Searching for a Stegosaurus in Alberta's Badlands

Dinosaur hunterssay there isan iconic dinosaur hiding out right here in Alberta.

Alberta is known as a dinosaur fossil hot-spot but paleontologists have yet to discover the spiked Stegosaurus in the province.

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"Stegosaurus is a dinosaurthat did undoubtedly live and die right here in Alberta, and many of its fossils are almost certainly here but they're still buried too far underground to really be discovered,"Scott Persons,paleontologist at the University of Alberta,told TheHomestretch.

Persons said the fossils are hidden deep below the ground butformations on the surface are "too young" to contain fossils of the armoured dinosaur.

Welcome toCretaceous park

Persons said the 160 million years spanning the age of dinosaurs is split into three main time periods the Triassic,Jurassic and Cretaceousperiods.

Fossils discovered in Dinosaur Provincial Park mainly come from themost-recent period, theCretaceous,while the Stegosaur roamed the earthduringthe older, middle period, the Jurassic.

Despite the franchise title, Persons said most of the dinosaurs in the Jurassic Park films were actuallyalive in the Cretaceous period, meaning the Stegosaurusnever ran into anyJurassic Park co-stars.

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"No T. rex actually ever crossed paths with a Stegosaurus, and neither did a lot of the other carnivorous dinosaurs like Velociraptor or Spinosaurus," Person said.

"Big predators that would have met a Stegosauruswould includeAllosaurusandTorvosuarus."

Persons said there are a number oftypes of Stegosaurus withdifferent armour patterns, the largest weighing in at more than fourtons and measuring ninemetres long.

While Persons said paleontology involves a lot ofgeological luck,the dinosaur hunter said he is confident there are Stegosauruses buried in Alberta, addingthe proof can be found when looking atdinosaur graveyards in the United States.

"Stegosaurusfossilshaven'tbeen found [in Alberta]but they're reallyabundantif you just hopover the border," Persons said.

"If you go toColoradoor theDakotas, if you're in the right age of rock, there's lots ofStegosaurusskeletons to be found."

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Persons said Stegosaurus would have roamed across a wide territory andtheirfossils are somewhere in Alberta butjust haven't been foundyet.

"Undoubtedlythey did live in the Dinosaur Park area, butbecauseour rock layers are so much youngerwe haven't found them," he said.

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With files from the Calgary Homestretch