Experience a Dino Grandcation
Amelie experiences the dino-thrill at Devil’s Coulee museum, near Warner, Ab
Dinosaur Provincial Park, Courtesy of Tanya Koob
Shhhhh…can you hear the leaves rustling? Wait for it…the ground begins trembling and suddenly you’re face to face with a T. Rex, Stegoceras or maybe a Sabre-Toothed Tiger. Does it sound scary, exciting, adventurous? Then pack your imagination, because it’s time for a grandcation, which is an exclusive vacay for grandparents and grandchildren. And Southern Alberta is the place to be. Our journey begins in Cowley, Alberta where Black Beauty was discovered. No, it isn’t the famous horse. It is a very well preserved skeleton of a T. rex discovered three km north of Cowley on the Crowsnest River. Aptly named for the fossil’s shiny black colour, Black Beauty’s skull bones have been used to illustrate the concept of parasitic infections in dinosaurs. This T. rex, specimen features 85 original bones and is the 14th most complete known T. rex in the world. The skeleton is on display at the Royal Tyrell Museum in Drumheller. It’s also reinvented in an iron and metal 4.5 m statue in Cowley. It’s astonishing to think that dinosaurs just like the legendary T. rex were little critters born from an egg. Devil’s Coulee, about 70 km south Lethbridge on Hwy 4, produced the first and largest dinosaur nesting ground discovered in Canada.
Royal Tyrrell Museum, Courtesy of Canadian Tourism Commission
Once part of an inland sea, the dino eggs at Devil’s Coulee are those of the Duck-Billed Hypacrosaurus. Four nests were unearthed. Miraculously, one egg contained a fully developed embryo about 40 cm long. Devil’s Coulee is the only area in the country holding so many nests, eggs and embryos that it’s considered to be one of the top three best places in North America for such a find. A trip to the Devil’s Coulee Dinosaur & Heritage Museum in Warner where the eggs are displayed is a must stop on the grandcation. Over the millennia some dinosaurs started stepping out in style. The feathered Ornithomimus, discovered in Southern Alberta boasted fluffy feathers on its bones connecting the legs to the breast. Fossils for this beast have never been discovered in North America before and the feathers appear as tiny black lines on the fossils. This 75-million-year-old hotty probably looked like a plucked goose, but don’t take our word for it. Make the Royal Tyrrell Museum a stop on your grandcation and see for yourself. Speaking about birds of a feather, a 76-million-year-old, nearly complete Saurornitholestes specimen was unearthed in the Dinosaur Provincial Park.
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