Posted on 07/07/2006 9:40:50 PM PDT by annie laurie
EDMONTON — Bones belonging to an entire herd of dinosaurs have been found next to a new subdivision in southwest Edmonton.
Fittingly, the bones belong to the Edmontosaurus, one of the largest duck-billed dinosaurs.
The site contains some of the most complete skeletons scientists have of the dinosaur, and will help answer questions about its migratory habits and its development, said Phil Currie, a University of Alberta paleontologist.
"With a herd of dinosaurs we can learn a lot about how they grew up, how they changed as they grew, and differences in individuals," said Currie.
"That’s significant because we rarely have enough specimens."
Currie added that the number of animals found brings up several questions.
"Why were they herding? Why did we find them in the Arctic circle? Does that mean they were migrating from Alberta?" he asked.
Though Currie and his crew have worked on excavations around the world, this is the first time they’ve been able to pick up slush drinks and order pizza from the dig site.
"We’ve never been this close to a big city before," said Eva Koppelhus, Currie’s wife and a research associate at the U of A. "Usually the sites are very remote."
The Edmontosaurus was approximately six metres tall, 13 metres long and weighed 3.5 tonnes. The plant-eating creature, which lived during the Cretaceous era about 65 million years ago, had more than 1,000 teeth that wore down and quickly grew back.
Bones of the Edmontosaurus have been found from Wyoming to Alaska, but never in Edmonton.
"It’s probably the most widely distributed dinosaur that we know of," Currie said.
The Edmontosaurus is not named after the city but after the rocks it was found in, part of what is called the Edmonton Formation, which can be found exposed along the banks and ravines of the North Saskatchewan River.
The excavation crew has also found teeth from the Albertosaurus and the Daspletosaurus at the site. Both were meat-eaters that Currie said preyed on the slow-moving Edmontosaurus.
The site was first discovered in 1988 by a man walking his dog. Currie said he did some initial work then, but at the time he was the curator of dinosaurs at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alta.
But last October, Currie moved to Edmonton to teach at the University of Alberta. He thought the southwest site would make a good field school for students.
In June, Currie realized the site was much larger than he thought, and contained a whole herd of Edmontosauruses.
Ping
That whole province is loaded with fossils.
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Thanks, much appreciated. But I decided a while ago that I wouldn't use the evolution list for "just another fossil" articles. There's nothing here that's really science news. So, even though hot new threads have been scarce lately, I'll pass.
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