Suncor nodosaur
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Borealopelta Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, Albian |
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| The holotype specimen on display at the Royal Tyrell Museum | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | †Ornithischia |
| Family: | †Nodosauridae |
| Genus: |
†Borealopelta Brown et al., 2017 |
| Species: | †B. markmitchelli |
| Binomial name | |
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Borealopelta markmitchelli Brown et al., 2017 |
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Borealopelta (meaning "Northern shield") is a genus of nodosaurid ankylosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Alberta, Canada. It contains a single species, B. markmitchelli, named in 2017 by Caleb Brown and colleagues from a well-preserved specimen known as the Suncor nodosaur. Discovered at an oil sands mine north of Fort McMurray, Alberta, that is owned by the Suncor Energy company, the specimen is remarkable for being among the best preserved dinosaur fossils of its size ever found. It preserved not only the armor (osteoderms) in their life positions, but also remains of their keratin sheaths and overlying skin. Melanosomes were also found that indicate a countershaded reddish skin tone.
The Suncor Borealopelta was uncovered at the Millennium Mine, an oil sands mine 30 kilometres (19 mi) north of Fort McMurray, Alberta, that is owned and operated by Suncor Energy. The Wabiskaw Member sediments were being removed to allow mining of the underlying bitumen-rich sands of the McMurray Formation when, at about 1:30pm local time on March 21, 2011, an excavator being operated by Suncor employee Shawn Funk struck the fossil. The unusual nature of the exposed fragments was immediately recognized by Funk, and his supervisor Mike Gratton notified the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology. In accordance with Suncor's mining permit, the specimen became the property of the Albertan government.
On March 23, Royal Tyrrell Museum scientist Donald Henderson and senior technician Darren Tanke were brought to the mine on a Suncor jet to examine the specimen, which, based on photographs, they expected to be a plesiosaur or other marine reptile, as no land animals had ever been discovered in the oil sands previously. Upon correct identification, which was made on site by Tanke, Henderson was astonished to learn that it was an ankylosaurian dinosaur and not a marine reptile. The animal had apparently been washed out to sea after death.
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Wikipedia