three have been named in his honour. His name has appeared on approximately 100 scientific publications in a variety of world class journals, 26 book chapters, 20 books that he authored or co-authored and some 120 non-technical publications for audiences of all ages and levels of expertise. Many of those works have been translated into other languages. He also is easily one of Canada's most referenced scientists in the news media who has made more than 1,000 appearances in newspapers, radio and TV in his efforts to increase awareness of and interest in palaeontology.

Dr. Currie's work has been recognized with numerous honours. He received the ASTech Foundation's Outstanding Leadership in Alberta Science Award, the Canadian Museums Association Award for Distinguished Service and the Michael Smith Award for Science Promotion from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. He is a Fellow of both the Royal Canadian Geographic Society and the Royal Society of Canada and holds the Alberta Centennial Medal and the 125 Anniversary Medal. In 2003 Phil Currie was named one of Canada's best explorers by Time Magazine and was included in the Calgary Herald's 1999 list of Alberta's Heroic 100 of the Millennium. He received an Honourary Doctorate of Laws from the University of Calgary in 2008.

Phil Currie often attributes his record of success to date to hard work and luck, but there is clearly much more at play. His tremendous energy and passion, combined with his great insights, integrity and leadership have made him a long standing and respected pioneer in the scientific community. At the same time, the optimism and enthusiasm for the joy of discovery that inspired him to begin exploring so many years ago continue to make him an ideal ambassador for people across Alberta, throughout Canada and around the globe who want to learn about the value of science and everything it has to tell us about the past and future of the world in which we live.

Alphabetical Listing | Chronological Listing | Member Categories

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Dr. Philip John Currie | The Alberta Order of Excellence

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Philip Currie is an internationally renowned palaeontologist whose scientific accomplishments have led to a greater understanding of dinosaurs and their scientific significance. He has served as a seminal force in developing Alberta's reputation as a centre of excellence in palaeontology and as an inspiring mentor for up-and-coming Canadian scientists.

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Why was Dinosaur Provincial Park Created?

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Why was Dinosaur Provincial Park Created?

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The area, originally created as the Steveville Dinosaur Provincial Park in 1955, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1979 for its diversity of plant and animal life as well as for its paleontological value.

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A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area which is chosen by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) as having cultural, historical, scientific or other form of significance, and is legally protected by international treaties.

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Notes

1. In 1979, the Committee decided to inscribe the Ohrid Lake on the World Heritage List under natural criteria (iii). In 1980, this property was extended to include the cultural and historical area, and cultural criteria (i)(iii)(iv) were added.

2. Extension of the "Australian East Coast Temperate and Subtropical Rainforest Park".

name changed 2007 from 'Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves (Australia)'

3. Renomination of "Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park" under cultural criteria.

4. The "Belfries of Flanders and Wallonia" which were previously inscribed on the World Heritage List, are part of the transnational property "The Belfries of Belgium and France".

5. Extension of "Jaú National Park".

6. Extension of the "Glacier Bay/Wrangell/St Elias/Kluane" property.

7. The "Burgess Shale" property, which was previously inscribed on the World Heritage List, is part of the "Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks".

8. Extension of "The Potala Palace and the Jokhang Temple Monastery, Lhasa" to include the Norbulingka area.

9. The "Belfries of Flanders and Wallonia" which were previously inscribed on the World Heritage List, are part of the transnational property "The Belfries of Belgium and France".

10. The "Chateau and Estate of Chambord", which was previously inscribed on the World Heritage List, is part of the "Loire Valley between Sully-sur-Loire and Chalonnes".

11. The "Hadrian's Wall" which was previously inscribed on the World Heritage List, is part of the transnational property "Frontiers of the Roman Empire".

12. At the time the property was extended, cultural criterion (iv) was also found applicable.

13. The "Brihadisvara Temple, Tanjavur", which was previously inscribed on the World Heritage List, is part of the "Great Living Chola Temples".

14. At the time the property was extended, cultural criterion (iv) was also found applicable.

15. At the time the property was extended, criteria (iii) and (v) were also found applicable.

16. The Committee decided to extend the existing cultural property, the "Temple of Ggantija", to include the five prehistoric temples situated on the islands of Malta and Gozo and to rename the property as "The Megalithic Temples of Malta".

17. The Westland and Mount Cook National Park and the Fiordland National Park, which were previously inscribed on the World Heritage List, are part of the "Te Wahipounamu - South West New Zealand".

18. In 1979, the Committee decided to inscribe the Ohrid Lake on the World Heritage List under natural criteria (iii). In 1980, this property was extended to include the cultural and historical area, and cultural criteria (i)(iii)(iv) were added.

