Dr. Emily Standen - RECIPE FROM THE DEVONIAN: WHEN ALL YOU HAVE IS FISH, HOW DO YOU MAKE A TETRAPOD? Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2022-02-17 | There once was a time when the only vertebrates on the planet were underwater. Evolutionary innovation and adaptive selection allowed our fishy ancestors to survive and diversify to life on land. It is not trivial moving from a buoyancy dominated aquatic environment to a gravity dominated desiccating terrestrial world. Understanding how fishes were first able to walk around on land gives us insight into the remarkable plasticity of the vertebrate body plan!Dr. Emily Standen is an Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa. Dr. Standen and her lab seek to understand how evolution was (and is!) influenced by an animal’s body form, its development from embryo to adult, and its biology. Their research includes rearing fish on land to understand how these animals move, grow, and develop out of water. This work helps palaeontologists and evolutionary biologists understand the ‘fin-to-limb’ transition; the point in the history of life when fish left the water and evolved into the four-legged land animals of today.
Dr. Corwin Sullivan: A Monstersaurian Lizard in a Warm Subarctic Alberta During the Late Cretaceous Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2024-04-26 | Ongoing fieldwork at a site called the DC Bonebed, on the Wapiti River, is recovering fossil evidence of the rich community of dinosaurs and other creatures that lived in northwestern Alberta about 75 million years ago. One small but significant specimen is a skull bone from a lizard belonging to a group called the Monstersauria, represented today by the Gila monster of the southwestern United States and the beaded lizards of Mexico and Guatemala. The skull bone reveals that the "DC Monster" resembled its modern cousins in having knobs of bone, called osteoderms, fused to the skull for protection. The DC Monster was even more similar to a Late Cretaceous monstersaur from Montana, probably representing the same species. In the modern world, monstersaurs and most other large lizards are restricted to fairly low latitudes, but in the Late Cretaceous the DC Bonebed would have been just outside the Arctic Circle, at a latitude of about 63° N. The presence of the DC Monster at such a high latitude, along with gingko trees, crocodilians, and soft-shelled turtles, is consistent with other evidence showing that the Late Cretaceous world was much warmer than today's.
Sally Hurst: The Found a Fossil Project: Discovering Dinosaurs and Protecting the Past in Australia Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2024-03-14 | Virtual Speaker Series March 2024 from Sally Hurst: “The Found a Fossil Project: Discovering Dinosaurs and Protecting the Past in Australia".
Ashley Hall: The Ultimate ‘Iffyosaur’: The Story of An Unusual Ichthyosaur Composite Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2024-02-09 | Virtual Speaker Series February 2024 from Ashley Hall: "The Ultimate ‘Iffyosaur’: The Story of An Unusual Ichthyosaur Composite".To watch the David Attenborough video section (removed for copyright), please go to the link: youtube.com/watch?v=tv3WhUqpKhEIchthyosaurs, or “dolphin-shaped” marine reptiles, swam the seas for 160 million years and are known for their exquisite and complete preservation in the fossil record. Join Museum of the Rockies Outreach Program Manager Ashley Hall as she tells the story of how one seemingly complete ichthyosaur specimen was discovered to be an amalgamation of multiple skeletons from two different European countries, including one very rare specimen. How does fossil forgery happen, and what can we learn from these “Frankenstein” fossils?
Kirstin Brink: Tooth pathologies and soft tissue reconstruction: Insights into T. rex paleobiology Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2024-01-21 | Virtual Speaker Series January 2024 from Dr. Kirstin Brink. “Tooth pathologies and soft tissue reconstruction: Insights into Tyrannosaurus rex paleobiology”
Common Decent Podcast Jurassic Park is a Terrible Zoo Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2023-12-10 | Virtual Speaker Series December 2023. Will Harris and David Moscato from The Common Decent Podcast "Jurassic Park is a Terrible Zoo"“No wonder the dinosaurs are always wreaking havoc! From shoddy enclosures to disgraceful animal handling, Jurassic Park just isn’t up to code! Join these paleontologists as they explore how real-life zoos make sure the attractions don’t eat the tourists!”
The Dinosaur is Always Right Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2023-08-04 | A parody of film noirs, such as Frank Miller's "Sin City" or Michael Curtiz' "Casablanca," but better because it has dinosaurs. Come meet the animatronic dinosaur outside our giftshop today! And then feel free to check out the town of Wembley, where the animatronic dino-fun continues!
