Shawn Funk was not new to the oil mining industry. For years, he has helped extract crude oil in the Canadian province of Alberta. In 2011, however, he found something that ended up changing the history of prehistoric Canada as we know it. He excavated a rock with a bizarre pattern, something that neither he nor his supervisor had ever seen before. They knew then that they were dealing with something that has not been touched in millions of years, so they asked the Royal Tyrrell Museum for help.
This Oil Miner Did Not Expect To Stumble Into Ancient Artifact When He Came To Work That Day
It Started Like Any Other Work Day For Him
In 2011, Shawn Funk had been going about another day at work. The Suncor Energy employee had no idea that he was going to make the discovery of a lifetime! Even though he always came across unusual items while working with the team, this was not like anything that they have ever extracted in the past.
It Started Like Any Other Work Day For Him
The Challenges Of Mining Crude Oil
He is the person in charge of the backhoe, which is a huge piece of equipment used to move huge rocks weighing as much as thousands of pounds. Mind you, it is not an easy job since it requires attention to detail and precision. After taking his lunch break, these skills proved to be very useful.
The Challenges Of Mining Crude Oil
Things Turned Weird After His Lunch Break
It was around 1:30 in the afternoon when he finished his lunch and continued to work. They were on a site called the Millennium Mine, which is around 17 miles north of a town called Fort McMurry. As he was doing this, something piqued his interest. In the end, it changed history forever!
Things Turned Weird After His Lunch Break
He Asked The Supervisor To Check It Out
Once he returned to work, he started to move boulders. This was typical for the job. There was nothing unusual about hitting foreign objects such as petrified wood. However, this rock struck him as odd because it was not like he had seen before. This was the reason he asked the supervisor to check it out.
He Asked The Supervisor To Check It Out
This Rock Was Not Like The Others
After earing his lunch, Funk could tell that there was something different here. As he was mining this particular area of rocks, he managed to identify a “uniform pattern.” However, what caught his eye was the fact that it was distinct and looked nothing like others he has worked on in the past.
This Rock Was Not Like The Others
It Was Not Petrified Wood
He was already used to finding and extracting petrified pieces of wood. However, this was clearly different. The rocks that he extracted had not been touched by mankind for a long time. They had been untouched for hundreds of millions of years by then. What was hiding below the surface of the ground?
It Was Not Petrified Wood
The Pattern Captured His Attention
Once he received the green light from his supervisor, he took the rock that was locking in the object with a distinct pattern. The piece weighed around 15,000 pounds. This means that the team needed to break it apart if they wanted to bring it anywhere else.
The Pattern Captured His Attention
Time To Call For Backup
It might not sound unusual to find a rock that had a strange pattern, but the Suncor Energy crew was stumped. This did not look like anything they had seen in the past. That was why they stopped working in the area. Everyone focused their energy on getting the boulder out of the way.
Time To Call For Backup
It Was A First For Everyone On The Team
They decided to call for backup as well. The Suncor Energy team got in touch with local geologists who could help them shed some light on the fossil. The crew also made sure to keep the piece of rock intact until the experts got to check it out. However, what exactly did they just find?
It Was A First For Everyone On The Team
Chipping Away At It For 12 Hours
It was tiresome work. The team decided to completely stop operations for the rest of the day. After the Suncor Energy crew left the site, other mine workers arrived to help chip away at the huge boulder. However, none of them was ready for what they were going to find down there.
Chipping Away At It For 12 Hours
The Difficulty Of Moving A Rock That Weighed 15,000 Pounds
When they managed to convert it into a state that would be fit for transport, the crew got in touch with the Royal Tyrrell Museum. Perhaps they could help shed insight on this rock. They needed to take a look at it before they could do so! This was why the Suncor Energy employees transported this huge find.
The Difficulty Of Moving A Rock That Weighed 15,000 Pounds
They Needed More Man Power
You might think that it would be easy for the mining team to transport the rock. After all, they had a lot of tools and heavy machinery on hand. However, it still proved to be an arduous task. The machinery did not always let them go easy on the rock, so mistakes could not be avoided.
