Hello, you're listening to tall stories on Monocle twenty four. I'm Tom Edwards, brought to you by the team behind The Urbanist, the show all about the cities we live in. This week, we take a trip to a place where dinosaurs once roamed, not back in time, but to Drumheller, a small town of about eight thousand people in Central Alberta.

Hello, you're listening to tall stories on Monocle twenty four. I'm Tom Edwards, brought to you by the team behind The Urbanist, the show all about the cities we live in. This week, we take a trip to a place where dinosaurs once roamed, not back in time, but to Drumheller, a small town of about eight thousand people in Central Alberta.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of visitors flock from all across the globe to learn about fossils that are millions of years old and at the center of it all, is the Royal Tyrrell museum. Canada's only museum dedicated to the science of paleontology.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of visitors flock from all across the globe to learn about fossils that are millions of years old and at the center of it all, is the Royal Tyrrell museum. Canada's only museum dedicated to the science of paleontology.

Our contributing editor Sheena Roster takes us on a journey through the grounds.

Our contributing editor Sheena Roster takes us on a journey through the grounds.

Making your way into the Alberta Badlands makes you feel like you've arrived a scene from Jurassic Park.

Making your way into the Alberta Badlands makes you feel like you've arrived a scene from Jurassic Park.

After driving by flat canola fields and cattle farms for hours, the landscape takes a sharp shift when a huge chunk of beige rock, with layers of different sediments stacked on top of one another, telling a geological story through time and then all of a sudden jutting out of the canadian prairies. Out of nowhere. It's a desert in the middle of one of the coldest countries on earth. And it's fascinating.

After driving by flat canola fields and cattle farms for hours, the landscape takes a sharp shift when a huge chunk of beige rock, with layers of different sediments stacked on top of one another, telling a geological story through time and then all of a sudden jutting out of the canadian prairies. Out of nowhere. It's a desert in the middle of one of the coldest countries on earth. And it's fascinating.

It's truly a breathtaking sight out here in the Hoodoo Valley, just outside the city of Drumheller. With all these badlands, you just see this huge sediment of layered rock that just rises out of the deep prairies here in Alberta. It's truly amazing that this is once where the dinosaurs roamed.

It's truly a breathtaking sight out here in the Hoodoo Valley, just outside the city of Drumheller. With all these badlands, you just see this huge sediment of layered rock that just rises out of the deep prairies here in Alberta. It's truly amazing that this is once where the dinosaurs roamed.

But inside the walls of the Royal Tyrell museum is where the dinosaur magic really begins unfold.

But inside the walls of the Royal Tyrell museum is where the dinosaur magic really begins unfold.

Cameron white is a security supervisor for the Royal Tyrell museum, and he's worked here for fifteen years. He explains why building the Royal Tyrell museum in Drumheller is a dream for any paleontologist. We are not just a museum, we are a full paleontological research facility as well. What's, very unique about us is that we are stationed in an area of badlands so kind of that's on area of really high rates of erosion and the time that donna sorts were living, there was a lot of dinosaurs kind of around this part of the world, so a lot of them died here and fossilized here, and we find lots of them here. So it was kind of a perfect place to build a museum like this. But the town of drumheller and the birthplace of the Royal Tyrell museum on lee came about by accident. The real reason why people started to come to this area was in search for, well, coal.

Cameron white is a security supervisor for the Royal Tyrell museum, and he's worked here for fifteen years. He explains why building the Royal Tyrell museum in Drumheller is a dream for any paleontologist. We are not just a museum, we are a full paleontological research facility as well. What's, very unique about us is that we are stationed in an area of badlands so kind of that's on area of really high rates of erosion and the time that donna sorts were living, there was a lot of dinosaurs kind of around this part of the world, so a lot of them died here and fossilized here, and we find lots of them here. So it was kind of a perfect place to build a museum like this. But the town of drumheller and the birthplace of the Royal Tyrell museum on lee came about by accident. The real reason why people started to come to this area was in search for, well, coal.