19. The "Convent Ensemble of San Francisco de Lima", which was previously inscribed on the World Heritage List, is part of the "Historic Centre of Lima".

20. Extension de " Sites d'art rupestre préhistorique de la vallée de Côa ", Portugal

21. Extension of "Biertan and its Fortified Church".

22. At the time the property was extended, natural criterion (iv) was also found applicable.

23. Extension of the "Alhambra and the Generalife, Granada", to include the Albayzin quarter.

24. Extension of the "Mosque of Cordoba".

25. The property "Parque Güell, Palacio Güell and Casa Mila in Barcelona", previously inscribed on the World Heritage List, is part of the "Works of Antoni Gaudí".

26. Extension of the "Churches of the Kingdom of the Asturias", to include monuments in the city of Oviedo.

27. Extension of the "Mudejar Architecture of Teruel".

28. Extension de " Sites d'art rupestre préhistorique de la vallée de Côa ", Portugal

29. Following a survey of ownership carried out in the late 1960s, ownership of the totality of the walls was vested in 1973 in the Spanish State, through the Ministry of Education and Science. It was transferred to the Xunta de Galicia by Royal Decree in 1994.

The Spanish Constitution reserves certain rights in relation to the heritage to the central government. However, these are delegated to the competent agencies in the Autonomous Communities, in this case the Xunta de Galicia. For the Lugo walls the Xunta is in the position of both owner and competent agency. Under the Galician Heritage Law the Xunta is required to cooperate with the municipal authorities in ensuring the protection and conservation of listed monuments, and certain functions are delegated down to them. The Xunta operates through its General Directorate of Cultural Heritage (Dirección General de Patrimonio Cultural), based in Santiago de Compostela.

The Master Plan for the Conservation and Restoration of the Roman Walls of Lugo (1992) covered proposals for actions to be taken in respect of research and techniques of restoration. This was followed in 1997 by the Special Plan for the Protection and Internal Reform of the Fortified Enceinte of the Town of Lugo, which is concerned principally with the urban environment of the historic town. However, it has a direct impact on the protection afforded to the walls, in terms of traffic planning, the creation of open spaces, and regulation of building heights. Another planning instrument which affects the walls is the Special Plan for the Protection of the Miño [river], approved by the municipality at the beginning of 1998.

There is at the present time no management plan sensu stricto for the walls in operation in Lugo: work is continuing on the basis of the 1992 plan. Nor is there a technical unit specifically responsible for the conservation and restoration of the walls. It is against this background that serious consideration is being given to the creation of an independent foundation, under royal patronage and with representatives from government, academic, voluntary, and business institutions, to work with the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage of Galicia. The work plan of this body would include the development and implementation of integrated conservation, restoration, and maintenance programmes.

30. The WH area is managed directly by the Divisional Forest Officer from the Forest Dept. A national steering Committee co-ordinates institutions for Sinharaja as a National Wilderness Area, Biosphere Reserve (1988), and WH site. There are two management plans, prepared in 1985/86 and 1992/94, which emphasise conservation, scientific research, buffer zone management, benefit-sharing, and community participation.

31. The "Hadrian's Wall" which was previously inscribed on the World Heritage List, is part of the transnational property "Frontiers of the Roman Empire".

32. Extension of "Gough Island Wildlife Reserve".

33. (renomination under cultural criteria)

34. Extension of the "Glacier Bay/Wrangell/St Elias/Kluane" property.

*: Transboundary / Transnational

#: As for 19 Natural and Mixed Properties inscribed for geological values before 1994, criteria numbering of this property has changed. See Decision 30.COM 8D.1

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UNESCO World Heritage Centre - World Heritage List

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t's the insatiable curiosity of the scientists at the Royal Tyrrell Museum that drives the research program. Their discoveries provide the basis for everything we do, from educational programming to exhibit development. Their work enhances our understanding of the evolution of life on Earth.

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Royal Tyrrell Museum Virtual Tour 2018 [Drumheller, Alberta]

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Here is a link that shows a variety of places in Alberta where fossils have been found.

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Alberta's Fossil Finds

NOTE TO TEACHER:

I created this digital map to help scaffold students' Internet searching in the Treasure Hunt activity (on Filamentality).

Please be aware that all information used in the creation of this digital map was directly taken from pages 52-53 in the Voices of Alberta: People, Places and Possibilities textbook. By transferring textbook information onto an interactive digital map, students will surely be more engaged. Which means, more learning accomplished!

Hope this helps! CHEERS!

TEACHER RESOURCE:
Cox, S., Henderson, P. & Kagan, E., (2005). Voices of Alberta : People, Places and Possibilities [with Teacher's Guide]. Toronto, ON: Pearson Education Canada.