3D Scanning Fossils with the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum - The Mesozoic Max Show Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2023-06-04 | Special thanks to Prairies Economic Development Canada for funding the purchase of our scanning equipment!00:00 - Video Intro00:56 - Introduction of the Scanner01:34 - Calibrating the Scanner02:15 - Beginning Your Scan03:29 - Cleaning the Scan04:09 - Adding the Other Side of the Scan05:15 - Potential Challenges07:32 - Why We Scan08:44 - Special Thanks to PrairiesCan09:01 - Video Outro
Ashley Reynolds Sabre-Toothed Cats, Dire Wolves, and other Ice Age Mammals from Alberta Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2023-04-23 | Virtual Speaker Series April 2023. Ashley Reynolds 'Sabre-Toothed Cats, Dire Wolves, and other Ice Age Mammals from Alberta'“Alberta is famous for its dinosaur fossils, but it also has a rich record of the late Pleistocene, a time known as the Ice Age. Ashley Reynolds will discuss some of the exciting finds coming out of Alberta, including the only Canadian specimens of the famous dire wolf (Canis dirus) and sabre-toothed cat (Smilodon fatalis).”
3D Scanning Dinosaur Bones with the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum! Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2023-04-07 | In this first episode of the 3D scanning show (airing every Thursday at a time to be determined) we will be scanning Skull Elements of Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai! Stay tuned for live streams in the future with more 3D scanning, livestreams from the bone bed, and more!
Steve Brusatte The Rise and Fall of The Dinosaurs Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2023-04-01 | Virtual Speaker Series March 2023. Steve Brusatte "The Rise and Fall of The Dinosaurs"The dinosaurs ruled the Earth for over 150 million years--evolving into spectacular giants like Brontosaurus and T. rex. In this talk, paleontologist Steve Brusatte, author of the bestselling book The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, will recount the complete story of where dinosaurs came from, how they rose up to dominance, how most of them went extinct when a giant asteroid hit, and how some of them lived on as today's birds. At a time when Homo sapiens has existed for less than 200,000 years and we are already talking about planetary extinction, dinosaurs are timely reminder of what humans can learn from the magnificent creatures that ruled the earth before us.
Taia Wyenberg-Henzler Baby Dinosaurs Who Dont Share: Diet Competition in Juvenile Dinosaurs Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2023-03-12 | Virtual Speaker Series March 2023. Taia Wyenberg-Henzler "Baby Dinosaurs Who Don't Share: Diet Competition in Juvenile Dinosaurs" Communities from the Late Cretaceous of North America are comprised a variety of dinosaurs including a wide array of greater than 1000 kg herbivores (megaherbivores) including the ‘horned’ ceratopsids and ‘duck-billed’ hadrosaurids. Previous research has indicated that so many large dinosaurs were able to coexist via resource partitioning wherein each group ate different plants from other groups. This research focused on interactions between adults and did not consider the influence smaller dinosaurs (small dinosaur species and juvenile megaherbivores) had on Late Cretaceous ecosystems. Here I will be presenting the work from my MSc research which focused on how diet may have changed as hadrosaurids and ceratopsids grew and how these juvenile forms interacted with similar-sized adults of smaller herbivores. Several changes observed in the skull suggest that these dinosaurs selectively fed on low-growing soft vegetation when they were young and gradually incorporated tougher, higher growing vegetation as they matured. Through time, the roles played by juvenile megaherbivores and leptoceratopsids shifted away from those of their ancestors in order to facilitate resource partitioning between these groups. Consideration of browse profiles for the particularly species-rich Dinosaur Park Formation of southern Alberta reveal that yearling hadrosaurids were the greatest resource hogs of all, accounting most of the browsing pressure below 1 m. Shifts in diet during growth would have had important implications for dinosaur community structure and illuminate the importance of considering life history in studies of ecological interactions. For more information, links to Taia's research papers are here:tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08912963.2021.2010191sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195667122000416
Eileen Straube Reefs Through Time Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2023-02-25 | Virtual Speaker Series February 2023. Eileen Straube (Germany) "Reefs Through Time"
Dr. Hallie Street How the West Was Swum: The Marine Reptiles of Western Canada’s Cretaceous Seas Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2023-01-15 | Virtual Speaker Series January 2023 - Dr. Hallie Street 'How the West Was Swum: The Marine Reptiles of Western Canada’s Cretaceous Seas'
Dr. Emily Bamforth From Deinonychus to the Dinner Table - Virtual Speaker Series Talk Nov. 2022 Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2022-11-25 | 'From Deinonychus to the Dinner Table: The Link Between Birds and Dinosaurs.'
