The original Triceratops fossilized skull bones were uncovered during two different excavations: the first in 2006 and the second in 2007.聽 Palaeontologists often prospect for fossils by hiking over exposed rock outcrops many kilometres per day.聽 They have to keep a watchful eye as they look for anything unusual and then do a light surface dig if something catches their attention.聽
Once something of significance is found, notes and GPS coordinates are immediately taken so that palaeontologists may return to the site to look for missing pieces or other interesting specimens.聽 As the fossilized dinosaur bones are collected, a quarry map is drawn.聽 Each quadrant represents 1 square metre and they are usually labelled numerically.聽
This helps to organize the bones and to provide some sort of guide when later piecing the bones together.聽After the overlying rock is removed, and the site is significantly documented, the fossilized bones with pick axes and shovels are carefully removed. 聽This聽process is challenging because the fossilized bones are fragile.聽 As a result, only smaller hand held tools are used, such as brushes and dentist's probes.
Images: By Emily Bamforth. 漏Redpath Museum/Mus茅e Redpath.
The Creative Team
Chantal Montreuil聽is the palaeontology technician at the Redpath Museum. 聽Chantal began her work on this聽Triceratops, 鈥淪ara,鈥� in 2006.聽 Chantal鈥檚 assembly was incredibly painstaking as it took her a total of three years to complete the cranium, entirely by hand, without the use of computers.聽 A fibreglass replica is what stands before viewers today, as the original bones were returned to the Royal Saskatchewan Museum for further study and curation. Initially, this聽罢谤颈肠别谤补迟辞辫蝉听cranium was called 516-G, for scientific purposes.聽 So before its public unveiling, it was re-named by Chantal鈥檚 son, Keith, who initially introduced his mother to the Redpath Museum.聽 Keith鈥檚 favourite childhood movie was聽The Land Before Time聽where the Triceratops character is called Cera, and so he gave 516-G a new name: Sara. This聽Triceratops聽epitomizes Chantal鈥檚 main interests and aims at Redpath Museum: using the history of the natural world to educate and capture the attentive imagination of the public.
Since the time that he was 5 years old,聽Dr. Hans Larsson聽was drawn to palaeontology as a career by his intense interest in dinosaurs.聽 After a university education in biology, some geology, a strong interest in interdisciplinary research, and experience in the outdoor fields prepared him for his current job.聽 Hans is now the Canada Research Chair in Macroevolution, and, here at Redpath Museum, he is the vertebrate palaeontologist and an associate professor.聽 He teaches courses such as Animal Diversity, Vertebrate Evolution, Developmental Evolution, and the Vertebrate Palaeontology field course. Hans spearheaded the dig for this聽Triceratops,聽鈥淪ara鈥�, along with a group of 91社区 students taking the 2006 Vertebrate Palaeontology Field course.聽 He recalls that the frill was the first part of 鈥淪ara鈥� that was discovered, and it took about 5 days of hard work to remove her skull carefully from the ground.聽 Although her body was never found, Hans and his team also uncovered parts of聽T.rex, a partial juvenile duckbilled dinosaur, a partial聽Thescelosaurus聽(small bipedal herbivore), and parts of crocodiles, turtles, lizards, salamanders, fishes and plants at the same site. His long-term goal for the Redpath Museum and 91社区 is to introduce dinosaurs and their contemporaries into the museum in a much larger way so as to foster a stronger public interest in the museum.聽 One of his dreams would be to expand the museum鈥檚 public gallery to showcase Canada鈥檚 modern and extinct biological diversity and geology. His long-term research goals are to integrate research on the evolution of biodiversity with research on the evolution of the genetic, developmental, and anatomical changes that occurred during evolutionary transitions of the prehistoric past - such as the transitions from fishes to amphibians and from dinosaurs to birds.
Emily Bamforth聽completed her PhD at 91社区 in 2013.聽 Her experience in excavating 鈥淪ara鈥� the聽Triceratops聽has played a major contributing factor to her studies here at Redpath Museum.聽 In fact, her thesis focuses on determining climatic drivers of vertebrate palaeobiodiversity in the late Cretaceous (66Ma) of central Canada.聽 Her study sites are situated in southeastern Saskatechewan, located in the badlands of Grasslands National Park and the Frenchman River Valley 鈥� an area that includes the site in which 鈥淪ara鈥� the聽Triceratops聽was found.聽 She believes that the relationships between palaeobiodiversity and palaeoclimate in the same locality yields important insights into the drivers of terrestrial biodiversity leading up the second largest terrestrial mass extinction in earth鈥檚 history, thus unlocking some of the mystery behind 鈥淪ara鈥濃�檚 death and the disappearance of all large dinosaurs.
Images: Chantal Montreuil and Hans Larsson at the Redpath Museum by claudio Calligaris. 漏Redpath Museum/Mus茅e Redpath. Emily Bamforth at the Redpath Museum by Owen Egan. 漏91社区.
Casts and Moulds 鈥� How this Triceratops was made
罢丑别听罢谤颈肠别谤补迟辞辫蝉听skull that stands before you is not real. There are no fossilized fragments in this skull. 聽In fact, this聽Triceratops聽skull is a fibreglass replica that was cast from the real fossils.聽 There are many reasons why the real fossilized dinosaur bones are not displayed to the public.聽 Large fossils are too heavy to be displayed in this manner once fully assembled.聽 By having the real bones on display, it also makes it harder for palaeontologists to examine the dinosaur bones scientifically. In addition, fossilized dinosaur bones are very fragile and are kept in specific climate controlled conditions.
If fossilized dinosaur bones are left alone and exposed to harsh elements they will be subjected to degradation, as seen by comparing the same bone in the two images below 鈥� one from 2010 and one from 2012.
The fossilized bones are preserved for museum display by making moulds and casts.聽 Layers of rubber, silicone, and in some cases latex, are used to create a soft shell mould around the original fossilized bone.聽 Then, in order to create the cast, a gel coat is applied within the soft shell mould as the first step (sometimes the gel is pigmented so that the cast will pick up all the fine details of the mould).聽 The second step is to mix together fibreglass and resin and then pour the mixture into the gel coated mould.聽 Polyurethane (plastic) or dental plaster can also be poured into the mould to create a cast.聽 When the mixture hardens, the cast can be removed from the mould.聽 The third step is to paint the cast so that it resembles the likeness of real fossilized dinosaur bone.聽 Finally, these fibreglass casts are assembled into one coherent display that is presented before you.