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NOTE TO TEACHER: I created this digital map to help scaffold students' Internet searching in the Treasure Hunt activity (on Filamentality). Please be aware that all information used in the creation of this digital map was directly taken from pages 52-53 in the Voices of Alberta: People, Places and Possibilities textbook.

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CHAT News Today| Medicine Hat, Southern Alberta | News, Sports, Weather, Obituaries, Real Estate

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Dinosaur Provincial Park, AB - Every year, thousands of tourists pass through Dinosaur Provincial Park.

75 million years ago, it was over 50 different species of dinosaurs passing through those same badlands.

According to Caleb Brown, the curator of Dinosaur systematics and evolution for the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, it's the crown jewel of Alberta.

"Dinosaur Provincial Park is one of the best places in the world to find dinosaurs, especially late cretaceous dinosaurs. And it's recognized for that resource as being both a provincial park but also a UNESCO world heritage site because of those fossil resources." He said.

Over the past 120 years, more than 500 dinosaur skulls and skeletons have been pulled out of the area.

A number that can't be matched by any other area of comparable size in the world.

That's why the museum has Brown and his crew at the park throughout the year working on known fossil sites and looking for new ones.

"We're looking to see bits of fossils poking out. And when we find a bit of a fossil poking out, we follow it in a little bit and sometimes it just stops and that's all there is." Brown explained. "But sometimes one bone connects to another bone connects to another bone. And you have a full skeleton there."

That's how the latest dig site, home of an Ankylosaur, was discovered.

They are currently creating a field jacket out of plaster and burlap strips around a hind leg and a 1.7 metre long complete tail club to protect the fossil for its move.

The move is expected to happen in the fall.

Senior technician for the museum Darren Tanke says the tail club fossil is one of the first of its kind in the country.

"There's a lot of excitement at the museum about this because we do have tail clubs from armoured dinosaurs, but they are pieces. They aren't complete specimens like this." Tanke said.

Tanke, who first started volunteering at the park in 1979, says the best part of his job is always discovering something new like the tail club.

"So it's very rewarding when you start with a pile of rumble such as which it looked like." Tanke described. "And then to fit it all back together and chip and grind and saw off all the rock. And then to do a bit of reconstruction and then boom it's a complete skull."

Brown agreed with Tanke.

"You could be walking on the badlands and see something on the ground, and you find something new. A new specimen!" He said. "And sometimes that happens back in the lab in your research office where you open a jacket and you find something unexpected. Or you make an interesting scientific conclusion that you wouldn't have thought of before based on new fossil evidence. Scientists are very curious and I'm very curious so it's when we are discovering something new that really motivates me."

Tanke is hopefully that the Ankylosaur will be ready for display next spring at the Royal Tyrrell for people from around the world to enjoy.

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Crews continue to make discoveries at Dinosaur Provincial Park

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Dinosaur Provincial Park, AB - Every year, thousands of tourists pass through Dinosaur Provincial Park. 75 million years ago, it was over 50 different species of dinosaurs passing through those same badlands. According to Caleb Brown, the curator of Dinosaur systematics and evolution for the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, it's the crown jewel of Alberta.

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How Did Alberta Become Known for Fossils?

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How Did Alberta Become Known for Fossils?

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The First Nations of Alberta were the first to discover fossils on the land.  They would call them iinisskim - "buffalo stones" the grandfathers of the buffalo.
These creatures would late be rediscovered and identified as the prehistoric creatures.

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In 1884, Joseph Tyrell was looking for coal along the Red Deer river and he discovered an Albertasaurus! Eventually, Alberta became known for its rich fossil resources, and palaeontologists from the United States and Canada came in droves, eager to claim the finest specimens for their Museums. The period from 1910–1917 later became known as the “Great Dinosaur Rush.”

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The Royal Tyrrell museum was named after Joseph Tyrrell.

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Should Alberta's Fossils Be protected Debate:

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Should Alberta's Fossils Be protected Debate:

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Review the perspectives written on page 11 and 12 on the virtual textbook below, then divide the students into two different debate teams.  Have them discuss other issues or the ones they read as a class.  Assignment:  Both groups have to face off and debate back and forth their viewpoints, trying to convince the other side to see their viewpoints as being more important.  Debate Rules:  No interruptions, hands raised for speaking turns, and no side-bar conversations during the debate.  The debate should be led by the teacher.

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Activity and Assessment on disturbing fossils.

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I accidentally took something off of here in this space and I do not know what it was!

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Fossil Fuels for Kids

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Fossil Fuels for Kids | Learn all about fossil fuels, what they are, and where they come from