Joe Moysiuk - What New Burgess Shale Fossil Discoveries Tell Us About the Origin of Arthropods Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2022-04-24 | The half-billion-year-old Burgess Shale in Yoho National Park, BC provides a snapshot of life in the aftermath of the “Cambrian explosion” and the establishment of all major animal body plans. Joe will introduce new discoveries from the famous Canadian fossil site, focusing on radiodonts, the group that includes the iconic Anomalocaris. While long considered to be potentially informative about the origin of arthropods – whose myriad modern representatives include insects, spiders, and crabs – radiodont fossils are rare and usually fragmentary, and their bizarre form has in the past led to their characterization as nearly inscrutable “weird wonders.” However, new advances in understanding radiodont morphology, ecology, and development, are unlocking their potential as a model group for illuminating evolution at the origin of a major body plan.Joe Moysiuk is a palaeontology PhD Candidate and Vanier Scholar at the University of Toronto (Ecology & Evolutionary Biology) and Royal Ontario Museum, supervised by Dr. Jean-Bernard Caron. Following many years of interest in Ontario’s rich fossil record, Joe first joined the ROM Invertebrate Palaeontology section in 2012 as a high school intern and subsequently completed his BSc at the U of T (Departments of EEB and Earth Sciences). His research currently focusses on exceptionally preserved arthropod fossils from the world-renowned Burgess Shale (B.C. Canada), with field work taking him to remote parts of the Canadian Rockies for several past summers.
Julius Csotonyi - “PALEOART AND SCIENCE: MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL ENDEAVORS” Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2022-01-30 | “Paleoart and Science: Mutually Beneficial Endeavors” discusses how “Rapid developments in global communication and travel have substantially raised the value of scientific illustration (and especially paleoart) to both scientists and museum exhibit teams because of its potential for effective public outreach. This generates an interesting niche for those with backgrounds in both art and science. Using an image-packed presentation from my experience in paleoart, I’ll discuss the mutual benefits of scientific illustration and scientific investigation to each other. The ways in which I have incorporated paleontology, paleobotany, and ecology into my artwork will receive special focus, including mural work that I completed for the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum.”Julius Cstonyi is a freelance natural history illustrator and biological sciences graduate. Having achieved a MSc of Ecology and Environmental Biology (University of Alberta), and a PhD in microbiology (University of Manitoba), he has published scientific papers on mutualisms in Utah and unusual bacteria at alien-looking deep ocean hydrothermal volcanic vents. This scientific background has impelled him to strive to restore as realistically as possible the curiously alien environments that earth has hosted in its deep past. He has collaborated on projects with several major museums and book publishers from around the globe, including the National Geographic Society and the Royal Tyrrell Museum, working closely with scientists, and drawing on my own scientific background. He even did most of the palaeoart for our very own Philip J Currie Dinosaur Museum. His artwork has appeared in numerous books and is currently featured in “The Paleoart of Julius Csotonyi” (Csotonyi and White, 2014) and also in “Dinosaur Art: The World’s Greatest Paleoart” (White, 2012). In addition to book and museum projects, he also accepts private commissions of artwork in a wide range of digital and traditional media. He has been honoured with the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology’s Lanzendorf PaleoArt Prize for 2-Dimensional Art three times (2010, 2012, 2014).
Dr. Aly Baumgartner - “MIOCENE APES AND TREE TIME MACHINES” Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2021-12-05 | Humans have long been interested in where we come from and Rusinga Island, Kenya has many answers. Fossils from this Early Miocene fossil site have taught us about our evolutionary history for decades, but one thing has been missing: the context. Plants are more than just the green background in pictures of fossil animals; these “tree time machines” allow us to understand the world our earliest ancestors lived in and what drove their evolution.Dr. Baumgartner grew up in a small town in Michigan and always knew she would be a paleontologist. After receiving her B.S. in Environmental Science from the University of Michigan, her plan of studying mammoths and mastodons was sidetracked when she undertook a paleobotany project for her master’s thesis in Biology at East Tennessee State University. After that she was hooked on fossil plants, earning her Ph.D. in Geology from Baylor University. Though her day job as the Paleontology Collections Manager at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History mostly involves taking care of fossil animals, plants are closest to her heart.
