page_title: Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology
section_title: Collection
hierarchical_section_title: Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology / Collection
caption_attribution_description: English: Borealopelta, the Suncor Nodosaur
context_page_description: The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology is a palaeontology museum and research facility in Drumheller, Alberta, Canada. The museum is situated within a 12,500-square-metre-building designed by BCW Architects at Midland Provincial Park.
  Efforts to establish a palaeontology museum were announced by the provincial government in 1981, with the palaeontology program of the Provincial Museum of Alberta spun-off to help facilitate the creation of a palaeontology museum. After four years of preparation, the Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology was opened in September 1985. The museum was later renamed the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in June 1990, following its bestowal of the title "royal" from Queen Elizabeth II. The museum's building was expanded twice in the 21st century. The first expansion was designed by BCW Architects, and was completed in 2003; while the second expansion was designed by Kasian Architecture, and was completed in 2019.
  The museum's personal collection includes over 160,000 cataloged fossils, consisting of over 350 holotypes. The museum displays approximately 800 fossils from its collection in its museum exhibits.
context_section_description: As of 2020, the museum's collection held over 350 holotypes, and approximately 160,000 cataloged fossils; providing the museum with the largest fossil collection in Canada. Items from the collection are either used for research, or for museum exhibits. Approximately 0.5 per cent of the collection are placed on display in the museum's exhibits.
  Approximately half of these items are fossils dating back to the Cretaceous period. The majority of these fossils originate from Alberta, with approximately 85 per cent of the fossils from the province being collected from the museum's fieldwork. In addition to the Cretaceous fossils of Alberta, the museum also holds a number of fossils from the Palaeocene of Alberta, the Palaeozoic of the Canadian Arctic, and in the Palaeozoic, Triassic, and Early Cretaceous of British Columbia.
  Besides fieldwork, the museum has also acquired items for its collection through a variety of other means, including donations, exchanges, purchases, salvage operations of industrial excavations, and from palaeontologists archiving their works at the museum. Most of the specimens that were purchased were acquired in the early 1980s, when the institution was provided a large acquisition budget in preparation for its opening. Approximately 3,000 specimens are added to the collection annually.
caption: A Borealopelta on display. The specimen is one of many from the collection that was found in Alberta
exif: {"Image Make": "Apple", "Image Model": "iPhone 7", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "10.3.1", "Image DateTime": "2017:05:22 13:17:38", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "194", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1794", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "12130", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/15", "EXIF FNumber": "9/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "64", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2017:05:22 13:17:38", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2017:05:22 13:17:38", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "2435/623", "EXIF ApertureValue": "2159/1273", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "4492/2639", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "399/100", "EXIF SubjectArea": "[2015, 1511, 2217, 1330]", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "386", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "386", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4032", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3024", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "28", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[399/100, 399/100, 9/5, 9/5]", "EXIF LensMake": "Apple", "EXIF LensModel": "iPhone 7 back camera 3.99mm f/1.8"}