Cameron White explains more coal mining was really, really big, and through that, Joseph Material, who the museum is named after was actually working for the geological survey of Canada looking for coal in this area and came across the first alpert of source skull. So that kind of role, the bit of the early dinosaur exploration that really happened in this valley when he found that first skull, he stumbled across something, and it was just he's, like, really sharp looking teeth that were basically sticking out of the ground. So as they did some more investigation on it, realized it was something more than just rocks and kind of dug it out. And it turned out to be the very first operative source skull

Cameron White explains more coal mining was really, really big, and through that, Joseph Material, who the museum is named after was actually working for the geological survey of Canada looking for coal in this area and came across the first alpert of source skull. So that kind of role, the bit of the early dinosaur exploration that really happened in this valley when he found that first skull, he stumbled across something, and it was just he's, like, really sharp looking teeth that were basically sticking out of the ground. So as they did some more investigation on it, realized it was something more than just rocks and kind of dug it out. And it turned out to be the very first operative source skull

that all happened in august of eighteen eighty for joseph. Tear away wasn't a paleontologist by trade, but he was a great contributor to the discovery of dinosaur fossils during his lifetime. A few decades later, alberta became known for its rich fossil resources, and paleontologists from the united states and canada came in droves, eager to claim the finest specimens for their museums. From the period of nineteen ten to about nineteen seventeen, later came to be known as the great dinosaur rush. And then it was on ly in nineteen eighty five, over one hundred years after the first albertus, our skull was found that the royal chiro museum opened its stores, and it made sense to name it after the first person to make a dinosaur fossil discovery in the area.

that all happened in august of eighteen eighty for joseph. Tear away wasn't a paleontologist by trade, but he was a great contributor to the discovery of dinosaur fossils during his lifetime. A few decades later, alberta became known for its rich fossil resources, and paleontologists from the united states and canada came in droves, eager to claim the finest specimens for their museums. From the period of nineteen ten to about nineteen seventeen, later came to be known as the great dinosaur rush. And then it was on ly in nineteen eighty five, over one hundred years after the first albertus, our skull was found that the royal chiro museum opened its stores, and it made sense to name it after the first person to make a dinosaur fossil discovery in the area.

And now this place houses everything you could ever want to learn about dinosaurs. You can hear what dinosaur foot tracks might have sounded like. You can even visit a garden with vegetation from the cretaceous period when the dinosaurs roamed. But how did this happen? How does evolution work and educational videos cleverly teach everyone passing through the museum bits and pieces about dinosaurs.

And now this place houses everything you could ever want to learn about dinosaurs. You can hear what dinosaur foot tracks might have sounded like. You can even visit a garden with vegetation from the cretaceous period when the dinosaurs roamed. But how did this happen? How does evolution work and educational videos cleverly teach everyone passing through the museum bits and pieces about dinosaurs.

Now, even though these exhibits here are displaying artifacts of fossils that are millions and millions of years old, what's in the museum is constantly evolving with every new discovery that's made Warner Nichols is head of exhibit services here at the museum. He's in charge of building all the exhibits. He tells me about a recent exhibit that's been created in the museum.

Now, even though these exhibits here are displaying artifacts of fossils that are millions and millions of years old, what's in the museum is constantly evolving with every new discovery that's made Warner Nichols is head of exhibit services here at the museum. He's in charge of building all the exhibits. He tells me about a recent exhibit that's been created in the museum.

The most recent one would be the Devonian reef exhibit upstairs. We opened it on May long weekend, and it was, ah, renovation of an existing space. But there were a lot of specimens and time periods that we're missing from the previous iteration of it. We work with our in house designers and the house fabricators and basically moved a bunch of walls around, built new cases for everything and went from I think we had twenty or thirty specimens and now there's just over one hundred I think up there so it's a lot more in depth and a lot more detailed information.

The most recent one would be the Devonian reef exhibit upstairs. We opened it on May long weekend, and it was, ah, renovation of an existing space. But there were a lot of specimens and time periods that we're missing from the previous iteration of it. We work with our in house designers and the house fabricators and basically moved a bunch of walls around, built new cases for everything and went from I think we had twenty or thirty specimens and now there's just over one hundred I think up there so it's a lot more in depth and a lot more detailed information.

How does it help improve the experience here?

How does it help improve the experience here?

I hope it does. It fills in a lot of the missing areas because a lot of our visitors we go through ther exhibit before that, which covers the cambrian time period. And then there were several time period there weren't really covered very much. And then they hit the devonian and that's about one hundred fifty million years that were missing. So now we've actually filled in that one hundred fifty million years. So it's a lot of time, yes, a lot of time in compared to us, it's a small piece of time in the hole scheme of the museum.

I hope it does. It fills in a lot of the missing areas because a lot of our visitors we go through ther exhibit before that, which covers the cambrian time period. And then there were several time period there weren't really covered very much. And then they hit the devonian and that's about one hundred fifty million years that were missing. So now we've actually filled in that one hundred fifty million years. So it's a lot of time, yes, a lot of time in compared to us, it's a small piece of time in the hole scheme of the museum.

