Palaeontology

Monthly Archive: December Pala

The Making of Ultimate Dinosaurs: Giants from Gondwana

Posted: March 2, 2012 - 09:26 , by royal

Contributed by Peter May, President, Research Casting International Ltd.

We held a press preview day at our shop last week to launch the ROM’s major summer exhibition – Ultimate Dinosaurs: Giants from Gondwana. Of the 17 dinosaur skeletons to be exhibited, ten are pretty well finished; just final paint to be applied.

Unearthing the oldest dinosaur nesting site

Posted: January 24, 2012 - 10:11 , by royal

Illustration of a dinosaur nest.

Fig. 1. Reconstruction of a Massospondyus nesting site. Courtesy J. Csotonyi

Opening a Can of Ancient Worms

Posted: January 18, 2012 - 14:23 , by royal

David M. Rudkin, Assistant Curator in Invertebrate Palaeontology, will be presenting at the upcoming  ROM Research Colloquium – join us on February 3 at 11:30am in the Signy & Cléophée Eaton Theatre to hear more about An Embarrassment of Worms: Fossil Priapulida from the Silurian of Ontario … Real and Imagined

Saskatchewan’s newest dinosaur has ROM connection

Posted: November 28, 2011 - 10:48 , by royal
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Today, Caleb Brown and colleagues announced the discovery of Canada’s newest dinosaur, Thescelosaurus assiniboiensis – the first new dinosaur species to be discovered in Saskatchewan since 1926. The new dinosaur is named after the historic District of Assiniboia, where it was found. The small-bodied, two-legged plant-eater lived alongside the famed Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops, at the very end of the age of dinosaurs.

Back in the lab – trying to make heads or tails of it all.

Posted: November 25, 2011 - 09:09 , by royal

After three days of successful fieldwork on the chilly Grand Rapids Uplands, we return – toting a fresh batch of fossils – to The Manitoba Museum in Winnipeg. This is the home turf of my colleague, Graham Young, and almost a second home for me.

Southern Alberta field collection 2011 has arrived!

Posted: November 18, 2011 - 12:00 , by royal

Fossils wrapped in plaster with labels written on the outside

Marked field jackets containing horned dinosaur bones from the McPheeter’s bonebed (MBB) and the South Side Ceratopsian (SSC).

On the Rocks Again — in which a pair of intrepid palaeontologists head for the hinterland.

Posted: November 7, 2011 - 11:59 , by royal

Ah, the romance of fieldwork. There’s nothing quite like waiting for the morning sun to rise high enough to illuminate a cold, wet outcrop, so that one can spend the next 8 or 9 hours kneeling in mud and splitting razor-sharp rock slabs. But we have hot coffee in the thermos, dry gloves in the pack, and — hopefully — there are some new fossils to be found!

Summerasuarus: Dino Storage

Posted: September 21, 2011 - 08:53 , by royal

Recently, we visited at the Vertebrate Palaeontology Lab to see how dinosaur bones are extracted from their plaster field jackets after they are hauled back from the field by palaeontologists like Dr. David Evans.

But where does the ROM store these fossils once they are free from their rock matrix? Welcome to Vertebrate Palaeontology Collections room, housing more than 75,000 fossilized bone specimens ranging in size from small toes to an entire row of Hadrosaur skulls!

From the Field: Farewell Churchill

Posted: September 15, 2011 - 13:37 , by royal

July 27

The weather forecast was pretty much on the money, and a dismal dawn yields to thunder-squalls rolling across the tundra. But, after breakfast and a second cup of coffee, the rain eases and we are a shade more optimistic about our flight out later this morning. Time for one last walkabout of our temporary home.

From the Field: Last day before departure

Posted: September 14, 2011 - 09:03 , by royal

July 26