They Needed More Man Power
The Rock Ended Up Crumbling
As they carved the fossil, it eventually got chipped. The rock eventually began to fall apart on those fractions. Unfortunately, the fossil was in a rather delicate state. Were the museum experts going to be disappointed by the efforts of the mining crew?
The Rock Ended Up Crumbling
How To Bring It To The Museum
The museum was eager to identify the fossil, but there was already a theory that they had in mind. The geologists present at the site told the museum curators that it was “for sure, a dinosaur.” But there was a new concern now that it had been transported. How could they excavate all of this prehistoric animal?
How To Bring It To The Museum
They Had A Lot Of Questions About This Fossil
Needless to say, the mining team was up against an extraordinary challenge. They then found out that as much as 80% of the fossil might stay in the rock wall that they were working on. This meant that they had to stop operations in the area. Let us see what Dr. Don Henderson had to say about this. He is the dinosaur curator at the Royal Tyrrell Museum!
They Had A Lot Of Questions About This Fossil
Handing The Fossil Over To The Restorers
The museum received the fossil in 2011. However, they did not finish restoring it until 2019. This is proof that restoration teams need to be careful when dealing with ancient artifacts. After all, this is a very important yet delicate find. Did they manage to identify what it was?
Handing The Fossil Over To The Restorers
It Was A Very Important Find
As soon as the restoration work started, the team knew that this was a dinosaur a long time ago. What made it even more exciting was the fact that it looked more intact than the others they had seen in the past. This allowed them to find out a lot about this particular specimen!
It Was A Very Important Find
It Lived More Than 100 Million Years In The Past
The team was able to determine that the dinosaur fossil came from around 150 million years ago. This is older than the other fossil that they had found, which was about 100 million years old. It was the first time they encountered anything like this, so they had to come up with a name for this dinosaur!
It Lived More Than 100 Million Years In The Past
The Restoration Process Took 7,000 Hours
The Royal Tyrrell Museum team worked on the dinosaur for years. As a matter of fact, they spent more than 7,000 hours on it before it could be displayed for the public. They found out a lot of information throughout the restoration process. It ended up changing what they knew about prehistoric Canada.
The Restoration Process Took 7,000 Hours
Amazing Details Came From The Scan
It was a good thing that the dinosaur was intact. This allowed them to conduct high-tech scans that can reveal more about the inner workings of these creatures. The scans did not only show the skeleton of the dinosaur but also the way the digestive system worked.
Amazing Details Came From The Scan
It Had A Nearly Intact Skeleton
But why was the dinosaur so intact? The theory goes that it must have died on land before the water transported its body. This then stopped the body from decaying and kept the fossil away from erosion for millennia to come. The museum had never seen anything like this dinosaur before that moment.
It Had A Nearly Intact Skeleton
The Spikes Set It Apart From The Rest
They discovered that the dinosaur had spikes on its back. It probably served as armor and kept the animal safe back in the day. However, the most interesting thing about this was that the dinosaur could take out the spikes if it was going to get caught in something. This fossil was truly an important find!
The Spikes Set It Apart From The Rest
It Was Huge At 3,000 Pounds
The Royal Tyrrell museum classified the dinosaur under the genus Ankylosaurus. Even so, it was the first time that they had seen the species. They decided to call it Nodosaur. Back in the day, it weighed around 3,000 pounds and had a height of 6 and a half feet high. It was more than 30 feet long as well. Whoa.
It Was Huge At 3,000 Pounds
The Importance Of This Dinosaur
The amazing discovery changed everything we knew about prehistoric history. It also gave us one more kind of dinosaur to learn more about. Aside from this, the existence of the species could help scientists learn more about the area that it used to roam and the changes it went through over the years.
The Importance Of This Dinosaur
The Nodosaur Can Shed More Light On Prehistoric History
The Nodosaur is only one of many dinosaurs that used to roam this region of Northern Canada. However, the discovery might also help us learn more about the other creatures that existed in the same time period. What we can tell you for sure is that there is no way Shawn Funk will forget that he discovered a dinosaur on a regular day at work! We are so glad that he put his skills on the job to work.
The Nodosaur Can Shed More Light On Prehistoric History