As floodwaters recede, scientists urge public to keep eyes peeled for fossils

National Post ^ | July 14, 2013 | Katherine Dunn

[Squawk 8888]

When Cody Van Megen took his dog for a walk along Calgary’s swollen Bow River days after last month’s floods, he was bracing for signs of devastation along a stretch of bank in the city’s southeast.

What he didn’t expect to find were a set of gigantic rib bones, sticking out of the riverbank.

“I was a little surprised because of the size of them,” he says. “It was kind of exciting to see something like that. I knew they were larger than what I would say a standard cow is.”

Van Megen took some pictures and got in touch with Francois Therrien, a paleontologist at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, east of Calgary, that is home to 140,000 fossil specimens.

Therrien told him the bones were unlikely to be from a dinosaur, because the rock in the Calgary area is too young. But the discovery could still be significant — potentially signalling an early bison fossil — and a team will be heading out in August to have a look.

[Squawk 8888]

GGG ping.

[Squawk 8888]

To all- please ping me to Canadian topics.

Canada Ping!

[Pontiac]

While amateur explorers can discover Alberta’s buried treasures, however, they’re not permitted to collect them without a permit. Fossils and artifacts are protected under provincial law and even when in private hands, they remain the property of the province.

So much for property rights.

[exDemMom]

Ugh, I hate peeling eyes. It’s painful.

I used to find fossils all the time as a kid. My stepfather had cleared an area for building on the side of a hill, and buried in the hill were seashells. The area was miles away from the bay, so we knew the shells were very old.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Also common in Europe.

[bert]

-—— Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller-——

I wore my Royal Tyrrell Museum T Rex T shirt last Saturday

It has the largest collection of Dinosaur fossil in existence.
It also has a large exhibit on Burgess Shale fossils.

It is off the beaten path but well worth the few miles to get there. It is where the fossils are, were found.

It is one of the world’s best natural history museums