Posted on 03/28/2011 5:10:20 AM PDT by thackney
A series of unlikely events over a span of 113 million years has resulted in the discovery of what may be the oldest dinosaur remains in Alberta's history.
On Monday afternoon, a shovel operator at a Suncor oilsands mine site noticed what looked like brown discs in the black rock on a small cliff he was excavating.
Per Suncor's policy, operator Shawn Funk shut off his machinery and reported that he'd found something unusual.
"It was really like finding a needle in a haystack," said Suncor spokeswoman Lanette Lundquist.
The area remained closed to work while Suncor took pictures of the curious find and sent them to the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller.
There, Don Henderson, the curator of dinosaurs, thought it could be the remains of a marine reptile, not an uncommon find in an area that used to be underwater. He thought he could see a fossilized flipper. On Tuesday, Henderson and another Tyrrell employee travelled to the site, 50 kilometres north of Fort McMurray.
"After about 10 minutes, we realized it was something different," Henderson said. "We did a high-five."
Henderson realized the brown discs were the cross-section of a dinosaur's ribs.
He could see bits of backbone, the edge of a leg and tendons thick as broom handles, all encased and protected by a mass of minerals and other material.
"This thing is in a giant lump, about 85 per cent of it is still in the hill. This is a perfectly preserved three-dimensional fossil. This is the earliest, most complete find in Alberta. This might be the best one so far."
Henderson believes the bones belong to an ankylosaur, an armoured herbivore covered in plates and spikes, with "wimpy little teeth."
When alive, it was roughly five metres long and two metres wide.
On average, dinosaurs found in Alberta are 65 million to 75 million years old, while this find is likely 113 million years old, Henderson said.
Lundquist said the area of the Suncor site will remain closed until all of the fossil is excavated. A meeting will be held Monday to determine the best way to do that. Once those parts have come loose, they will be taken to Drumheller on a flatbed truck.
The bulk of the fossil is sticking out from the side of a 3.7-metre cliff. Workers will sift through the rubble below for any smaller pieces.
"This crust is very good to protect the fossil, but it will be very difficult to prepare over the next two to three years. It's worth it, though, for what we'll learn."
Such a complete skeleton of an ankylosaur has never been found before; it's expected to provide new scientific information as it is uncovered by tiny pneumatic drills and air-driven tools.
That work will have to be conducted carefully, Henderson said, because the encasing material is harder than the bones themselves.
Whether the remains are male or female cannot yet be determined.
ping
That’ll take that mine out of production for a while.
finding relics will shut down a jobsite faster than OSHA or MSHA ever could here in the states..
No, the dirt/rock in which it is found is being dated at this old. The dinosaur itself is not. And those dating methods, depending on which one dating method of several you want to assume is right, will all give wildly different values, and all make assumptions that the daters have no way of knowing are true.
I think most oilsands operations are very large areas. I expect they will shut down a large area and the mine will only be delayed while they shift to another section.
———Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller———
This is one of the world’s great museums and houses the largest collection of dinosaur fossils.
If you get up that way, take the few miles off the beaten path to visit. It will be an eye opener and education.......possibly resulting in enlightenment
It also has an excellent presentation of fossils from the not too distant Burgess Shale site.
That made me think of the First Lady.
And a shovel operator is now out of work. Least they could do is name the dinosaur after him.
Oh. It's just a fossil not an actual dinosaur.
Don’t know why they are high-fiving; haven’t they heard of gopher turtles, snail darters, and eagle nests?
***..finding relics will shut down a jobsite faster than OSHA or MSHA ever could here in the states..***
Claiming that a jobsite is really a “sacred Indian Burial ground” will get it shut down faster!
Barbara Streisand, but nice try.
Or perhaps the much younger dinosaur was teleported into the site. Otherwise the fossil is the same "age" as the elements in its immediate vicinity.
But I suppose teleporting into stone is entirely possible if that is part of your belief system.
Not possible that the dirt is older than the Dino?
Seriously?
WOW! FReepers are slipping. 14 posts and no pictures of Helen Thomas . . .
Sedimentation accumilation from the surface would result in older dirt?
I'm gettin' out of this thread while the gettin' is still good. Bye.
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