Pauline Guillet-Robinson repositions a casting of a chasmosaurus irvinensis skull on Wednesday at the New Horizons Club in the hamlet of Irvine. The plant-eating dinosaur was discovered in the area in 1958 and the hamlet has obtained the casting to put on permanent display. Area rancher Richard Resch, who owns the land where the skeleton was found, is in the background. -- NEWS PHOTO COLLIN GALLANT
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
The Hamlet of Irvine is about to celebrate a homecoming that’s a long time in the making.
A cast of a dinosaur skull discovered nearby 70 years ago was delivered to the New Horizons Club in the townsite east of Medicine Hat on Wednesday afternoon.
Locals who had worked on the effort to bring the casting for more than a decade broke open the crate, cut through the bubble wrap, then marvelled at the skull of chasmosaurus irvinensis, which roamed the area 72 million years ago.
“We’ve found it a forever home in Irvine – it belongs here,” said Pauline Guillet-Robinson, who operates the cafe and ATB branch in the Hamlet.
She spent the last 15 years doing hobby research on the dinosaur that was dug up three miles south near the Ross Creek in 1958.
More recently she began work to bring the bronze recreation of the skull back to Irvine to stand as an attraction and source of civic pride.
“I just figured that Irvine needs its dinosaur.”
A press conference is scheduled for Thursday morning to further discuss the future display of the artifact.
Museum volunteer Marie Glock said discussions are underway about how to present the skull to the public.
On Wednesday however, she was simply enthused to have it arrive.
“It’s going to be wonderful for everyone to see it,” she said, noting that along with school tours, a unique dinosaur specimen has the potential to draw in traffic from the highway.
The dinosaur’s entire skeleton was discovered in the 1940s, and was later removed by paleontologists to the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ontario.
There is sat unpacked until the mid-1990s when it was opened to settle a dispute in the scientific community about how the legs of a particular chasmosaurus were configured.
At that time the fossil was discovered to be its own unique species, and was given a unique name denoting the area of the find.
Back in Irvine, local interest was piqued when area rancher Richard Resch began talking about the find that happened on land he bought in the 1970s with his wife Myrna.
Guillet-Robinson got to work researching the find and eventually found out that every locality that is the site of a significant find is entitled to have at least a casting of the fossil.
“I’m glad it’s back,” said Resch, who attended the delivery on Wednesday.
At the time of the find, the land was owned by Bill and Martha Yanke.
The chasmosaurus is so named because of the gaping holes, or chasms, on the frill of its skull. The herbivore would have roamed the region in herds 72 million years ago. The entire skeleton is 16 feet long, seven feet tall and weighs 2,000 pounds.