Dr. Michael Ryan - “THE HORNED DINOSAURS OF CANADA” Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2021-10-24 | The horned dinosaurs were one of the most common dinosaurs in the Late Cretaceous of North America. They range in size from the enigmatic, dog sized Gryphoceratops from the Milk River region of Alberta to the giant Triceratops that roamed across western North America just prior to great dinosaur extinction at the end of the Cretaceous. Much of our understanding of the evolution and diversity of horned dinosaurs comes from discoveries made in Alberta over the last 100 years. In this talk you’ll learn about some of that history, some of the spectacular new horned dinosaurs named in the past ten years, and learn the answer to the classic question: who would win in a battle between T. rex and Triceratops?Dr. Ryan is a dinosaur palaeontologist currently holding the position of Adjunct Research Professor in the Dept. of Earth Sciences at Carleton University (Ottawa) where he co-supervises undergraduate and graduate students. He also teaches the vertebrate paleontology field course as well as the in-demand Dinosaurs course to more than 400 students each year.He previously held positions as Curator and Head of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and Director of Education and Public Programs at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology.His research involves the systematics, taphonomy and palaeoecology of Late Cretaceous dinosaur faunas of western North America and Mongolia, with a specialization in Ceratopsia (horned dinosaurs). His primary research is conducted through his Southern Alberta Dinosaur Project that he co-leads with Dr. David Evans (ROM/U of Toronto). This long-term project is investigating the patterns of dinosaur evolution, ecology, and biogeography during the Late Cretaceous.Over his career, Ryan has lead or co-lead expeditions in Canada, the United States, Mongolia, Greenland, South America and Africa. In addition to authoring more than 200 research papers and conference presentations, he has described more than 20 new dinosaur species and other fossil vertebratesRyan’s non-scientific work includes co-creating and writing SubHuman (Dark Horse Comics) and working with LucasFilm to relocate the original filming locations in Tunisia for Star Wars: A New Hope. He co-produced a documentary of that adventure, Journey to Tatooine, that was released in 2018 after a successful Kickstarter campaign.
Dr. Anthony Fiorillo - LATE CRETACEOUS DINOSAURIAN WORLD OF ANIAKCHAK NATIONAL MONUMENT, ALASKA Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2021-10-17 | While there are now numerous records of dinosaurs from Cretaceous rocks around the state of Alaska, a comparable fossil record of terrestrial vertebrates from the southwestern part of the state is poorly known. Recent field work in Aniakchak National Monument, in southwestern Alaska has revealed over 100 new track sites, dramatically increasing the dinosaur record from this vast region. These tracks are in the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Chignik Formation representing shallow marine to nearshore marine environments in the lower part and continental alluvial coastal plain environments in the upper part of the section.Most of the combined record of tracks can be attributed to hadrosaurs, the plant-eating duck-billed dinosaurs ranging in size from those made by full-grown adults to juveniles. Other tracks can be attributed to armored dinosaurs, meat-eating dinosaurs, and two kinds of fossil birds. The track size of the predatory dinosaur suggests a body approximately 6-7 m long, about the estimated size of the North Slope tyrannosaurid Nanuqsaurus. The larger bird tracks resemble Magnoavipes denaliensis previously described from Denali National Park, while the smaller bird tracks were made by a bird about the size of a modern Willet.
Dr. Federico Fanti - “FOLDED, CRUSHED, AND UNDERWATER: THE NEW ITALIAN DINOSAURS” Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2021-09-22 | Since 2006 Federico Fanti has been involved – with particular efforts in field-oriented research – in important projects related to a broad spectrum of primarily Mesozoic deposits and associated faunas in throughout North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. The long-term goal of his research is to investigate how local or large-scale palaeocological dynamics as documented in sedimentary rocks drive evolutionary patterns in the fossil record via adaptations/extinction events. Having earned his Ph.D. in Earth Sciences in 2009 Dr. Fanti is currently Associate Professor in paleontology at the Alma Mater Studiorum, Bologna University in Italy. In 2017 he was chosen as one of the Emerging Explorer from the National Geographic Society.“When I was a kid, Italy had no dinosaurs. Period. No wonders why I’ve been travelling around the planet looking for bones and traces of ancient worlds. Luckily things are changing, and my home country is no longer a ‘white spot’ on the dinosaur hunters maps. It all started with amazing discoveries, new species, complete skeletons of delicate animals that died during the Cretaceous. But all were isolated lucky strikes. Now we finally found a site that preserves more individuals of the same species and important clues to reconstruct a lost ecosystem.”
