The park is in the valley of the Red Deer River, which is noted for its badland topography. The park is one of the richest dinosaur fossil locales in the world. Forty dinosaur species have been discovered at the park and more than 500 specimens have been removed and exhibited in museums across the globe. The fossil assemblage of nearly 500 species, from microscopic fern spores to large carnivorous dinosaurs, justified it becoming a World Heritage Site in 1979.
The Visitor Centre has exhibits about dinosaurs, fossils, and the geology and natural history of the park. There is a video theater, fossil prep lab area, and a gift shop. Public programs are offered in the summer.
John Ware's Cabin is a restored early 20th century cabin that was used by John Ware, an African-American cowboy and important figure in Alberta's ranching history. The cabin is near the visitor center and is open on select days in the summer.
The Park was set up on June 27, 1955 as part of Alberta's 50th Jubilee Year. The main aim was to protect the fossil beds. The park was recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site on October 26, 1979. Its significant badlands and riverside habitats, and the importance of the fossils found here, were listed as reasons.
Until 1985, discoveries made in the park had to be shipped to museums throughout the world for scientific analysis and display, including the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa, and the American Museum of Natural History in New York. This changed with the opening of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology 100 kilometers upstream in Midland Provincial Park. This has a mission to "collect, preserve, research and interpret palaeontological history with special reference to Alberta’s fossil heritage".
The Park protects a very complex ecosystem with three communities: prairie grasslands, badlands, and riverside cottonwoods. Its ecosystem is surrounded by prairies. Choruses of coyotes are common at dusk, as are the calls of nighthawks. Cottontail rabbits, mule deer, and pronghorn can all be seen in the park; the prairie rattlesnake, bull snake and the red-sided garter snake are present as well. Curlews and Canada geese are among the 165 bird species that can be seen in the spring and summer. Some of the most northern species of cactus, including "Opuntia" (prickly pear) and "Pediocactus" (pincushion) can be seen in full bloom during the later half of June.
The sediments of Dinosaur Provincial Park span 2.8 million years and three formations. The terrestrial Oldman Formation is at the base of the strata; the terrestrial Dinosaur Park Formation above, and the marine Bearpaw at the top. The Dinosaur Park Formation, which contains most of the fossils with articulated skeletons, was mostly laid down by large rivers in very warm temperate coastal lowlands. It was on the western margin of the Western Interior Seaway. The formation dates to about 75 million years ago. The Dinosaur Park Formation lasted about a million years.
Dinosaur Provincial Park preserves an extraordinarily diverse group of freshwater vertebrates. Fish include sharks, rays, paddlefish, bowfins, gars, and teleosts. Amphibians include frogs, salamanders, and extinct albanerpetontids. Reptiles include lizards (such as the large monitor "Paleosaniwa"), a wide range of turtles, crocodilians, and the fish-eating "Champsosaurus". Mammals such as shrews, marsupials, and squirrel-like rodents are also there, although usually only noticed by their fossilized teeth, rather than bones.
Mega-plant fossils are rare in the park, but pollen grains and spores collected from here suggest that these forests contained sycamore, magnolia and bald cypress trees, and "Metasequoia".
The dinosaurs of the park are astonishingly diverse. They include:
Ceratopsia
Hadrosauridae
Ankylosauria
Hypsilophodontidae
Pachycephalosauria
Tyrannosauridae
Ornithomimidae
Caenagnathidae
Dromaeosauridae
Troodontidae
Classification Uncertain
Birds of the "Hesperornis" type were present, as well as giant Pterosauria related to "Quetzalcoatlus". multituberculates, Stagodont marsupials and placental mammals scurried underfoot.
Kerman
Kerman is a city in and capital of Kerman Province, Iran. At the 2011 census, 621,374 people lived there. This city is south of Tehran, the capital of Iran.
Mule (footwear)
Mule shoes are shoes that are backless and almost always closed-toed. They can be any heel height (flat to high). The shoes are almost always worn by females. High heeled mule shoes were a popular indoor shoe in the 18th century. By the early twentieth century, the shoes were very often associated with prostitutes. However, in the early 1950s, Marilyn Monroe popularized the shoes and helped to break their poor reputations. Similar shoes, called slides, were introduced in the early 1990s, except that slides are open-toed versions of mules.
Christiaan Barnard
Christiaan Neethling Barnard (8 November 1922 – 2 September 2001) was a South African heart surgeon. He was born in Beaufort West, Cape Province, Union of South Africa. He did the first successful heart transplant from human to human. He died of asthma in Paphos, Cyprus. His brother was Marius Barnard.
Slip-on shoe
Slip-on shoes are laceless shoes. The style most commonly seen is called a loafer or slipper, with a moccasin construction. They began appearing in mid 1930s Norway as casual shoes, though they have increased in popularity to the point of being worn with lounge suits. They are worn mostly by females, though men wear the shoes, also.
Ring of Honor
Ring of Honor (ROH) is a professional wrestling company founded in 2002 by Rob Feinstein and Gabe Sapolsky. The president of the company is Cary Silkin. Their headquarters are in Bristol, Pennsylvania. Matches for the company airs on The Fight Network in Canada and on Samurai TV in Japan. The company also aired matches in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
The company was started by RF Video owner, Rob Feinstein after Extreme Championship Wrestling went out of business. Feinstein left the company in 2004 after he was caught in an internet sting operation allegedly trying to ask for sex on the internet from a person who he thought was an 13 year old boy but was actually an adult, pretending to be the boy. Gabe Sapolsky left the company on October 26, 2008. Doug Gentry bought Feinstein's stake in the company and sold it to Cary Silkin who then became the president of the company.
Ring of Honor followed a set of rules called the "code of honor". The code of honor was considered a moral requirement to follow. They were put in place to make Ring of Honor feel more like Japanese professional wrestling. There were originally 5 rules set in place but they were retired in 2004. They reappeared again and were changed to only 3 rules.
Thai basil
Thai basil, or Asian basil is a type of sweet basil. It is found in Southeast Asia. Thai basil has small, narrow leaves and purple stems. The flower is a mauve (pink-purple) color. One cultivar commonly grown in the United States is 'Queen of Siam'.
Thai basil is an important ingredient in the very popular Taiwanese dish, "sanbeiji" (three cup chicken). Used as a condiment, a plate of raw Thai basil leaves is often served with "phở" (Vietnamese-style noodle soup) so each customer can season it to taste with the anise-flavored leaves.
Bolivian coriander
Bolivian coriander ("Porophyllum ruderale") is an annual plant. Its leaves can be used for seasoning food. The taste has been described as "somewhere between arugula, cilantro and rue." The plant is commonly grown in Mexico and South America. There it is used in salsas. When fully grown, this plant grows to about 5 feet in height and 3 feet in diameter.
This herb is known by many names, including "quillquiña" (also spelled "quirquiña" or "quilquiña"), "killi", "papalo", "tepegua" and "pápaloquelite".