In 1884 a young member of the Geological Survey of Canada was passing through south-eastern Alberta’s badlands when he came upon a singular sight: “I found a head of one of the large extinct reptiles that used to roam over the country,” he wrote, “the first as far as I know that has been found in any part of Canada.” In fact, Joseph Tyrrell had stumbled upon an entire skeleton. Hacking this invaluable find to bits, he filled two wagons with bones for transporting back to Ottawa, but no record survives of what happened to the wagons’ contents. The scrap of skull he carried back himself was sufficient to ensure his title as discoverer of the first Canadian fossil of a meat-eating dinosaur, since dubbed Albertosaurus sarcophagus, while his name—somewhat ironically, given his slapdash excavating techniques—now adorns the palaeontological museum in Drumheller, Alberta.
It is a name that turns up repeatedly in Canadian exploration and business history. Tyrrell’s...
Mark Lovewell has held various senior roles at Ryerson University. He is also one of the magazine’s contributing editors.
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