Joseph Burr Tyrrell

The late Joseph Burr Tyrell was a renowned geologist and explorer. He discovered the Albertosaurus sarcophagus dinosaur while surveying potential railroad routes in Alberta for Canadian Geological Survey. He explored and surveyed the Barren Lands region north of Winnipeg and west of Hudson’s Bay beginning in 1893, former fur-trading lands that were new Canadian territory and partially unmapped. A participant in the Yukon gold rush in 1899, he was a recipient of the Royal Society of Canada’s Flavelle Gold Medal. The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology in Drumheller, Alberta is named after him.