Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, Paleontology museum in Drumheller, Canada
The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology is a palaeontology museum and research facility in Drumheller, Alberta, housed in a 12,500-square-metre building designed by BCW Architects in Midland Provincial Park. Its tan stone and concrete wings meet at a stepped grid of rectangular glass panes above a recessed entrance plaza, with glass skylights along the right roofline. Inside, about 800 fossils from a collection of more than 160,000 catalogued specimens are displayed, including 35 mounted dinosaur skeletons on the first floor.
The institution opened in September 1985 and was named after Joseph Burr Tyrrell, a geologist who made major fossil discoveries in the region. Queen Elizabeth II granted the museum its royal title in 1990, recognizing its scientific importance.
The museum serves as a research center and draws scientists from many countries who work here on Cretaceous fossils. Visitors can look through large windows into active preparation labs and watch specialists at their daily work.
The drive from Calgary takes about an hour and a half heading northeast through the badlands landscape. The facility offers accessible entrances and opens Tuesday through Sunday in the morning.
One of the highlights is a Tyrannosaurus skeleton called Black Beauty, which ranks among the most complete of its kind worldwide. The exhibition rooms also hold fossilized marine reptiles from the time when this region lay underwater.
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