A dinosaur skull, believed to be from a Pachyrhinosaurus was discovered last week (October 2013) within the Town of Drumheller limits.
On Friday, palaeontologist Dr. Darla Zelenitsky of the University of Calgary and fossil hunter Frank Hadfield were busy freeing the specimen discovered just east of the town past Walmart, but before the water treatment plant.
Palaeontologist Dr. Darla Zelenitsky of the University of Calgary with a recently discovered skull believed to be of a Pachyrhinosaurus. Last week they were busy unearthing the find and preparing it to be moved.
“It is about five feet long what we have preserved,” said Zelenitsky. “There were just some bumps exposed. We worked with a research group from the University of Calgary to get it exposed this week.”
As they worked, they discovered another bone nearby, but now believe it is also part of the skull. The researchers have cleared about a metre around the skull in all directions and believe they have all that is available at the site.
Zelenitsky explained that Hadfield discovered the bone simply hiking through the hills. She came out with a crew to work on exposing the find, removing the overburden and then building a field jacket out of burlap and plaster so it could be safely moved. This week it was freed.
While it will be some time before the find will be properly freed from the rock and prepared, initial observation makes her believe it is of the horned dinosaurs. She believes another Pachyrhinosaurus specimen found in the valley is at the Badlands Historical Society Museum in Downtown Drumheller.
“As far as I know, this is the second one discovered in the area, unless the Tyrrell has one hidden,” said Zelenitsky.
She said it is a herding dinosaur and there have been a number of specimens discovered in a bone bed near Grande Prairie.
“We don’t know the species until we prepare it, but it is definitely a large horned dinosaurs possibly a Pachyrhinosaurus, but we don’t know if it is an existing species or not.”
