Helicopter lift of one-tonne fossilized dinosaur skull goes off without issue

By Tim Kalinowski on September 27, 2017.

tkalinowski@medicinehatnews.com @MHNTimKal

The long-delayed helicopter airlift of a rare Chasmosaurus kaiseni fossilized skull from the Hilda Megabone Bed finally took place Tuesday afternoon.

Lead researcher Jordan Mallon of The Canadian Museum of Nature based in Ottawa said the lift could not have gone better.

“We had a beautiful day for the lift today,” he confirmed to the News in a phone interview after the lift was completed. “We came into Calgary this morning on the plane. We met with LR Helicopters in Calgary and boarded their helicopter and flew out. We landed on the prairie level on the edge of the badlands where the skull is sitting. We had some folks from the Tyrrell Museum there and local landowners to help us out.

“We basically came up with the gameplan there. Scott, my assistant, and I ran down to the site. The skull was already packaged up in the cargo net. We hooked it up and the helicopter and took off. The lift itself probably took a minute to get it back up to prairie level.”

From there, local farmers donated a tractor and flatbed truck to load and transport the one-tonne fossilized skull to the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller. Mallon credited local landowners for bringing their own enthusiasm and passion to his research these past few years.

“Everyone out north of Medicine Hat this way has just been wonderful,” said Mallon. “All the landowners have been really good to deal with and friendly, letting us prospect on their lands. I have nothing but good things to say about the people out here.”

Mallon said after spending the past two years of his life fixated on digging this fossil out and getting it away, he was relieved to see it all go well in the end.

“I am elated,” he confessed. “This has been on my mind now for the last two years. It’s been two years since we found it, and now it’s out of the ground and safe. I almost don’t know what to do with myself now.”

The Chasmosaurus kaiseni skull will be eventually be transported from the Tyrrell Museum to the Canadian Museum of Nature for two years of cleaning, preparation and intensive academic study.

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