Edmonton Sewer Diggers Find Bones Of Two Dinosaurs

It’s not completely unheard-of to find a dinosaur bone out in the Alberta badlands where wind and water have worn away the earth to uncover the fragments of a time long past.

But discovering 70 million-year-old bones from a species similar to Tyrannosaurus rex 30 metres under one of Edmonton’s toniest neighbourhoods —that tends to raise eyebrows.

Earlier this month, construction workers Ryley Paul and Aaron Krywiak were digging a sewer tunnel in Quesnell Heights, an area along the North Saskatchewan River Valley where many homes have front gates and lawns that look like golf greens.

They started noticing some strange rocks as they worked. One was split in the middle with crystals inside.

At first they figured they might have struck it rich and found diamonds. Then a few days later they found what was obviously a pointy, serrated, 10-centimetre tooth. That’s when they knew they were on to something quite a bit less lucrative, but more interesting.

“It was pretty distinguishable that it was a dinosaur tooth,” Paul recalled Monday as the City of Edmonton showed off his find.

“So we went back and looked at some of the rocks that we had found and realized that they were bones too.”

They called police and the medical examiner first, just to be sure there was nothing sinister at play.

Late last week, they turned to the experts at Edmonton’s University of Alberta and the Royal Tyrrell Museum, based in Drumheller, Alta.

It has since been determined the bones are likely those of an Albertosaurus, a smaller cousin of the carnivorous T.-Rex, and an Edmontosaurus, a plant-eating, duck-billed dinosaur that was probably its prey.

Don Brinkman, with the Tyrrell, said the find will give scientists a better picture of the prehistoric world.

“The significance of the find is largely where the material is. The animals we know, but having a new locality and showing the associations is what makes it significant.”

It’s proof that dinosaur bones are everywhere, said Michael Caldwell, chair of the Biological Sciences Department at the University of Alberta.

“We generally do most of our fossil collecting in badlands and around the margins of rivers where water has cut through the sentiment,” he said.

“This time around, we get to do something really unusual which is to crawl down into a long deep hole and then walk in a long deep tunnel to actually encounter dinosaurs in just about as much of a native habitat as they have anymore, which is buried beneath our feet.”

Construction on the tunnel will continue to move forward. Researchers will work with crews to examine any dirt that is removed. They found more bones over the weekend.

Krywiak and Paul are left with a story they will long remember.

“It’s pretty cool,” Krywiak said. “I never though I’d have a dinosaur bone in my hand like that. Just something you don’t get to experience every day.”

Paul said hopes he might be able to keep a sample for himself once the pieces are studied, but he understands if he can’t.

“So far it is Alberta property so far as we know,” he said. “I guess it would be up to them.”