Canada's First Known Dinosaurs: Palaeontology and Collecting History of Upper Cretaceous Vertebrates in Southern Alberta and Saskatchewan, 1874–1889

Abstract

The early collecting history of dinosaurs and other fossil vertebrates in Western Canada during the 1870s and 1880s is poorly documented. Initial finds were made by the British North American Boundary Commission and the Geological Survey of Canada in modern Saskatchewan and Alberta but, beyond a few well-publicized examples, little is known about precisely what was found and where. Much of the collected material is now housed in the collections of the Canadian Museum of Nature in Gatineau, Quebec, and a recent survey of these historic finds allows for the first comprehensive narrative regarding their identity and procurement. The collection is heavily biased towards vertebral centra and phalanges, reflective of both taphonomic and collecting biases. Given current understanding of Upper Cretaceous assemblages of North America, ornithomimids and small theropods are overrepresented, whereas ceratopsids and ankylosaurs are underrepresented. Fossils from the Belly River Group are best represented, after repeated visits to the areas of present-day Dinosaur Provincial Park and Ross Coulee near Irvine, Alberta. Taxonomic identification of the material has yielded numerous first Canadian occurrences, in addition to some first global occurrences. The latter include the first ever occurrences of Caenagnathidae (1884) and Thescelosauridae (1889). The Upper Cretaceous fossil record of Western Canada is among the richest in the world, and has been thoroughly studied over the last century. These fossils have informed our understanding of dinosaur behaviour, taphonomy, ecology, diversity dynamics, and extinction, among other aspects. But, like the animals themselves, the story of Canada's dinosaur-hunting legacy had humble beginnings—a story that has not been fully revealed before now.

A new elasmosaurid (Sauropterygia: Plesiosauria) from the non-marine to paralic Dinosaur Park Formation of southern Alberta, Canada

“…The plesiosaurian remains from the DPF were first collected in 1898 and recognized by Lambe (1902) from exposures within DPP, and his description of these fossils was the first ever made for an elasmosaurid from Canada ( Christison, Tanke & Mallon, 2020 ). However, the earliest-known collection of elasmosaurid fossils from Canada was made in 1881 in southeastern Alberta and likely derived from the lower Campanian Eagle Sandstone Formation ( Christison, Tanke & Mallon, 2020 ). Despite the fact that this material represented a rare example of plesiosaurian remains from non-marine sediments (see Supplemental File 1 for summary list of non-marine plesiosaurian occurrences), it received relatively little research attention for over a century.…”

Our past creates our present: a brief overview of racism and colonialism in Western paleontology

“…Here, we define biological specimens as both extinct (including fossilized) and extant organisms that were collected for the express purpose of furthering scientific exploration and scholarship. Throughout modern history, Western science has directly benefited from the extraction of biological specimens born out of colonialist expansion (Sheets-Pyenson 1986; Roy 2018; Chakrabarti 2019; Christison et al 2020; see also Fagan 2007). These specimens formed the foundations of new theories and subdisciplines of scientific thought (Stix 2009), including scientific racism (Curtin 1960).…”

Evolution of Hadrosaurs in the Campanian of Laramidia: New Information from the Skull Roof and Braincase

“…This thesis focuses on the skull roof and braincase anatomy of hadrosaurs from the Campanian of Alberta, Canada, and Montana, USA. This area has among the longest histories of hadrosaur fossil collecting and research (Christison et al 2020), and has produced excellent material of many famous taxa. During the Campanian (late Late Cretaceous; 83.6-72.1 million years ago), North America was divided by the north-south Western Interior Seaway, with the western land mass forming the continent Laramidia.…”