1913-blogging
One hundred years ago
in the badlands of Canada...
Last fall, I saw this spectacular display at the Natural History Museum of Utah (
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| Ceratopsian skull display at the Natural History Museum of Utah. Source: Wikimedia Commons |
On the lower left, that particularly awesome skull with the multi-spiked
neck fringe belonged to a Styracosaurus,
discovered and identified 100 years ago in 1913.
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| Styracosaurus fossils at the American Museum of Natural History. Source: Wikimedia Commons |
Charles M. Sternberg, part of an illustrious family of
fossil hunters, was busy in 1913 unearthing dinosaur bones in the
badlands of Alberta , Canada , along the Red Deer River between
Steveville and Deadlodge Canyon , a location now known as the Dinosaur Park
Formation in Dinosaur
Provincial Park
Based largely on the skull fossil, geologist and
paleontologist Lawrence Lambe decided this must be a new genus of
dinosaur, specifically identifying it as Styracosaurus
(“Spiked Reptile”) albertensis (“of Alberta ”). Many more Styracosaurus fossils have been
discovered since then, indicating that they roamed the land that
is now western Canada and
the United States .
Styracosaurus
lived in the late Cretaceous period, the last gasp of dinosaur supremacy before
dino-Armageddon hit. Many paleontologists conjecture that these great horned
dinosaurs traveled in herds. Their horns and frills certainly look like lethal
weapons for defending themselves against T.
Rex and other carnivorous pests, but nobody knows for sure.
Based on memories of a matinee seen at the age of nine,
munching popcorn while cowboys wrangled dinosaurs, my image of Styracosaurus will forever be anchored
in the great Styracosaurus-Allosaurus battle brought to life by Ray Harryhausen in The Valley of Gwangi (1969). This,
folks, is a Styracosaurus!
© 2013 Lee Price
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