Kat Schroeder - “THE INFLUENCE OF JUVENILE DINOSAURS ON COMMUNITY STRUCTURE & DIVERSITY” Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2021-08-08 | Large carnivorous dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus rex are some of the most well studied non-avian dinosaurs in all of science, yet relatively little is understood about their interactions with the environment before they grew into their immense adult size. It has been widely speculated that these large, egg-laying animals would have behaved very differently as small, lightly-built juveniles. How did the presence of juvenile megatheropods affect the community, and how may that have led to relatively low dinosaur diversity at global scales? Join Kat as she examines these questions and more!
Mark Powers - EVOLUTION OF EUDROMAEOSAURIA: BIOGEOGRAPHY LED TO STRONG DIVERGENT TRENDS Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2021-07-04 | Mark Powers is a Canadian PhD student studying vertebrate palaeontology at the University of Alberta. He completed his master’s degree at the University of Alberta under the supervision of Dr. Philip Currie. During Mark’s master’s studies he researched dromaeosaurid (raptor dinosaurs) evolution and ecology. His thesis focused on the trends in snout shapes through evolution and included the description of a new species of Velociraptor. His PhD studies are focused on the evolution of snake lizards leading up to the modern diversity, including how the advent of macrostomy (the ability to consume massive prey) evolved.Dromaeosaurids are famously known as ‘raptors’ to most. They are some of the most iconic theropod dinosaurs due to their ferocious image complete with sharp serrated teeth and the striking raptorial foot claw. The claw has been hypothesized to be their primary weapon in taking down prey, however, examination of snout morphology across the group suggests it was the primary tool, more in line with other carnivorous animals. The shape of snouts and available prey may be correlated and responsible for driving evolutionary change in raptor dinosaurs. Follow Mark as he guides you through the series of changes these iconic dinosaurs made to adapt to various ecosystems throughout the Cretaceous.
Dr. Aaron LeBlanc - HOW TO BECOME A DINOSAUR DENTIST: NEW DISCOVERIES BY STUDYING ANCIENT TEETH Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2021-06-20 | Dinosaurs are our favourite extinct animals, and their teeth are particularly important for understanding how and what they ate. But at a fundamental level, dinosaur teeth were made from the same tissues as our teeth. We know this, because we can make microscopic sections of their teeth and can look inside them at high magnification. By combining the study of fossil teeth with the centuries-old profession of dentistry, scientists can now better understand how different species dealt with the problems of tooth wear, grinding tough plant material, or slicing through meat. The future of this budding field is bright and could lead to surprising avenues of research in oral medicine.
Dr. Oksana Vernygora – FOSSIL RECORD OF CLUPEOMORPH FISHES IN ALBERTA Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2021-05-09 | Dr. Oksana Vernygora was born and grew up in Ukraine where she did my BSc degree in Aquatic Bioresources with an undergraduate honours thesis on the evolutionary relationships of the local species of shads (genus Alosa). Right after that (in 2011) she moved to the USA (Naperville, Illinois). There, Oksana went to North Central College to take various classes in genetics, virology, ecology, computer science, etc. to explore her research interests. By the end of her ‘exploration’ year, she knew that she wanted to continue research on the evolutionary relationships of fishes. In 2013, she was accepted to the MSc program at the University of Alberta in Dr. Alison Murray’s lab to do research on the evolution and systematics of the Ellimmichthyiformes (Clupeomorpha). In 2015, Oksana defended her MSc and started a PhD program in the same lab but now expanding her research question to include living and extinct members of the entire Clupeomorpha (herrings, sardines, anchovies, etc.). Oksana defended her PhD in August 2020 and moved to the US to work on the postdoctoral project developing diagnostic genomic markers for agricultural pests (specifically, mexican fruit fly). Her research interests include morphological and molecular phylogenetics, teleost systematic and evolution, and species delimitation.
