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The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology (near Drumheller) – The
Royal Tyrrell Museum, (four miles from Drumheller, along the North Dinosaur
Trail) is one of the largest palaeontological museums in the world, with
over 200 dinosaur specimens on display. It was named for Joseph Burr Tyrrell,
who found the first dinosaur skeleton in the Drumheller area in 1884. The museum traces the origin of life on Earth from 3.5 billion years
ago, to the present with displays of 800 fossil specimens. |
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The
real fun is that you get all this in a lot of different ways: there are
slide shows, video mini-theatres, computer stations and hands-on scientific
experiments. |
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Don’t
miss the Cretaceous Garden, an indoor garden, housing plants that
grew in Alberta when it had a semi-tropical climate 65 million years ago.
There’s also the Burgess Shale, an undersea environment from 530
million years ago: this display makes you a part of the environment. Dinosaur Hall and Ice Ages exhibits have stunning displays
of fossil skeletons! |
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Historic Atlas Coal Mine (east of Drumheller) – Step into the life of a 1930's coal miner (teenagers worked the mines too).
Climb up the 8 story high wooden tipple for screening and loading coal,
and follow the kid's guide map through the site – mine offices, blacksmith shop, wash house, miner's shack, graveyard. Along
the way there are things for kids to do – lower miner's baskets up and down, climb on pint-sized
locomotives, screen coal with a shaker screen, parents can push your kids
in an empty coal car (or bigger kids can push the car for themselves, to
see what it was like for real). There are puppet shows (e.g. the day the
pit pony saved the mine), story telling, and people dressed up in costume – find out how far your miner's paycheck would go. Open May – Sept. |
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Dinosaur Provincial Park (near Brooks) – The Dinosaur Provincial Park, a World Heritage Site, is the heart of the
""Great Canadian Dinosaur Rush," where amazing dinosaur fossils
were excavated in the early 1900's. Not a large park (73 sq. km.), about
two-thirds of it is a Natural Preserve you can explore on interpretive bus
tours and hikes through the “badlands.”
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Field Station Visitor Centre – Stop in the visitor center for maps, and don't miss the exhibits – dinosaur skeletons, cast of a big dinosaur footprint, mural of what Alberta
looked like 75 million years ago, and watch paleontologists at work in the
lab. |
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Guided walking tours include the “Fossil Safari Hike”,
a 2.5 hour interpretive walk through a fossil site, where you’ll see fossils
and learn about the dinosaurs who once roamed here. Or join a 45 minute
“Lab Talk” tour where you’ll meet paleontologists in the Preparation
Lab. |
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Or, if you'd rather go it alone, there are two outdoor dinosaur
display buildings and several self-guided walking trails (some are
accessible with strollers). Take the Badlands Trail for an easy walk
among the "hoodoos" and other rock formations. Budding paleontologists
will want to follow the Trail of the Fossil Hunters, where tons of
fossils were excavated. Or, just bring a picnic and sit under the trees
on the Cottonwood Flats Trail. |
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A
delightful rhyming story, on a moonlit night the Drumheller dinosaur
fossils of Dinosaur Valley stir their bones and skeleton-crawl across
the Badlands to "dance back to life with a clickity-clap."
Irresistible illustrations – dinosaur fossils will never be the
same. (Picture book)
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Essential
guide to dinosaurs excavated in Alberta and other parts of Canada.
All about dinosaur hunting, recent discoveries, and "Dino Profiles"
of dinosaurs – Tyrannosaurus, feathered dinosaurs, Triceratops, Anklyosaurus, duckbill dinosaurs, and more. Good for older
kids. (Illustrated chapter book)
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Before you go
to Dinosaur Provincial Park, read about Albertosaurus, a
young tyrannosaur discovered in the park in 1991. In-depth info
about Albertosaurus – birth, parental care, siblings, hunting
for food ("one big hungry family,") as well as the fossil
excavation and skeleton reconstruction. (Chapter book, illustrations)
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Combination
book and three-dimensional model, each page reveals Tyrannosaurus
rex, layer by layer – skeletal system (what were those tiny
arms used for?), lungs and heart, stomachs (probably 2), nervous
system and muscles. Puts some meat on those fossil bones. (Picture
book)
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Whisked back in time, Emily and Matt meet up with Canadian dinosaurs – plant-eating Maiasaura mother and baby, a herd of duck-billed Lambeosaurus, Parkosaurus (named for a Canadian paleontologist), heavy stepping Edmontosaurus, and a very hungry Tyrannosaurus rex. (Chapter book)
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You'll
see plenty of dinosaurs at the Royal Tyrrell Museum, but here's
your chance to create your own prehistoric "species."
What happens when you cross a Triceratops with a Diplodocus and a Gallimimus? Fun for everyone. (Picture book)
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(More children's
books on other Alberta pages) |
