Mystery of the mass grave Pachyrhinosaurus in Canada

Hidden under the slopes of lush forest in Alberta, Canada, is a mass grave on a monumental scale.

Thousands of dinosaurs were buried here, killed in a day of complete devastation.

Now a group of paleontologists have come to Pipestone Creek-appropriately called “The River of Death”-to help solve a 72m enigma: how did they die?

Trying to find out exactly what happened here, it begins with the huge shock of the cuv.

A brute force is needed to open a thick layer of rock that covers what Professor Emily Bamfort, who directs digging, describes as “Paleo Gold”.

As her team begins more delicate work on removing the layers of dirt and dust, a mixture of fossil bones appears.

“This big stain of the bones right there is part of the hip joint,” says Prof. Bamfort, watched by her dog aster – whose job today is to bark if she notices any bears nearby.

“Then we have all these long, skinny bones here.

BBC News came to Pipestone Creek to witness the pure scale of this prehistoric cemetery and see how researchers collect the clues together.

Thousands of fossils have been collected from the site and constantly generate New discoveriesS

All bones belong to a dinosaur called pachyrhinosaurus. Prof. Bamfort’s appearance and excavations are presented in a new remarkable BBC series – walking with dinosaurs – which uses visual effects and science to revive this prehistoric world.

These animals who lived through the late chalk were a relative of the triceratopes. Measuring about five meters and weighing two tons, Four legs beasts had large headsDecorated with a distinctive bony spray and three horns. Their determining characteristic was a big blow to the nose called boss.

The digging season has just started and continues every year until the fall. The fossils in the small spots on which the team work is incredibly tightly packed; Prof. Bamfort estimates that there are up to 300 bones in each square meter.

So far, her team has excavated an area the size of a tennis court, but the bone bed extends a kilometer into the hill.

“The descent of the jaw in terms of its density,” she tells us.

“We believe it is one of the largest bone beds in North America.

“More than half of the world’s famous dinosaurs are described by one copy. We have thousands of pahirinosaur here.”

Paleontologists believe that dinosaurs have migrated together in a colossal flock for hundreds of miles from the south – where they spent the winter – north for the summer.

The area, which had a much warmer climate than today, would be covered with rich vegetation, providing abundant food for this huge group of animals eating plants.

“This is a single community of a kind of animal from a momentary photo in time and it is a huge size of the sample. This almost never happens in the entry of fossils,” says Prof. Bamfort.

And this patch from northwestern Alberta was not only the home of Pachirinosaur. Even more dinosaurs have traveled this land and studying them is essential to try and understand this ancient ecosystem.

At two hours of driving at a distance, we reach the hills of Deadfall. Getting there includes a hike through a dense forest, valing – or a dog mandate in the case of Astos – through a quick river and climbs over slippery rocks.

No digging is required here; Super size bones lie beside the coastline, washed from the rock and cleaned of running water, just waiting to be taken.

A huge vertebra is quickly noticeable, as is the pieces of ribs and teeth scattered on the mud.

Paleontologist Jackson Sweder is particularly interested in what looks like a piece of dinosaur skull. “The bigger part of what we find here is a dinosaur who has a duck called edmontosaurus. If it’s a skull bone, it’s a dinosaur that is big – probably 30 feet (10 m),” he says.

The Edmontosaurus, another herbivore, was walking around the forests like Pachirinosaurus – and helps paleontologists build a picture of this ancient land.

Sweder is a collection manager at the Dinosaur Philip J Currie Museum in the nearby Grande Prairie, where the bones of the two are accepted to be cleaned and analyzed. He is currently working on a huge skull of Pachyrhinosaurus, which is about 1.5 m long and is called “Big Sam”.

He indicates where the three horns should be at the top of the stick, but the one in the middle is missing. “All the skulls that are decently full have a jump in this place,” he says. “But his nice little unicorn spike doesn’t seem to be there.”

Over the years working at the extraordinary site, the museum team has collected 8,000 dinosaur bones and the surfaces of the lab are covered by fossils; There are bones of pachyrhinosaurus of any size, from young to old.

The presence of materials from so many animals allows researchers to learn about dinosaurs biology, to answer questions about how growth grows and the composition of the community. They can also consider individual variations to see how a pacirochinosaur can stand out from the herd – as maybe the case with the Big Sam and his missing spike.

All these detailed studies in the museum on both sites help the team answer the vital question: How have so many animals died in Pipestone Creek?

“We believe that this is a flock in seasonal migration that becomes entangled in some catastrophic event that effectively erases, if not the whole flock, then a good part of it,” says Prof. Bamfort.

All the evidence shows that this catastrophic event was a lightning flood – perhaps a storm over the mountains, which sent an irresistible porch water to the flock, tingling trees from its roots and shifting stones.

Prof. Bamfort says that Pachyrhinosaurus would have no chance. “These animals are not able to move very quickly because of their pure numbers and they are very heavy – and they are not very good at swimming.”

The rocks found in the place show the vortices of the sludge from the fast flowing water that killed everything. It is as if destruction has been frozen in time like a wave in the stone.

But this nightmare day for dinosaurs is already a dream for paleontologists.

“We know, every time we come here, it’s 100% guaranteed to find bones. And every year we find something new for the species,” says Prof. Bamfort.

“That’s why we continue to return because we still find new things.”

As the team accumulates their tools ready to return another day, they know that a lot of work is coming. They have just scratched the surface of what is here – and there are many more prehistoric secrets that are just waiting to be discovered.

The new series of dinosaur walking begins on Sunday on May 25 at 6:25 pm on BBC One, with all episodes available on the BBC IPlayer.