I don’t know what it is about this year, but I swear I’ve been to more dinosaur exhibits in the last twelve months than I have in my entire life. It’s very neat being able to dive back into a childhood interest and to see what new scientific updates have popped up. At any rate, I love dinosaurs (and museums) and thought it deserved a little shoutout.

• A trustworthy scientific source

It turns out that there are actually a number of interesting dinosaur discoveries in northeastern BC, especially around the town of Tumbler Ridge! As the story goes, two boys, aged 11 and 8, swore that they discovered dinosaur tracks while tubing down a river. Despite the initial disbelief from the adults in their lives, they persevered and they were eventually proved right. You can go on a short hike and see the actual ankylosaur print that the boys found and which kick-started the excavation in the area. Since then, they have found a number of dinosaur trackways, including a set of tyrannosaurid trackways that suggests that they travelled in groups, instead of as lone predators! There is the Tumbler Ridge Dinosaur Discovery Gallery, which provides a good summary of the fossils in the region. There’s also another museum on the Alberta side of the border, just outside of Grande Prairie, that also highlights some of the fossils found in the region. That one is called the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum, and also has a side exhibit about oil and gas development in the area. Both these museums are definitely on the small side, and therefore only have plaster models, but it’s neat to have such a local flavour to the research.

I’ve also been lucky enough to see a few museums on my travels this year, such as the T. rex: The Ultimate Predator (Science World – Vancouver) and the David H. Koch Dinosaur Wing (American Museum of Natural History – New York). These ones are obviously on a much larger scale than the ones I previously mentioned, and have more ’real’ fossils instead of plaster models. In fact, the Tyrannosaurus rex in New York is almost entirely real bones, albeit from two different skeletons.

I also loved watching Prehistoric Planet with David Attenborough, especially with all the feathered depictions in the show. I honestly felt like I could suspend my disbelief when I was watching, and it really did feel like another nature documentary. Apart from the apatosaurus vs. brontosaurus debate, the realization that most dinosaurs were likely feathered and not scaled was probably the biggest change I’ve had to get used to since my childhood. I like that science is always seeking to learn more, and palaeontology is no different. Did you have a dinosaurs phase? If so, what was your favourite?

Until next time, happy crafting!