This is one of the richest areas in the world for dinosaur fossils.

This is one of the richest areas in the world for dinosaur fossils.

That's graham christiansen, a gallery experience officer here at the museum he's been working here for four years, but dinosaurs is a lifelong passion of his.

That's graham christiansen, a gallery experience officer here at the museum he's been working here for four years, but dinosaurs is a lifelong passion of his.

I grew up about four hours north of here, but i was always coming down here as a kid, and my parents brought me down here when i was five and i found my first dinosaur bone bed then, and we came to the museum and brought out one of the paleontologist, and he said, yeah, it's a it's, a bone bed, probably from a duck billed dinosaur, but you know the pieces, they're not very well preserved, and they're kind of scattered around. So he said, you know, you guys collect whatever you like and you can take it home so i spent my childhood burying dinosaur fossils in my sandbox and digging them up again pretending i was a paleontologist. So, yeah, i've definitely been passionate about this my whole life.

I grew up about four hours north of here, but i was always coming down here as a kid, and my parents brought me down here when i was five and i found my first dinosaur bone bed then, and we came to the museum and brought out one of the paleontologist, and he said, yeah, it's a it's, a bone bed, probably from a duck billed dinosaur, but you know the pieces, they're not very well preserved, and they're kind of scattered around. So he said, you know, you guys collect whatever you like and you can take it home so i spent my childhood burying dinosaur fossils in my sandbox and digging them up again pretending i was a paleontologist. So, yeah, i've definitely been passionate about this my whole life.

Graham walks around the museum every day with a bag full of dinosaur fossils, sharing his knowledge and passion with those who are willing to learn about it. He tells us a bit more about a dinosaur tooth that he has in his bag.

Graham walks around the museum every day with a bag full of dinosaur fossils, sharing his knowledge and passion with those who are willing to learn about it. He tells us a bit more about a dinosaur tooth that he has in his bag.

Here i have the shed tooth of a large predator we had here in alberta called alberto saurus. So it's from the rocks around the museum here, which are part of the horseshoe canyon formation. So around the museum here, they date to between about seventy two and seventy million years old. So this is how will this alberto saurus tooth is. And it was actually found among the bones of a partially disarticulated hadrosaur was the duck billed dinosaur. He was a plant eater. So i think this alberta source was actually munching on the duck billed dinosaur in broke off this tooth and left it behind. And this is something we pretty commonly find among the skeletons of plant eating dinosaurs or the shed teeth of meat eaters, which is good for us because we know who was eating whom.

Here i have the shed tooth of a large predator we had here in alberta called alberto saurus. So it's from the rocks around the museum here, which are part of the horseshoe canyon formation. So around the museum here, they date to between about seventy two and seventy million years old. So this is how will this alberto saurus tooth is. And it was actually found among the bones of a partially disarticulated hadrosaur was the duck billed dinosaur. He was a plant eater. So i think this alberta source was actually munching on the duck billed dinosaur in broke off this tooth and left it behind. And this is something we pretty commonly find among the skeletons of plant eating dinosaurs or the shed teeth of meat eaters, which is good for us because we know who was eating whom.

So how old is that tooth again betweens? About seventy two and seventy million years old. It's it's hard to peg down the exact age, but what we can do is we can get an age range by dating volcanic ash layers above and below the fossil. So we use radio metric dating techniques that used the steady radioactive decay of atoms to indicate the age of a fossil

So how old is that tooth again betweens? About seventy two and seventy million years old. It's it's hard to peg down the exact age, but what we can do is we can get an age range by dating volcanic ash layers above and below the fossil. So we use radio metric dating techniques that used the steady radioactive decay of atoms to indicate the age of a fossil

what's in this one here?

what's in this one here?

and here i have another shed tooth from a predatory dinosaur, but this one is from a member of the Dromeasuara days or raptor family. So this is a species we had here in alberta called jeremy a saurus, and this one comes from the layer of rocks. We called the dinosaur park formation, which are a little bit older than the rocks around here. So there, between about seventy seven and seventy five million years old and the raptors, they're they're really interesting. Animals, because they're kind of right on the borderline between what we consider to be a dinosaur and what we consider to be a bird there very bird-like animals, which thera pod dinosaurs the meat eaters already are. They have many features in common with birds like hollow bones and wish bones and walking on three toes. But in addition that the raptors also have their pubic bone is turned backwards. They've got a special bone in their risk called a semi lunatic carpal that flexes sideways, just like a bird's wing, and they also have a sternal plate on one of the neat things that's been discovered recently about raptors since the original Jurassic Park movie came out is that they actually had feathered wings. It looks like some of the early members of the group were small tree climbing gliders and some of the later forms, like velociraptor and dino nikas, they were larger ground dwelling forms. They're almost like secondarily flightless. So they were one of the last groups of dinosaurs to branch off before the evolution of powered flight that led to modern birds, which are the only surviving group of dinosaurs

