Home to the 2,500-km Fossil Trail, the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum,
the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, and Dinosaur Provincial
Park--a UNESCO World Heritage site--the Alberta Badlands have unearthed
more species of dinosaurs than anywhere else in the world and hundreds
of thousands of tourists visit the fossil beds annually. Despite being
star attractions in museums around the world, the dinosaurs of Alberta
have never before been the subject of a book that explores their unique
interrelationships and scientific importance, while still being
accessible to young readers.
In Dinosaurs of the Alberta Badlands, paleontologist Dr. Persons
travels back in time 76 million years to the Late Cretaceous period,
when pterosaurs soared through the skies, prehistoric sea monsters as
long as school buses swam in Alberta's shallow sea, and anklyosaurs and
cerotopsians roamed the swamps and flood plains that would eventually
become the badlands of today. Meet the terrifying Albertosaurus, a
relative of Tyrannosaurus, and the plant-eating, duck-billed
Edmontosaurus. Bet on the winner of a race between a tyrannosaur and a
hadrosaur--who's quick and deadly, who's slow and steady? Explore some
of Alberta's most notable dig sites, including the Danek Bonebed, and
learn how fossils form and what paleontologists do when they find them.
And discover dinosaurs' avian legacy and Alberta's official provincial
"dinosaur"--the great horned owl.
Featuring paleoart by Julius Csotonyi, over seventy-five photos and
illustrations, and profiles of leading paleontologists, Dinosaurs of
the Alberta Badlands showcases Alberta's prehistoric beasts, not as
participants in a parade of isolated monsters, but as animals adapted to
be part of a long-lost ecosystem.
