Drumheller - Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology

The Tyrell Museum of Palaeontology, on the north bank of the Red Deer River, was opened in 1985. It lies 6 km (4 mi.) to the north-west on the western edge of Midland Provincial Park. This most interesting museum has earned a worldwide reputation.

The most modern museum techniques have brought millions of years of the earth's history back to life. 800 fossils, including 35 dinosaur skeletons, films and - last but not least - twenty easy to use computer terminals, provide the visitor with an insight into the fascinating evolution of life on earth. A primeval garden shows tropical and subtropical plant species and their descendants as they were 350 million years ago, at the start of the Carbonaceous Period. The museum also provides information on the genesis and geology of the region and on the history of discovery.

In 1884, by sheer chance, the geologist J. B. Tyrell happened to stumble across some dinosaur bones lying among the cacti and stones of the Badlands. Quite unwittingly he started the "great Canadian dinosaur-rush": paleontologists and collectors from all over the world streamed into the Badlands in their horse-drawn wagons and dug up many of the skeletons which can today be seen in numerous museums, including some outside Canada.

During the transition to the Tertiary Period Alberta as we know it today was one vast inland lake. The climate was tropical and the vegetation very lush, ideal living conditions for dinosaurs. When these conditions changed within a relatively short period, however, the coast became one giant dinosaur cemetery.