Drumheller 2022 part 2 - Royal Tyrrell Museum

 

Continuing on from my last post, we had arrived at the Royal Tyrrell Museum after driving around Drumheller.

Before even entering the door, we were greeted by a family of centrosaurs. 

COVID restrictions were eased just enough that I was able to go maskless, at least when I felt comfortable and wasn't surrounded by the many school-age fieldtrippers walking around.

The first half of the museum was wall-to-wall fossils, most of which were original samples, directly from Alberta or neighbouring provinces or territories. Some were used to explain concepts like fossilization or evolution, and some were even displayed alongside the full story about where and how they were found. Most of those were found buy local workers who stumbled on the fossil and called the museum.

They had ammonite shells, fossilized skin, "Black Beauty", the world's heaviest Tyrannosaur. They even had a sample of fossilized bird tracks!

The museum then gave visitors a behind-the-scenes look at their collections and specimens, with some laid out, and a window looking at a couple guys working on fossils, one of a hadrosaur (duck-billed dino), the other a marine reptile!

What amazed me here was the thought of how close I came to studying Paleontology before taking Scriptwriting.

A small paleoart exhibit separated this from the second half of the museum, a massive walk through the eons, collections of fossils based around each major period of life on Earth.

First came aquatic life, including giant armoured fish!, and amphibians.

Then came the dinosaurs!

This is Humphrey, who appeared in the original Jurassic Park!

The end of this particular hall marked the end of the dinosaurs, with a small exhibit about their extinction, and a sample of the K-pg barrier.

The thin silvery layer in the middle marks the comet that hit Earth

Finally, the mammals.

Entelodont aka Terror pig!

Earliest ancestor of a whale!

Since most of these creatures were pretty big, there was an interactive exhibit where people could compare their weight to that of an existing organism. I weigh as much as a corpse flower! 

Some awesome Ice Age specimens closed out the area.

Then I tried not to go too crazy at the gift shop, coming away with two t-shirts, a couple postcards, two of which we mailed to my mother and sister, a shot glass (couldn't leave without one!), a smilodon keychain, dino pig art print, and a plastic dinosaur!

We left the museum, but the experience was far from over. The Royal Tyrrell's grounds had a lot of different walking paths and some lookout points.

One lookout was atop a fairly large hill. It was steep and the wind was kind of intense, so I was white-knuckling the rail the entire way up but, with my Dad in front of me, I made it up and back again!

Climbed it!

The Royal Tyrrell Museum isn't the biggest museum I've been to, but the sheer volume of fossils, samples, and displays, as well as the stuff to do outside the museum, make it one of the more memorable ones.

Next: Dinosaur Provincial Park and the Badlands, or "The most mind-blowing scenery I've ever seen. Also, prairie dogs!"

Cheers