He said the skull, which is about 2 meters long and 2 meters wide, was discovered in 2014 and collected by technicians in 2015 during an investigation after floods hit southern Alberta in 2013.
“Over several years, they discovered more than 200 new fossil remains and collected almost 500 specimens,” he said.
“In my opinion, the best thing they found was this beautiful skull.”
Triceratops lived 68 to 69 million years ago, and its skull was discovered in the foothills of southwestern Alberta, an area rare for dinosaur fossils.
The discovery occurred along Callum Creek, a tributary of the Oldman River, about two hours south of Calgary and about 30 kilometers north of Lundbreck.
Brown said the skull spent years in the lab studying and preparing it for display.
“Even if the specimen was found in one piece, we had to take advantage of the existing breaks in the block to extract it in smaller chunks,” he says. “Otherwise it’s too heavy.”
Museum staff spent more than 6,500 hours over seven years preparing the fossils. This fossil was called “Kari” after the region where it was discovered. They removed more than 815 kilograms of solid rock and exposed the skull.
“The skull itself weighs about 500 kilograms,” Brown said. “It’s pretty huge.”
This is thought to be a fully undeveloped dinosaur, and could have grown even larger had it lived longer.
Brown said there will also be scientific research related to the fossils that emerge.
The new “Fossils in Focus” exhibit also features dinosaur footprints, the skull of another horned dinosaur, crocodile fossils, and plant fossils.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 5, 2023.
— Written by Colette Delwallis in Calgary.
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