I am here to share part of my walk into the badlands! This post is for Wednesday Walk challenge championed by our friend @tattoodjay and the Make me Smile Collaboration challenge lead by @elizacheng. The basic idea is going for a walk, taking pictures, sharing stories and making people smile.
This Weds, I head into an ancient swamp in the Alberta badlands in search of dinosaurs!
Long time walkers might remember a recent walk where I visited the Rocky Mountains in Alberta and hiked 6 KM in a glorious canyon dotted by waterfalls. This week, I am our of the mountains, through the foothills, around the city and out into the plains not an hour away from town. Wheat as far as the eye can see in every direction and the occasional oil pumpjack. Quite a contrast to see a horizon over flat ground for many miles so close to the towering vistas of the Rockies.
Almost out of nowhere, sedimentary style rocks start to come up from the ground and the road winds down into what seems like an ancient swamp. Layers of different hues and textures representing eons of geological transition.
I didn't notice when I took this shot that there is a runaway escape ramp to the right. Perhaps hours of traveling the plains can leave you without breaks as you finally start descending? I wish we went up there.
The walk has been a drive so far but it is time to walk with these fellas now. Some people drove modern vehicles and others tied up their dinosaur mounts when visiting the museum. Museum you say?
Besides beholding the badlands and hoodoos, our destination on this trip is a big long walk through the Royal Tyrrell Museum https://tyrrellmuseum.com/about I have heard about fossils being plentiful in this area so I am looking forward to seeing some of the dinosaurs who roamed this region.
The museum gets its namesake from Joseph Tyrell https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/joseph-tyrrell as a monument to the archaeological discoveries in the region almost a hundreds years ago. With a moustache like that, he could easily fit in with the hipsters at a craft beer tasting today and not be out of place.
Admission is around $20/person and we took the family pass at $50. Right away we are walking with the dinosaurs in realistic-looking displays and immersive experience. Lessons on plaques everywhere so you can stare in awe or stop and read some cool facts. Neat to see mention of the Albertosaurus which was named after the province in which it was most predominant.
A few steps to the right and a little shirt wipe of my camera lens and we are in much more precarious position with this hungry looking fella.
They set the stage right with a framing of the branches of science that combine to make paleontology. I always thought of that science as mainly of discovery, classification and guessing to fill in the holes. So much more than that when you consider the combination of specialties and how they can be used to also take these discoveries and piece together evolution and our place in it.
There are some whose beliefs lead them to deduce the world is only a few thousand years old. This display with the evolution of humanity from origins with skulls 8 million years ago. Whichever side of that argument is most correct, it is fascinating to think we are 95% genetically with chimpanzees. Not descended from, by shared an ancestor 5 million years ago. Only 5% genetic change in that period of time seems like a slow go!
Fascinating to see the science become art as they display excavated fossils in a puzzle that is most often missing pieces.
If you thought 8 million years ago was in the distant past, all of that has been discovered in this region is 55 to 80 million years ago! The collection and research continues as hundreds of fossils per year are still found every year.
More science imitating art as these hand-sized shells fossilised themselves over millennia in this wonderful death assemblage.
Turns out they were not just big snails, but a different kind of mollusks called ammonites and are related to octopus! We are now 390 million years in the past and humanity is barely a gleam in cruel mother nature's eye.
This tortured soul almost looks inspired by H.R. Giger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._R._Giger Such a complete specimen preserved and presented so well.
So dramatic are the deaths of these prehistoric wonders and there seem to be countless in this collection!
So many ancient monsters crawling around in fossil format. Imagine discovering this guy or being charged to reassemble him!
This place just keeps on going. I am only half way through the photos I took and have so many more to share. The disasters! The different periods! The T-rex!
Another time, I will have to take you with me as I walk through this threshold and am taken from Precambrian through Cenozoic eras. Jurassic is a sub era in the Mesozoic era? So much more to see and learn.
Thanks for joining me on this mile half way into the Badlands. I will guide you back out another time.
Cheers!
That's a pretty cool adventure.. just imagine eating a couple shrooms before you went in..
Man I totally should have.
Yes. My favorite dino is the Ankylosaurus because it used it's clubbed tail as a mace!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ankylosaurus
RAWR! WHACKY WHACKY!
I will search my pictures for the next post as there were some there!
Btw, I noticed you're not actually posting your posts into the communities, just using their tags isn't enough. You have to either go to the community page and hit "new post" there, or if you're subscribed to the community there's a dropdown you can pick when you're about to publish a post.
Just thought I'd let you know in case it's by mistake, might get you some more readers that way!
Ha! I didn't know that!
I have always just played along in support of the communities and didn't pay close enough attention when communities arrived way back then I guess.
Thanks!
Wow! What an exciting outing! Those dinosaurs really are realistic. Even the eyes...it really is amazing!
Yes the replicas at the beginning set the stage well and the full fossil dinos are unbelievable. So much to learn in addition to the cool sights.
😉👍
I wonder what it would like to roam around with those giant creatures.
what if there was not asteroid impact that wiped out these giants?
I am sure you and your family were having a great time at the museum.
!LUV !PIZZA
@zekepickleman, @ekavieka(1/5) sent LUV. | connect | community | HiveWiki | NFT | <>< daily
! help(no space) to get help on Hive. InfoMakes you wonder for sure. What is fascinating is that there was not just 1 event like an asteroid. There were 5 separate catastrophic events that wiped out at least half the earths population. Makes you think!
It always excites me to see these old animals. What would happen if these fake dinosaurs came to life when someone visited this museum?
Many are filled in with plaster but many of there ones are almost entirely real! Girl guide troops have sleepover events and stay in sleeping bags at the feet of these monsters. Imagine waking up to that as a kid.
Such contrasting scenery on the drive, but I love that museum would love to visit it sometime I love the dinosaurs I must say
also re the first comment, for me and the Wednesday Walk its fine to just share the post as you usually do no need to go in and post it on the Wednesday Walk community
I would highly recommend this place for sure.
I love sharing my walks and adventures with as many people as possible so I will have to start actually posting in these groups! ;)
Cheers
Have a great day and weekend
Oh my God!
The museum looks so good
It is a nice place to be.
I myself am very fond of going to museums because by going there one gets to learn a lot of new things and see a lot of old things and one's knowledge increases a lot.
It seem I will join you next time, what a lovely photos
Thanks for coming with me this time too!
$PIZZA slices delivered:
@ekavieka(1/5) tipped @zekepickleman
Great pictures! what a beautiful museum and what a great fossils you have on display.