Filippo Bertozzo - PATHOLOGIES OUT OF TIME – FOSSILISED LESIONS IN HADROSAURS AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2021-04-25 | Extracting reliable ecological and behavioural data from fossilized lesions and diseases is one of the major challenges in dinosaur paleopathology. To understand the aetiology and the development of such ailments, and therefore improve our pathological interpretations, first, we need to build a comparative database as comprehensive as possible. Hadrosauridae ranks among the most promising clades for such an endeavor, as this family of ornithischian dinosaurs shows one of the highest frequencies of preserved injuries in their bones. These dinosaurs represent thus an ideal starting point for such an investigation. What kind of pathologies can we find? How much do the frequencies of these pathologies vary between hadrosaurids and other ornithopods? What are their possible ecological implications?Please join us as we bravely venture into the difficult times of the Mesozoic era to reconstruct the troubled lives of giants past!
Dr. Thomas Holtz – TYRANNOSAURID ONTOGENETIC NICHE SHIFTS IN LIGHT OF THEROPOD GUILD HISTORY Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2021-04-11 | TEEN TYRANTS IN A GIG ECOLOGY: TYRANNOSAURID ONTOGENETIC NICHE SHIFTS IN LIGHT OF THEROPOD GUILD HISTORYTyrannosaurus and its relatives are impressive giants as adults, but each of these hatched out of an egg much smaller than a human being. Over their lifespan the adaptations and ecological role of tyrannosaurs changed dramatically. How were the experiences similar, and how did they differ, from the experiences of other giant meat-eating dinosaurs, which typically lived in ecosystems with far more diversity of flesh-eaters than the world of the tyrants?
Dr. Greg Funston - BABY TYRANNOSAURS FROM ALBERTA & MONTANA Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2021-03-28 | Tyrannosaurs are among the best known theropod dinosaurs, but little is known of the first stages of their lives. The recent discovery of two embryonic tyrannosaur bones gives us our first look at these tiny tyrants, and an opportunity to learn more about the palaeobiology of tyrannosaurs. Join Dr. Greg Funston as he takes you behind-the-scenes of the discovery into the fieldwork and research that unveiled these exceptional fossils—and what else they may tell us in the future!
Nathan Enriquez – DINOSAURS IN THE GRANDE PRAIRIE AREA & PALAEONTOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF FOOTPRINTS Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2021-03-14 | Tracks have long been recognized for their ability to provide valuable information on the behavioural, palaeoenvironmental and palaeoecological aspects of dinosaur biology. Such insights complement the skeletal record and provide evidence for hypotheses that are otherwise difficult to investigate using just bones, such as the occurrence of herding behaviours, associations between trackmakers and particular environments, and estimations of dinosaur speeds and gaits. This talk will discuss these concepts by evaluating a large footprint locality along the Redwillow River near Grande Prairie in Alberta, Canada. The site preserves the most abundant record of dinosaur footprints within the Grande Prairie area, and more broadly, provides an important supplement to our understanding of the palaeoecology of dinosaurs within western North America during the Late Cretaceous.
Michael Hudgins - FROM NEGLECTED TO APPRECIATED: THE PALEOBIOLOGY & EVOLUTION OF THESCELOSAURIDS. Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2021-02-21 | The dinosaurian group Thescelosauridae lived in the Late Cretaceous. This diverse, but poorly studied, group of small-bodied herbivores existed in North America and Asia. In the past, thescelosaurids have often been neglected in paleontological research. However, with recent discoveries on the paleobiology, paleoecology, behavior, and evolution of thescelosaurids, we are expanding our knowledge on a forgotten, yet fascinating group of dinosaurs!!
Alexis Bazinet - BIRD FOSSIL FEATHERS FROM THE MCABEE FOSSIL BEDS Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2021-02-07 | The McAbee fossil beds, presently a formation of dry cliffs near Cache Creek, BC, capture the story of an ancient lake during the early Eocene epoch, approximately 52 million years ago. The Leahy-Langevin Collection donated to the Royal BC Museum contains about 150(+) isolated bird fossil feathers of varying types, sizes, and preservation quality. Only two partial bird skeletons were recovered from the site, so by studying the anatomy of these fossil feathers, we hope to learn more about the biodiversity of extinct birds.Please come join us for a behind-the-scenes look at these fossil feather images and remote scientific research!
