The Red Deer River Badlands Dinosaur Expedition
The Red Deer River Badlands Dinosaur Expedition.
June 23 to July 2, 2012
Field Leader report, Philip J. Currie
Expedition Dates: June 23 to July 2, 2012
Places: Start at MacKenzie Crossing (southeast of Red Deer and west of Big Valley, Alberta). Drumheller was the end destination.
On the expedition were sixteen people, nine of who were Explorers Club members. They came from Georgia, Massachusetts, and Washington states, and Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan provinces in Canada.
Explorers Club Flag #176 was granted. The stated objectives of the expedition were:
*To search for new dinosaur sites, for potential excavation;
*Visit the Albertosaurus bone bed found by Barnum Brown in 1910;
*Attempt to locate the site where T.C. Weston found the paratype skull of Albertosaurus in 1895;
*Attempt to locate the purported second Albertosaurus bone bed that was found and partially excavated by George F. Sternberg in 1916;
*To relocate a quarry where C.M. Sternberg collected three skeletons of Ornithomimus in 1926.
As you'll see, we fulfilled most - including the most unlikely - and much more!
We all met at MacKenzie Crossing (west of Big Valley, Alberta) and camped here the first night. On June 24, we started paddling down the river, but stopped at the Ross Ranch where we would camp for two nights. The exposures in the area are extensive, and are good for prospecting for new finds. There were many discoveries, but the most promising was made by Lorrie Hansen. It consisted of several bones of a single individual of an ornithomimid (ostrich mimic dinosaur). On June 25, we spent half the day at Lorrie’s site, but failed to find more of the specimen.
On June 26, we continued down to Dry Island Buffalo Jump Provincial Park, where we stopped below the area that Barnum Brown camped at in 1910, and walked up to the Albertosaurus bone bed that he found that year. This site was worked extensively by crews under Currie from 1998 until 2010. We also visited two other known sites – an ornithomimid quarry where the first helicopter lift was done in 1968, and a hadrosaur quarry worked in recent years by McGill University. Although we again found many bones, everyone was most excited by the discovery of two beautiful Albertosaurus teeth just as we were about to return to the boats. That evening, we camped a little farther downstream from Dry Island. It was a wet evening with high river levels and rainfall!
On June 27, we stopped below the Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T) boundary on the Knudsen Ranch. Although the slopes were steep and very slippery from the rain of the day before, everybody hiked up to see one of the best places to see the end of the age of dinosaurs documented in the rocks. It also has one of the most spectacular views of the badlands of the Red Deer River, and many Explorers Club photographs were taken here. That evening, we camped at the Tolman Bridge, and explored the badlands to the southeast in the morning. Using old photographs, we rediscovered a site where many juvenile hadrosaurs were excavated by an early University of Alberta expedition. Although we had hoped to find more evidence of articulated dinosaur skeletons, there was little surface evidence and we will need to excavate to determine the future potential of the site.
Continuing downstream, we made one of the most significant discoveries of the trip. Using photographs taken by George Sternberg in 1916, we found what has been hailed as a second Albertosaurus bonebed. This is a site I had been hoping to find for a long time because of its implications for packing behaviour in tyrannosaurid dinosaurs. If it turned out to be as good as Brown’s 1910 site, then it would substantially improve the evidence for the interpretation that these dinosaurs had more complex social structures than generally thought. After slogging through the mosquito infested swampy woodlands next to the river, we were able to find the site. There is still lots of bone exposed after all of these years, which strongly suggests that it is worthy of excavation. However, the percentage of carnivore to herbivore does not appear to be any different than normal dinosaur sites in Alberta. Therefore, it is unlikely that this will be a priority over the next few years. However, we at least know where it is now, and what it consists of.
On the last few days of the expedition, we explored the badlands of two other famous dinosaur-hunting localities at Morrin Bridge and Horsethief Canyon. Although nothing further was found of noteworthy significance, it had been an excellent and productive trip!
For a field photo of the flag with Explorers Club members, as well as photos documenting the expedition with his exposition, I refer you to the companion report filed by Team Leader Jason Schoonover.
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Dr. Philip Currie