April 30th, 2021
As summer is fast approaching, we are excited fieldwork will be resuming soon enough. Being #FossilFriday, we thought it fitting to showcase some of the earlier work done at Pipestone Creek Bonebed by the Royal Tyrrell field crews circa 1986.
Picture 1: Darren Tanke with TMP 1986.55.258, the type skull for ๐๐๐โ๐ฆ๐โ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ข๐๐ข๐ ๐๐๐๐ข๐ ๐ก๐๐ at Pipestone Creek bonebed in 1986. Photo credit to field volunteer: Michele Rostek.
Over the years, it became common practice to nickname Pipestone Creek bonebed skulls to distinguish them as there were many. Following that practice, Darren Tanke had nicknamed this skull Cybill after his then 1980s celebrity crush Cybill Shepard.
Picture 2: After excavating Cybill and encasing it in a thick-layered plaster jacket, palaeontologists were faced with the difficult task, transporting the heavy skull from the field to a lab where it could be prepared and studied. In 1986, a bridge across Pipestone Creek to the bonebed had not yet been built. Instead, the team had to load up the field jacket onto an 8×8 Argo. The all-terrain amphibious vehicle safely maneuvered the difficult ground, moving the skull from the quarry through the creek bed to a nearby truck where it was loaded into the back. Today, the important holotype specimen ofย ๐๐๐โ๐ฆ๐โ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ข๐๐ข๐ ย ๐๐๐๐ข๐ ๐ก๐๐ย resides at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in their collection.ย
Picture 3: Illustrating how much of the skull is preserved by specimen TMP 1986.55.258. Cybill is the original specimen from which the description of the new ๐๐๐โ๐ฆ๐โ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ข๐๐ข๐ ๐๐๐๐ข๐ ๐ก๐๐ species was based on.ย
Picture 4: The type skull for ๐๐๐โ๐ฆ๐โ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ข๐๐ข๐ ๐๐๐๐ข๐ ๐ก๐๐ fully prepped and cleaned displayed in the same orientation it was found and held up by a support jacket in the back of Royal Tyrrell Museum collections.