Secret of Pachyrhinosaurus mass grave in Canada

Hidden under the slopes of a lavish forest in Alberta, Canada, there is a mass grave monumental.

Thousands of dinosaurs were buried here, which were killed in one day in one day.

Now a group of paleontologists have come to the Pipestone Creek-nickname with the nickname “River of Death”-to solve a 72 million year old puzzle: How did you die?

The attempt to find out exactly what happened here begins with the strong strike of a default hammer.

Brute Force is needed to open the thick layer of rock that covers what Professor Emily Bamforth, who leads the DIG, describes as “Paleo Gold”.

When your team begins the more tender task when removing the layers of dirt and dust, a mess of petrified bones slowly occurs.

“This big bone block, as we think, is part of a hip,” says Prof. Bamforth, who is observed by her dog Astern – whose task it is today when she discovered bears nearby.

“Then we have all of these long, thin bones here. These are all ribs. And that's a decent – it is part of a toe bone. We have no idea what it is – it's a great example of a Pipestone Creek mysterium.”

BBC News came to Pipestone Creek to experience the sheer scale of this prehistoric cemetery and see how researchers put together the clues.

Thousands of fossils have been collected by the website and constantly create new discoveries.

The bones all belong to a dinosaurs called Pachyrhinosaurus. The species and the excavation of Prof. Bamforth are in a new pioneering BBC series -Walking with dinosaur -that uses visual effects and science to bring this prehistoric world to life.

These animals lived during the late Cretaceous period were a relative of the Triceratops. The four -legged beasts had about five meters long and two tons weighed, had big heads, decorated with an unmistakable bony frill and three horns. Their defined feature was a large bump in the nose, which was referred to as a boss.

The Dig season has just started and lasts every year until autumn. The fossils in the small floor on which the team works are incredibly tight. Prof. Bamforth estimates that up to 300 bones are available on each square meter.

So far, your team has excavated an area of ​​the size of a tennis court, but the bone bed extends for a kilometer to the slope.

“It falls pine regarding its density,” she tells us.

“We think one of the largest bone beds in North America.

“More than half of the world's well -known dinosaur species is described from a single copy. We have thousands of Pachyrhinosaurus here.”

Paleontologists believe that the dinosaurs for hundreds of kilometers from the south – where they had spent winter – merged in a colossal herd in summer.

The area that had a much warmer climate than today would have been covered with rich vegetation and provided plenty of food for this enormous group of herbal animals.

“It is a single community of a single species from a snapshot in time and a large sample size. That almost never happens in the fossil stock,” says Prof. Bamforth.

And in this piece of Northwesternalberta, not only Pachyrhinosaurus was at home. This country roared even larger dinosaurs and studying is important to understand this old ecosystem.

We reach the Deadfall Hills two hours away. On arrival, a hike through dense forest, the WATING – or the dog mirror in the case of Aster – includes climbing over a rapid river and over slippery stones.

No ditch is required here; Super large bones lie next to the coast, are washed out of the rock and cleaned by the flowing water, only waiting to be picked up.

A huge vertebrae is quickly discovered, as is ribs and teeth that are scattered over the mud.

Paleontologist Jackson Sweder is particularly interested in a piece of dinosaur skulls. “Most of what we find here is a dinosaurs from duck bar called Edmontosaurus. If this is a skull bone, this is a big dinosaurs that is big – probably 30 feet (10 m) long,” he says.

The Edmontosaurus, another herbivore, roamed the forests like the Pachyrhinosaurus – and helps to build a picture of this old country.

Schweder is the collective manager in the Philip J Currie Dinosaur Museum in the nearby Grande Prairie, where the bones from these two giants are analyzed for cleaning and analyzed. He is currently working on a huge Pachyrhinosaurus skull, which is about 1.5 m long and was called “Big Sam”.

He points out where the three horns are supposed to stand on the top of the ruffles, but that is missing in the middle. “All skulls that are properly complete have an increase at this point,” he says. “But it's nice little unicorn spike doesn't seem to be there.”

During the years at the extraordinary location, the museum team has collected 8,000 dinosaur bones, and the surfaces of the laboratory are covered with fossils. There are bones from Pachyrhinosaurus in every size, from young to old.

Through the Materius of so many animals, researchers can get to know dinosaur biology and answer questions about how the species grows and the compilation of the community. You can also see individual variations to see how a Pachyrhinosaurus can stand out from the herd – as with Big Sam and his missing spike.

All of these detailed studies in the museum and at the two locations help the team to answer the important question: How have so many animals died in Pipestone Creek at the same time?

“We believe that this was a herd in a seasonal migration that got tangled up in a catastrophic event that was effectively wiped out, if not the entire herd, then a good part of it,” says Prof. Bamforth.

All evidence indicates that this catastrophic event was a flood of falls – perhaps a storm over the mountains, which sent an unstoppable water flows into the herd, tore trees out of their roots and boulder boulders.

Prof. Bamforth says that the Pachyrhinosaurus had no chance. “Because of their numerous numbers, these animals cannot move very quickly, and they are very high – and really not swimming very well.”

The sediment vertebrae from the fast -flowing water, which absorbs everything absorbs everything on the site. It is as if the destruction is frozen as a wave in the stone in time.

But this nightmare day for the dinosaurs is now a dream for paleontologists.

“We know every time we come here, it is 100% guaranteed that we will find bones. And every year we discover something new about the species,” says Prof. Bamforth.

“That's why we keep coming back because we still find new things.”

While the team wraps its tools to return another day, they know that there is a lot of work in front of them. You have just scratched the surface of what is here – and there are many other prehistoric secrets that are just waiting to be revealed.

The new series from Walking with dinosaurs on Sunday, May 25th at 6:25 p.m. BST on BBC One, whereby all episodes are available on BBC iPlayer.