Canada’s Drumheller: A Tiny Town Housing Gigantic Prehistoric Finds
Nestled in Alberta’s dramatic badlands landscape lies the unassuming town of Drumheller, belying the gigantic prehistoric secrets buried beneath. Home to more dinosaur fossils than anywhere else on Earth, this modest municipality of under 8,000 residents has unearthed some of the most pivotal discoveries in palaeontology.
Dominating Drumheller’s skyline is the Royal Tyrrell Museum, a world-renowned natural history museum attracting over 430,000 visitors yearly to marvel at its treasures. Yet the museum displays a mere fraction of the three million catalogued specimens – with new finds still emerging from the eroding terrain. Drumheller’s rich fossil deposits were formed when this region, 75 million years ago, was a lush floodplain ideal for dinosaurs to thrive alongside crocodiles and flying reptiles.
A Bounty of Bones
Seasonal storms and floods proved the downfall of these ancient animals, but their deaths paved the way for an abundance of remains. Rapid sediment burial preserved the fossils intact for discovery by water and ice millions of years later. Today, Drumheller continues yielding new specimens as meltwaters sculpt badlands ravines. Iconic discoveries include one of the most complete T-Rex skeletons and the first evidence that ornithomimids like feathers – transforming our understanding of dinosaur evolution.
With more being unearthed annually, Drumheller plays a pivotal role in piecing together the past. Nearby Dinosaur Provincial Park safeguards over 50 identified dinosaur species within its fossil-dense strata. For palaeontologists, these preserved prehistoric populations hold clues to life before mass extinction – and lessons for our rapidly changing world. Drumheller’s colossal creatures may be long gone, but their remains keep this small town at the forefront of dinosaur discovery.