and here i have another shed tooth from a predatory dinosaur, but this one is from a member of the Dromeasuara days or raptor family. So this is a species we had here in alberta called jeremy a saurus, and this one comes from the layer of rocks. We called the dinosaur park formation, which are a little bit older than the rocks around here. So there, between about seventy seven and seventy five million years old and the raptors, they're they're really interesting. Animals, because they're kind of right on the borderline between what we consider to be a dinosaur and what we consider to be a bird there very bird-like animals, which thera pod dinosaurs the meat eaters already are. They have many features in common with birds like hollow bones and wish bones and walking on three toes. But in addition that the raptors also have their pubic bone is turned backwards. They've got a special bone in their risk called a semi lunatic carpal that flexes sideways, just like a bird's wing, and they also have a sternal plate on one of the neat things that's been discovered recently about raptors since the original Jurassic Park movie came out is that they actually had feathered wings. It looks like some of the early members of the group were small tree climbing gliders and some of the later forms, like velociraptor and dino nikas, they were larger ground dwelling forms. They're almost like secondarily flightless. So they were one of the last groups of dinosaurs to branch off before the evolution of powered flight that led to modern birds, which are the only surviving group of dinosaurs

Not far away from graham i meet katie strong, a lab technician at the museum, a group of kids gather around here curiously looking at what she's doing she's cleaning up a fossil that has been found here in alberta as she dust away the fossil with a fine brush, she tells us more about what she's doing.

Not far away from graham i meet katie strong, a lab technician at the museum, a group of kids gather around here curiously looking at what she's doing she's cleaning up a fossil that has been found here in alberta as she dust away the fossil with a fine brush, she tells us more about what she's doing.

Yes, right now i'm working on part of a fossil from a type of hadrosaur or duck billed dinosaur. This is part of the skull of the dinosaur is one was found in twenty sixteen in dinosaur provincial park, southern alberta not too far from here, no also about two or three hours south of here.

Yes, right now i'm working on part of a fossil from a type of hadrosaur or duck billed dinosaur. This is part of the skull of the dinosaur is one was found in twenty sixteen in dinosaur provincial park, southern alberta not too far from here, no also about two or three hours south of here.

What do you exactly doing right now? Can you just tell our listeners?

What do you exactly doing right now? Can you just tell our listeners?

So right now i'm just cleaning off some of the rock that's covering up the fossil, so when we find the fossil we'll try to dig around it and cover it with some plaster and paper towel to help protect it, then we'll take it out of the ground and bring it back to the museum to do all of those find detailed cleaning of the fossil

So right now i'm just cleaning off some of the rock that's covering up the fossil, so when we find the fossil we'll try to dig around it and cover it with some plaster and paper towel to help protect it, then we'll take it out of the ground and bring it back to the museum to do all of those find detailed cleaning of the fossil

Dinosaur enthusiasts are not the real t roll museum is like no place other and it's, an easy place to get lost in your imagination of what it was like when the dinosaurs once roamed.

Dinosaur enthusiasts are not the real t roll museum is like no place other and it's, an easy place to get lost in your imagination of what it was like when the dinosaurs once roamed.

For monocle in drumheller, alberta, canada. I'm sheena rosseter.

For monocle in drumheller, alberta, canada. I'm sheena rosseter.

You've been listening to tall stories. A monocle twenty for production our thanks to sheena roster for today's episode and do remember to tune in every week for the full edition of the urbanist. I'm tom edwards. Goodbye and thanks for listening ci ty lovers.

You've been listening to tall stories. A monocle twenty for production our thanks to sheena roster for today's episode and do remember to tune in every week for the full edition of the urbanist. I'm tom edwards. Goodbye and thanks for listening ci ty lovers.

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Explore the original brilliant hardback volume from the writers and editors behind monocle magazine. The monocle guide to cozy homes is available at a very special price, exclusively for urbanist listeners to buy the book at half price. Just twenty pounds plus postage, visit monocle. Dot com slash urbanist book offer.

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That's, monocle, dot com forward slash urbanist book offer

Monocle. Keeping an eye on the near on the world.

Monocle. Keeping an eye on the near on the world.