Jared Voris - A DYNASTY RECORDED IN STONE: ALBERTA’S FOSSIL RECORD OF TYRANNOSAUR DINOSAURS Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2021-01-24 | Tyrannosaurids were gigantic meat-eating dinosaurs, well-known for their big heads, powerful jaws, and tiny, two fingered front limbs. The fossil record of Alberta boasts a particularly diverse assemblage of tyrannosaurs that includes six named species as well as several nearly complete skeletons. Because of the completeness of this record, much of what we know of tyrannosaur biology can be attributed to discoveries from Alberta.Join as we talk about some of these discoveries, what they tell us about the life and history of tyrannosaurs, and what future discoveries may teach us!
The Journey of a Fossil Part 3: The Gallery Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2020-12-23 | Join us as we follow the journey that fossils take through different areas of the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum, and see how these departments compare to similar workplaces!
The Journey of a Fossil Part 2: The Collections Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2020-12-20 | Join us as we follow the journey that fossils take through different areas of the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum, and see how these departments compare to similar workplaces!
The Journey of a Fossil Part 1: The Laboratory Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2020-12-18 | Join us as we follow the journey that fossils take through different areas of the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum, and see how these departments compare to similar workplaces!
Melina Jobbins - FIRST AFRICAN THYLACOCEPHALANS FROM A LATE DEVONIAN LAGERSTÄTTE Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2020-12-06 | A lagerstätte is a site with excellent fossil preservation and one of these most famous sites include the British Columbian Burgess shale. Join us to take a look at a recently discovered lagerstätte from the Late Devonian of the Moroccan Anti Atlas. Abundant in sharks, placoderms and invertebrates, it is most famous for its richness in small crustaceans called thylacocephalans. Come and learn about this small underrated group of extinct arthropods and their first African occurrence in this Moroccan site!
Darren Tanke - EFFORTS TO RELOCATE LOST 100+ YEAR DINOSAUR QUARRIES IN BADLANDS OF SOUTHERN ALBERTA Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2020-11-29 | Alberta has a long legacy of dinosaur discoveries going back to the 1870’s. Intensive fieldwork was done prior to WWII when most of the dinosaurs familiar to Alberta were collected. For reasons unknown, the early dinosaur collectors, while collecting many important specimens, were bad at recording exactly where they came from. This type of information is critical in modern studies such as dinosaur evolution and biostratigraphy. Some sites were marked with a brass and iron quarry stake set in concrete, but many were not marked in any way. These lost quarries, now largely eroded away, can still be relocated using maps, old field photographs, bones left on site, and datable garbage. The talk will discuss the importance and methodology of the project and recovery of an absolutely spectacular, complete ankylosaur tail club from a quarry worked in 1913-1914!
Aaron Dyer - THE PROBLEMATIC PACHYCEPHALOSAURID GRAVITHOLUS ALBERTAE Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2020-11-08 | The only known specimen of the dome-headed dinosaur Gravitholus albertae represents an incomplete and heavily fused skull. This fusion has inhibited a detailed description and comparison of G. albertae to other dome-headed species. Thus the taxonomic validity of G. albertae has remained unstable. In this presentation, I will show how Synchrotron micro-CT images allow us to identify and separate the cranial bone of G. albertae, then re-evaluate the validity of this taxon. I hope this isn’t anyone’s favourite species of dinosaur…
Yan-yin Wang - UNCINATE IN ARCHOSAURS, A TALE OF CAPTAIN HOOK IN THE FOSSIL RECORD Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2020-10-31 | UNCINATE IN ARCHOSAURS, A TALE OF CAPTAIN HOOK IN THE FOSSIL RECORDArchosaurs are a major group of vertebrates that include living birds crocodylians, and fossil dinosaurs. On several dorsal ribs in living birds and crocodylians, we can find uncinates, which are hook-like or tab like protrusions located at the back side of the ribs. We use anatomical and histological methods to identify the presence of uncinates in fossil archosaurs. The data we have been collecting from North American and Chinese archosaurs suggest that uncinate is likely a feature shared by many if not all archosaurs.
Bray Holland - REDISCOVERING THE LOST DINOSAUR BABIES OF THE SPRING CREEK BONEBED Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2020-10-18 | The Late Cretaceous deposits of the Grande Prairie area are a largely untapped palaeontological resource in comparison to the famous southern Alberta strata. Recently, the Boreal Alberta Dinosaur Project (BADP) rediscovered a dinosaur bonebed, the Spring Creek Bonebed, which was lost due to riverbank slumping in the early 2000s. The BADP team recovered hundreds of specimens from juvenile lambeosaurine dinosaurs (Ornithischia: Hadrosauridae) in 2018 and 2019. The Spring Creek bonebed marks the first description of lambeosaurines from the Grande Prairie area, and the exclusive preservation of juveniles raises some interesting insights into the life histories of hadrosaurids.
