Dinosaur Egg Site

The heritage value of the Dinosaur Egg Site lies in its association with some of the finest examples of dinosaur eggs and embryos ever discovered in Canada.

In 1987, an amateur palaeontologist stumbled upon fragments of fossilized dinosaur eggshells in the Devil's Coulee area. Palaeontologists at the University of Calgary and the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology were overjoyed to find not only an extensive collection of eggshell fragments, but also a juvenile dinosaur bone bed, nests and intact eggs, some complete with embryos. The embryos within the eggs were determined to be Hypacrosaurus, types of hadrosaurs or duck-billed dinosaurs that were abundant in Alberta during the late Cretaceous Period roughly 75 million years ago. Though dinosaur eggs had previously been discovered during excavations throughout the world, the presence of dinosaur embryos distinguished the site as extremely rare. The value of the find was magnified by the preservation of the eggs and embryos at the very site at which they entered the fossil record - a paleontological anomaly. The concentration and quantity of fossil materials, the excellent preservation of the dinosaur eggs, and the presence of embryos with well-articulated skeletons established the Dinosaur Egg Site as a premier palaeontological site. In addition to enriching the understanding of dinosaur nesting behaviours and embryonic morphology, the site also garnered international media attention for Alberta's fossil-rich Badlands.