Qualla: Dinosaur Provincial Park

Dinosaur Provincial Park: Introduction

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Natulive Canada (original) Derivative work: SHB2000, CC BY-SA 4.0. Dinosaur Provincial Park contains the world's richest concentration of Late Cretaceous dinosaur fossils. Over 500 dinosaur skeletons have been excavated here and shipped to museums around the world. Forty distinct species have been identified - more than at any other site on Earth. The badlands along the Red Deer River in southern Alberta expose 75-million-year-old sediments from a time when this region was a warm, swampy coastal plain on the edge of an inland sea. Dinosaurs lived, died, and were buried here in extraordinary numbers. When erosion began exposing their bones in the late 1800s, the area became a paleontological bonanza. Collecting expeditions from Europe and North America competed for specimens in what became known as the 'Great Canadian Dinosaur Rush.' Today the park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site where fossils still emerge from the eroding badlands.

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Image: Natulive Canada (original) Derivative work: SHB2000 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Dinosaur Provincial Park: The Environment

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Seventy-five million years ago, this region was unrecognizable. A warm, humid coastal plain bordered the Western Interior Seaway, an inland sea that split North America. Rivers deposited sediments that would become the Dinosaur Park Formation. The climate was subtropical; the veg...

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Image: Public domain

Dinosaur Provincial Park: The Rush

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Natulive Canada, CC BY-SA 4.0. The 'Great Canadian Dinosaur Rush' ran from 1910 to 1917, as collecting expeditions from American and Canadian museums competed for specimens. Barnum Brown of the American Museum of Natural History worked from a floating camp on the Red Deer River. The Sternberg family collected ...

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Image: Natulive Canada | CC BY-SA 4.0

Dinosaur Provincial Park: The Species

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Aacounthingy, CC BY-SA 4.0. More than 40 dinosaur species have been identified from the park - an extraordinary diversity. Hadrosaurs like Corythosaurus, Lambeosaurus, and Parasaurolophus (with their distinctive crests) are common. Ceratopsians include Centrosaurus and Styracosaurus. Predators like Gorgosau...

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Image: Aacounthingy | CC BY-SA 4.0

Dinosaur Provincial Park: The Protection

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Natulive Canada, CC BY-SA 4.0. Dinosaur Provincial Park became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979, recognizing both its paleontological importance and the beauty of its badlands landscape. Collecting is now strictly controlled; removing fossils is illegal without permit. Researchers continue to make discover...

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Image: Natulive Canada | CC BY-SA 4.0

Dinosaur Provincial Park: Visiting Dinosaur Provincial Park

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Natulive Canada, CC BY-SA 4.0. Dinosaur Provincial Park is located in southeastern Alberta, about 180 km east of Calgary near the town of Brooks. The visitor center provides orientation and exhibits. Public areas offer self-guided hiking through the badlands. Protected areas - with the best fossil exposures - ...

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Image: Natulive Canada | CC BY-SA 4.0