If you’re looking for dinosaurs, you’ve come to the right place…
Get ready for a tour of the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta, Canada, which is home to lots of ancient animals! 🦖🦕
There are over 800 fossils permanently on display at the museum, but only five of them have Guinness World Records titles.
Let's take a closer look at the prehistoric record-breakers...
Borealopelta markmitchelli
Pronunciation: Bor-ee-al-oh-pell-tah mark-mi-chell-eye
This is the best-preserved armoured dinosaur in the world.
Borealopelta lived about 110 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous period.
It was found in the oil sands of Alberta. Scientists believe that after it died, the animal’s body was quickly buried in mud at the bottom of the sea, which is why it’s so well preserved. ☠️
You can see the skin and armour are still unbroken where they would have been when the dinosaur was alive. Even the keratin on the armour is still there. (Keratin is what animal hair, horns, shells and nails are made of.)
What’s even more amazing is that the dinosaur’s stomach contents were fossilized too, so we know what it was eating before it died! 😋
Shonisaurus sikanniensis
Pronunciation: Show-ni-saw-rus sik-an-ee-en-sis
This is the largest marine reptile ever found.
This supersized sea-dweller is a whopping 21 m (69 ft) long! 😵
Shonisaurus existed during the Triassic period, 220 million years ago.
Technically it’s an ichthyosaur, not a dinosaur. Ichthyosaurs are like dinosaur cousins, but these reptiles lived in water. 🌊
Shonisaurus didn’t have any teeth, so it probably ate food in the same way that whale sharks do – by scooping up water in its mouth and swallowing any fish that get caught. 🐟😋
Albertonectes vanderveldei
Pronunciation: Al-bur-toh-neck-tees van-der-vell-die
This is the longest-necked animal ever, with a record 76 neck vertebrae (small bones).
That’s more than any animal to ever exist. Even a giraffe only has seven neck bones! 🦒
Albertonectes is an elasmosaur, which is a type of marine reptile characterized by its long neck. 🦕
The specimen at the Royal Tyrrell Museum is over 12 m (39 ft) long. 😲
Its neck is more than half the length of its entire body!
Ornithomimus
Pronunciation: Or-nith-oh-my-mus
This is the best-preserved ornithomimid dinosaur ever found.
It’s nearly 100% complete – only a few finger bones are missing. 🦴️🦴️
Ornithomimids roamed the planet 76 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period.
They are bird-mimic dinosaurs, sometimes referred to as "ostrich dinosaurs" because of their similar appearance.
Ornithomimids and ostriches have many things in common, such as long necks, large eyes, feathers, beaks and powerful legs for running fast. 💨
Gorgosaurus libratus
Pronunciation: Gorg-oh-saw-rus lib-rat-us
This is the most complete tyrannosaurid skeleton ever found. 🦖
With its sharp teeth and tiny arms, Gorgosaurus is like a smaller, earlier cousin of T.rex. The other dinosaurs were definitely scared of it! 😱
It existed around 75 million years ago, during the Cretaceous Period.
Such complete skeletons like this are very rare to find. It means that the dinosaur was buried very quickly after it died. ☠️
The Royal Tyrrell Museum is featured in Guinness World Records 2022 on page 156! 📖
