A crew working on a pipeline near Spirit River, Alberta has unearthed a 30-metre long dinosaur fossil. The fossilized dinosaur skeleton was discovered on Tuesday after a backhoe operator accidentally broke off a piece of the fossil when moving some earth.
Assuming he had merely chipped off some rock, the operator put the piece aside and went back to work. That’s when he spotted the uncovered fossil. He immediately halted work on the site until experts and palaeontologists could be brought in.
Palaeontologists from the Tyrell Museum and National Geographic have arrived on the scene to assess the fossil.
The fossil had been buried about 1.5 metres below ground in the Saddle Hills area southwest of Spirit River. Spirit River is approximately 500 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.