Thursday, May 15, 2008

Boneyard #20: Meeting Prehistoric Creatures 'behind the scenes' at The Royal Tyrrell Museum


I was intrigued by Laelaps' Boneyard (#20) competition, and decided to throw my travel-worn hat into the ring. The topic is "Meeting a Prehistoric Creature," and I have just the post.

In fact, I've been wanting to post these photographs since I began Bond's Blog, but it never seemed appropriate. A few years back, I worked at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Drumheller, Alberta (my favorite and the best dinosaur museum) and spent an afternoon "behind the scenes," exploring it's collections department.

Join me for a peek inside the prepared collections of the Tyrrell Museum, as we meet MANY prehistoric creatures!

(Please excuse the Batman t-shirt - just call it more viral advertising for this summer's The Dark Knight! - opens July 18th)

DINOSAURS"Never trust a man holding a skull."
Albertosaurus
skull


"My, what big teeth you have, Granny!"
Tyrannosaurus rex
(Stan) lower jaw

"So tell me about your problems, Mr. Bonehead..."
Pachycephalosaurus skull


"Makes a great indoor pet...and house-trained!"
Compsognathus
skeleton


"Smile Big Guy. You smiling? Smile, damn it!"
Parasaurolophus
skull


"Oh my god! He just flew into this slab of solid rock!
Archaeopteryx
(the London specimen)


"Can I kiss it?"
The world-famous Berlin specimen of
Archaeopteryx
(Relax, it's a cast. I saw the original in the Humboldt University
Museum in Berlin a few years back!)


REPTILES"One for the girlfriend, one for the wife."
Two beautifully-preserved Pterodactyls


"How any ways can this kill me?"
Mososaur skull


"Yup, looks straight..."
Chamsosaurus skull


CEPHALOPODS
"Man... I hate counting sutures"
Ammonite


"Ingredients: ammolite, calcium carbonate, riboflavin, vitamin C..."
Ammonite displaying reflective iridescence.


"Bowling for extinction."
Large ammonite with limpit-marks
(which look like mososaur teeth-marks)


ARTHROPODS
"Mmm, smells like trilobite!"
Small trilobite

"You actually can hear the Super Sounds of the Silurian..."
Beautiful large trilobite


TRACE FOSSILS"Cross-species high-five!"
Hadrosaur hind-foot footprint


"You know, you can't make an omelet
without breaking some prehistoric eggs."
A nest of Protoceratops eggs


"Umm." No caption required.
Yeah. Actual dinosaur poop.


This concludes our quick peak inside the prepared collections of the Royal Tyrrell Museum!

As the repository for all fossils in Alberta, the museum's collection contains over 120,000 specimens and adds 2000+ annually. Included in the collection are unique Cambrian Burgess Shale fossils, Cretaceous dinosaur specimens from Dinosaur Provincial Park, and Triassic marine fish from British Columbia.

If anyone knows the species name of any of the fossils in the above photographs, please let me know what they are in the comments section. Thanks!


For more Tyrrell Museum and dinosaur-related Boneyard posts, check out Prehistoric Insanity Production's other entries:


Prehistoric Insanity Unity

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why do I get the feeling that you would have worked at the Museum without pay?
What a grand set of photos!
And funny Prehistoric Insanity film!
Stop having all that fun!!

My favorite line in this post is, "Never trust a man holding a skull."

Peter Bond said...

"Never trust a man without a skull too!"

Thanks! You know, I probably would have worked there for free - But Shhhhhh, don't tell 'em!

Which P.I. film did you watch?

Anonymous said...

I was referring to the PI clip in the post.
Maybe I should pay attention, and find a link to a whole and complete PI film. I'm going to look right now...

Julie said...

Hello.
I am very interested in paleontology and fossil preparation. I wish I could e-mail you but I couldn't find yours.
I live in Korea just like you.
E-mail me please. I want to talk to you about fossils.
My e-mail is hyeonju0212@gmail.com

Thank you.

Bruce said...

Hi Peter:

I enjoyed seeing an old friend of mine! I created and mounted the skeleton of Compsognathus which you posted here. Looks like it has held up reasonably well over the years.

Bruce Mohn
www.dinoart.com