Dinosaurs under the Aurora

10. Future Expansion of the Arctic Dinosaur Record

136 10 FUTURE EXPANSION OF THE ARCTIC DINOSAUR RECORD The southern Alberta buffalo plains greet you with their vast grain and forage fields, slight topographic undulations, endless skies, scattered ranches, and small sleepy towns as you proceed eastward from the hustle and bustle of urban Calgary. If you had no previous knowledge of the region’s geography , within an hour you would find yourself trying to fend off the boredom of what seems to be endless flatlands that characterize most of the 90 miles (145 kilometers) to Drumheller. When you finally see the sign that directs you towards Drumheller, you turn north and slowly descend through a series of roadcuts that fail to stimulate even the ardent field geologist. However , this soon changes in dramatic fashion as you reach the outskirts of the small town of Drumheller and the gently meandering Red Deer River. The stacks of sedimentary strata interspersed with dark lenses of coal, lensshaped ancient channel sands and conglomerates complexly sculpted into labyrinthine badlands delight even the jaded geologist’s eye. Drumheller is about midway along the Red Deer River, which winds its way east, then south, then east again for over 400 miles (650 kilometers) as it seeks a confluence with the Saskatchewan River. This incised river valley was host to important early twentieth-century coal mining operations. It is now the heart and soul of Alberta’s Cretaceous dinosaur country. This is where the magnificent Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology is to be found nestled within the Red Deer River badlands, just a few miles to the northwest of the center of Drumheller. If you follow the Red Deer River as it winds its way over 100 miles (163 kilometers) southward from Drumheller, you will come upon Dinosaur Provincial Park.1 The park with its dinosaur research station, labs, and outdoor dinosaur exhibits is, like Drumheller, set within the spectacular Red Deer River badlands. Whether you are a paleontologist or a “dino” tourist, the Dinosaur Provincial Park will exceed your greatest expectations and impress you with its extraordinarily rich record of dinosaurs and the world they roamed in. This is why the Park was designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. Fieldwork between Drumheller and the Dinosaur Provincial Park over the last hundred plus years has amassed a record of the Late Cretaceous world and its dinosaurian inhabitants that is unmatched in the rest of North America. At least eighty dinosaur taxa have been identified so far.2 Therefore, any time you find a dinosaur from the Cretaceous in western The Colville River: The Red Deer River of the Arctic? Future Expansion of the Arctic Dinosaur Record 137 Fig. 10.1. Aerial view the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology and the surrounding Red Deer River badlands. Credit: Courtesy of the Royal Tyrrell Museum , Drumheller, Alberta, Canada, modified by Roland Gangloff. North America, you must compare it to the record from Alberta early in your attempt to identify genera and species. It is also necessary to compare any new dinosaur faunal assemblages to the detailed biostratigraphic record that has been established for Alberta. The collections housed at the Royal Tyrrell and Dinosaur Provincial Park act as standards of excellence, and the institutions provide extensive collections of publications and the fine science that is contained therein. So in 1989, when my colleague Thom Rich exclaimed, “I think you may have the Red Deer River of the North here on the Colville!” he was referring to the richness of the dinosaur record from this part of Alberta rather than the physical setting. When Alaska’s Colville River dinosaur assemblage and its geologic and environmental context are compared with the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century history of the middle Red Deer River valley rather than with the present, it becomes clear that they have much in common. During the early history of the Red Deer River collecting expeditions, sites had to be studied and collected from boats due to the remoteness from human settlements and the lack of roads and good trails. The lack of access roads is especially daunting since excavation of dinosaur bones usually requires the inclusion of surrounding rock matrix and the use of heavy plaster jackets to protect the fossils during removal and subsequent transport. Most prospecting for, and collection of, dinosaurs on the North Slope of Alaska is done with the aid of small boats. Even though helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft are available, fixed-wing aircraft have very limited landing sites, and...