Joseph Burr Tyrrell’s 160th Birthday

Today’s Doodle celebrates Joseph Burr Tyrrell, an explorer, mapmaker, geologist, and miner whose  discovery of a fossilized Albertosaurus sarcophagus skull set off Western Canada’s “great dinosaur rush.”

Born in Weston, Ontario on this day in 1858, Tyrrell contracted scarlet fever as a child, but he didn’t allow impaired hearing and eyesight to hold him back. Upon graduation from the University of Toronto, he was encouraged by his father to become a lawyer, but his doctor advised him to work outdoors for the sake of his health. Joining the Geological Survey of Canada, he embarked on his first expedition in 1883, charting a westward path through the Rockies for the Canadian Pacific railroad.

The following year the 26-year-old led his own expedition, mapping a vast area known as “the Badlands,” which was once an ancient ecosystem filled with giant reptiles. While searching for coal, Tyrrell discovered dinosaur bones in Red Deer Valley, stumbling upon the enormous skull and skeleton of a creature that turned out to be 70 million years old. After carefully excavating the fossils he shipped them back to Calgary. The weight of his discovery broke the axle of the wagon carrying it, but the fossils eventually made their way to paleontologists who called the creature Albertosaurus Sarcophagus, a newly discovered genus named for the new Canadian province of Alberta and related to the Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Excitement over the Tyrrell’s discovery inspired many other paleontologists to explore Drumheller, where a museum named for Tyrrell opened in 1985, boasting one of the world’s leading collections of dinosaur fossils. However, Tyrrell never claimed to be a paleontologist, focusing instead on the coal deposits he found in Drumheller, which became an important energy resource for Canada.

"My idea of peace and comfort was a tent by a clear brook anywhere north of 50 degrees of North Latitude," wrote Tyrrell during one of his many adventures. "A ground-sheet and blankets enough, a side of salt pork and a bag of flour… For glory, I had the stars and the Northern Lights."

Happy Birthday Joseph Tyrrell!

Doodler Helene Leroux used potting soil to stage the prehistoric discovery

Joseph Burr Tyrrell in clary form.

Once the staging was complete Helene took a picture of Tyrrell (dinosaur bone for scale).