Robin Sissons - PREPARING AND VISUALISING FOSSILS, CHIPPINGS & SCRIBBLINGS Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2020-09-26 | Take a look into the process of fossil preparation and other techniques used to acquire, analyze, and preserve data from specimens. There is a lot of work that is done to a specimen after it is removed from the ground, and before it can be used in research, display, and education. Take a behind-the-scenes tour of some of this work, and learn a little bit about how fossils are then visualized in different ways to communicate findings to the scientific community as well as to the general public.
Rebekah Vice - NEW INSIGHTS FROM THE PIPESTONE CREEK BONEBED Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2020-08-22 | Wembley, Alberta is home to one of the densest dinosaur bonebeds in the world – the Pipestone Creek Bonebed. First discovered in the 1970’s, Pipestone is the only site with remains of the horned dinosaur Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai. Over the decades, hundreds of elements have been collected from the site, and thousands more remain to be excavated. With new discoveries happening every year we are constantly expanding our knowledge of the bonebed and the dinosaurs discovered there. Come learn what makes Pachyrhinosaurus so special, and how it is changing the way we perceive horned dinosaurs!
Dr. Jingmai OConnor - THE EVOLUTION OF DINOSAURIAN FLIGHT &THE RISE OF BIRDS Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2020-08-09 | For a long time the evolution of birds and the evolution of flight in dinosaurs were essentially the same question. However, recent discoveries have decoupled these two questions, strongly suggesting flight evolved multiple times in the Dinosauria. In the Mesozoic birds were only one group of flying dinosaurs – early birds were very different from modern birds. Exceptional discoveries from China reveal the evolution of the key features that differentiate crown birds from all other amniotes.
Dr. Grant Zazula - WHAT ICE AGE FOSSIL FROM YUKON TELL US ABOUT PAST GLOBAL WARMING Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2020-08-02 | THE LAST INTEGLACIATION IN BERINGIA: WHAT ICE AGE FOSSIL FROM YUKON TELL US ABOUT PAST GLOBAL WARMINGSince their initial discovery during the famed Klondike Gold Rush, the Yukon Territory remains Canada’s most impressive region for research on fossils of Pleistocene mammals. From radiocarbon dating and stable isotopes to the analysis of ancient genomes – the interdisciplinary study of these fossil reveals important clues about how mammal communities responded to dramatic oscillations in climate during the recent geological past. In particular, fossils of particularly rare and strange North American species in the far North provide a dramatic backdrop to examine present day biogeographic range changes occuring in extant mammal communities.Dr. Grant Zazula has been the Yukon Government palaeontologist since 2006 and conducts a wide variety of interdiscplinary palaeontological research on Northern Canada’s vast record of ancient mammals.
Dr. Emily Bamforth - CANADA ROCKS! CANADA’S 10 GREATEST PALEONTOLOGICAL AND GEOLOGICAL TREASURES Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2020-07-26 | CANADA ROCKS! CANADA’S 10 GREATEST PALEONTOLOGICAL AND GEOLOGICAL TREASURESDid you know Canada is home to 4.3 billion year old rocks, the world’s largest visible impact crater, and one of the best dinosaur fossil sites on Earth? Canada is geographically huge, which means that it contains a lot of rock and these rocks contain vast amounts of information about our geological past. Come learn about 10 of the coolest geological and paleontology places in the country, and find out why Canada Rocks!
Happy Holidays from the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2019-12-16 | Happy holidays from the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum! Thank you for a wonderful 2019, and we'll see you in 2020!
Final Countdown Parkour Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2019-08-20 | It's the final countdown... these dino's are almost ready to race! Watch these dino's outrace extinction this Sunday for free and bet on your favourite dino for $5.dinomuseum.ca/events/dino-derby
Shoulder time Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2019-08-19 | Who will outlast? Who will be victorious? Find out this Sunday, September 25, 2019! LAST DAY TO REGISTER IS TUESDAY, AUGUST 20. dinomuseum.ca/events/dino-derby
Gains for Days Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum 2019-08-16 | Today's Forecast: 100% chance of gains for the Dino Derby. Never skip leg day!dinomuseum.ca/events/dino-derby
