A 72 million-year-old dinosaur skull was discovered near Grande Prairie and is receiving international attention.  

It's from a Pachyrhinosaurus, the name translating to thick-nose lizard. On average, the dinosaur can grow up to 8 metres in length and weigh as much as 44 human adults.

The skull was discovered by the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum's paleontology team. They have named the skull “Big Sam”.

"It’s one of the biggest fossils we’ve ever pulled out of the bonebed," said Dr. Emily Bamforth, paleontologist and Curator at the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum.

The first bone was found in June 2023 while the team was digging at the Pipestone Creek Bonebed, just outside of Grande Prairie. By the time the team discovered it was a full skull, it was October. That made it too late in the season to remove a fossil of that kind, so they buried it in for the winter.

"We came back in June of this year. We pushed the hill back and we realized the skull was about twice as big as we thought it was,” said Dr. Bamforth.

Big Sam was jammed with 300 other Pachyrhinosaurus bones which had to be removed before the team began a careful excavation.

The discovery will help researchers learn more about the Pachyrhinosaurus. Pachyrhinosaurus dinosaurs are slightly different as individuals. It is often challenging to study those differences, but because of the sample sizes coming from the Pipestone Creek Bonebed, it is possible.

“It being a skull of a dinosaur, there is a huge amount of information on it. For example, we know the dinosaur has a braincase so we could potentially reconstruct the brain of a Pachyrhinosaurus based on this specimen …  there's also features preserved on Big Sam that are often missing or obscured in other specimens,” said Dr. Bamforth.

The team predicts Big Sam will not be on display for the next 12-16 months. It’s currently still covered in rock and a field jacket. The next stages are to remove the jacket and the rock, clean the surface of the bone, glue it together, fill in gaps, and stabilize it. Once Big Sam is studied, the plan is for it to be displayed in the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum.

Big Sam has received international coverage, and many are amazed by its size. Locals are also excited by the find. When the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum first made the announcement on social media, they received the most amount of attention they have gotten on a post. Locals can get a better look than most, as the museum allows its guests to watch the paleontologists at work through a window on the upper floor of the museum that looks into the lab.

During the summer, the museum runs a program called 'Palaeontologist for a Day' which is a guided excavation with researchers and field crews at the Pipestone Creek Bonebed, where the public can help excavate bones. Anyone camping at the site is welcome to watch. During the excavation of Big Sam, the team saw many members of the public get involved.

In addition to the skull, the team has extracted 700 other fossils over the summer.