Employees from the Philip J. Currie Museum (Wembley, Alberta, Canada) have safely eliminated an enormous Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai fossil cranium from the Pipestone Creek Bonebed. The specimen nicknamed “Large Sam” is estimated to weigh round 2 hundred and seventy kilograms (600 kilos). The well-known Pipestone Creek website is among the densest dinosaur fossil deposits recognized. The stays of tons of of horned dinosaurs (P. lakustai) have been excavated. Elements of the location have round 300 particular person fossils per sq. metre. “Large Sam” is the primary full cranium to have been discovered on the website for greater than a decade,
“Large Sam” the Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai cranium wrapped in plaster and burlap. Image credit score: Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum.
Image credit score: The Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum
The Pipestone Creek Bonebed
The Pipestone Creek bonebed deposits represent a part of the Wapiti Formation. These strata have been laid down throughout the Late Cretaceous. This outstanding website has yielded an distinctive fauna dominated by ample stays of the centrosaurine ceratopsian Pachyrhinosaurus. Nevertheless, Lambeosaurus and Edmontosaurus together with ankylosaurs and theropods have additionally been recorded from the Wapiti Formation. The Pachyrhinosaurus cranium measures over a metre in size. It is among the largest ceratopsid skulls to have been present in northern Alberta.
Digging away on the underlying sediment to arrange “Large Sam” for flipping previous to extraction. Image credit score: Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum.
Image credit score: The Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum
The fossil cranium is preserved upside-down and with its head frill nonetheless hooked up, a preservation occasion that has not beforehand been documented. A subject staff from the Phillip J. Currie Museum have spent the final two summers meticulously mapping, excavating and jacketing the cranium prepared for transporting away from the quarry.
Inspecting the underside of the Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai cranium jacket as “Large Sam” is ready for transport. Image credit score: Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum.
Image credit score: The Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum
Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai
Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai is considered one of three Pachyrhinosaurus species which have been named. It’s the geologically oldest species, having lived round 73 million years in the past (Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous). This species was formally named and described in 2008 (Currie, Langston and Tanke).
Pachyrhinosaurus was a smaller, older cousin of the Triceratops, with an enormous, bony protrusion on its nostril as a substitute of a nostril horn.
The Haolonggood Pachyrhinosaurus dinosaur mannequin (LvFang) photographed within the studio. Image credit score: Every thing Dinosaur.
Image credit score: Every thing Dinosaur
Dr Emily Bamforth, the curator on the Philip J. Currie Museum commented in an electronic mail despatched to Every thing Dinosaur:
“We have been very excited to lastly have ‘Large Sam’, the cranium of a Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai we lately acquire from the Pipestone Creek Bonebed, protected in our lab! I observed that you just do carry two fashions of P. lakustai, which is superior. We really use the Haolonggood Pachyrhinosaurus and Edmontosaurus for our outreach and schooling programmes right here.”
To view the vary of Haolonggood prehistoric animal figures in inventory: Haolonggood Dinosaur Fashions.
Extracting the Fossil Cranium
As soon as the 300 or so different bones had been fastidiously faraway from the encircling space, the Museum staff started the method of turning the jacketed fossil over and securing it prepared for its journey away from the dig website.
“Large Sam” is fastidiously winched onto a trolley for transport away from the quarry. Image credit score: Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum.
Image credit score: The Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum
The massive block was slowly however certainly winched up onto a trolley in order that workers and volunteers may take this vital fossil discovery to the preparation laboratory on the museum. Laboratory technicians will then start the laborious technique of eradicating the fossil bones from the matrix permitting “Large Sam” to be seen in its glory.
Workforce members fastidiously escort the Pachyrhinosaurus cranium fossil away from the quarry. The fossil will spend many months within the preparation lab being cleaned and ready. Image credit score: Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum.
Image credit score: The Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum
Members of the general public can go to and see the cranium present process cleansing and preparation. The target is to ultimately put this outstanding fossil specimen on show.
Every thing Dinosaur acknowledges the help of a media launch from the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum within the compilation of this text.
