August 4th ~ Drumheller, Alberta
“Black Beauty” – an original T. rex ~ 67 million years, Crowsnest Pass, Alberta
We decided to tell about our day hunting dinosaurs in two parts – where they are found, and where they are on display. In case you missed the first part of the story, you can click here to read about how we spent our morning visiting the Badlands and the Dinosaur Provincial Park..
When we finished up our tour at the Dinosaur Park, we made ourselves a quick lunch and headed toward the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller so we could see more bones…
I think this is how Canada says, “Brake for snakes”
Lush farming communities along the route
It is a 2 and a half hour drive between the two places, but if you start out early, you have plenty of time to get both places covered in the same day. It helps that the Royal Tyrrell is open until 9:00 pm and has a cafe on site where you can grab some dinner.
Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology
Entrance to Royal Tyrrell Museum
This place is enormous, and has a fantastic display of a large number of different dinosaur bones, many of which are entire skeletons. I can remember when our son went through a stage as a youngster where he loved dinosaurs.
I know he would have been in awe way back then, perhaps even still today…
What a greeting!
Pachycephalosaurus – 67 million years, South Dakota
Brachylophosaurus canadensis – 77 million years, Milk River, Alberta
Original T. rex skull
Research and preservation room
A time line
A pair of Dimetrodon
Tim is 6’1″ to give you some scale for these dinosaur leg bones
Stegosaurus ~ 155-145 million years ago, Utah, USA
Confuciusornis ~ 125-120 million years ago, China
Chasmosaurus ~ 75-74.5 million years ago, Dinosaur Provincial Park
Euoplocephalus ~ 77 million years ago, Dinosaur Provincial Park
Gorgosaurus ~ 77-75.5 million years ago, Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta
Gryposaurus ~ 77-75 Million years ago, Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta
Anchiceratops ornatus ~ 72 million years ago, Red Deer River Valley, Alberta
Gorgosaurus standing over Centrosaurus
A variety of different fossils/skeletons/bones
Champsosaurs – resemble crocodiles, but from an extinct group
Tyrannosaurus rex ~ 67-66 Million years ago, Huxley, Alberta
I got a little closer to his head. Those teeth!!!
Pachyrhinosaurus ~ 73 million years ago, Grande Prairie, Alberta
Hypacrosaurus ~ 71-68.5 million years ago, Drumheller, Alberta
Ankylosaurus ~ 67-66 million years ago, Tolman Bridge, Alberta
Triceratops ~ 67-66 million years ago, Montana, USA
And to bring things more current:
Sabre-tooth cat ~ Rancho la Brea, California
Mammoth ~ arrived from Asia 100,000 years ago, Wisconsin, USA
If you have kids, or are a kid-at-heart, I highly recommend a visit!
Can you guess where our day ended? Well, all the nearby parks were full, we were tired, and had been wanting to try this out, sooooo, we had our very first stay at Wal-Mart.
Ellie Mae and Jethro were right at home
GRATITUDE MOMENT: Today I am grateful that we got to complete the dinosaur story from start to finish; from where they have been found in abundance, to where they have been preserved, reconstructed and put on display for all of us to enjoy.
NEXT STOP: CALGARY
Please join us as we continue on our epic RV road trip.
A Note From Abroad 
Did you notice the aquatic salamander display? When my husband I retired we donated our axolotl colony to them and they are on display somewhere in there. One of my favorite places! A great combination of good science, great public relations and value for the dollar. Plus when we visited to drop off the axolotls, they gave us a behind the scenes tour and donated a bunch of tickets to a large family of newly arrived dirt poor refugees we had become friends with so this entire family could come and see everything as well. I so want to go again!
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I’m sorry to say that we did not see the salamander display. What fascinates me about the axoloti is their ability to regenerate body parts – including their brain! What a wonderful thing you did in donating your colony where they can be studied and also hopefully aid in them not going extinct.
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They pretty much are extinct in the wild due to habitat destruction but there are a lot of place that have them as pets and there are a couple of axolotl colonies left int he USA so if the habitat can ever be restored they will hopefully still be around.
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It looks amazing!
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It was!
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So are all or most of these the original bones and not just reconstructions? I can hardly imagine these guys being found intact.
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A good majority are originals, but some are casts from skeletons on display at other Museums and some are composed of a combination of original and reconstructed or cast pieces.
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Such a cool museum. I know lots of kids, and adults, who would love to see this. Thanks for sharing. Can’t wait until I have the time to check out the posts I have missed for the last week or so.
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Hope you have fun catching up 😉
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Great pictures! What I loved about this museum was that you could enjoy it at different levels: from small children who just wanted to see dinosaurs to experts (I imagine – there was a lot of detailed info). I fall somewhere in between and learned a lot. It was also very well laid out with a clear route.
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Anabel, I think you are right that this excellent museum has a lot to offer a wide cross section of people.
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We didn’t have time to get to see this, so it’s great to see it through your eyes. 😀 … definitely on our next trip east of the Rockies. 😀
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It is well worth the stop!
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Looks like fun! Great pictures!
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Thank you!
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I love this place and as you mentioned, it’s great for people of all ages. The snake sign is funny…Canadian politeness in all its wordy glory.
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They are very polite – and friendly!
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So how was the night at Wal*Mart, slumming it?
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Worked out just fine 😜
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Wow, this was really interesting to see the scale of the creatures! And I was pleased to find that I could see the slideshows this post on my phone. I could not see the ones that required java script. Just fyi.
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The slideshows are all identical in their format, so if you can see one, you should be able to see them all. So this leaves me puzzled. 😕
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Well I’m puzzled too. On the posts with slideshows I couldn’t see, there was a message that Java script was required, but on the ones I could see, there was not. Maybe that was WP generated? I thought you had maybe changed your format and inserted the Java script message. How strange…all viewings have been on my Samsung phone and I haven’t had a system update or anything.
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Very strange indeed. Well, I’m glad you have been able to see some of them at least. I’m curious if on one you could not see, if you refreshed your browser window, if it would make any difference?
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I’ll see if I can find the post where it happened. If there is any updste, I will let you know.
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I was able to see the slideshow on the previous post so it must have been a fluke.
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Thank you for letting me know.
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