Posted on 23 September 2025 by Chris Brown.
Southeastern Alberta’s deep dinosaur connection is growing right here at Medicine Hat Public Library.
In celebration of its 40th anniversary, Royal Tyrrell Museum is establishing pop-up exhibits at libraries across Alberta starting in September. Medicine Hat Public Library is excited to announce our highlight fossil – the hadrosaur Lambeosaurus.
The skull cast belongs to a nearly complete skeleton that was collected from the Manyberries area, about 70 kilometres south of Medicine Hat, in the 1930s. Lambeosaurus was a large hadrosaur, or duck-billed dinosaur, and the skull is pegged at between 74.4 and 76.5 million years old.
"We are excited the Royal Tyrrell Museum is sharing a very cool piece of Alberta history with us on the occasion of its 40th anniversary,” says chief librarian Ken Feser. “I think our visitors are going to be impressed by this cast of a duck-billed dinosaur skull that was found right here in our area. Parents, you definitely want to bring your kids down to the library to see this."
In addition to the skull, the display next to the Information Desk on the upper level also includes a hadrosaur skin impression that people can touch. The exhibit will be at the library for the next year.
Children’s library staff are preparing for our traditional Dinovember to be more intense than usual, and will have numerous activity sheets to hand out. As well, the library will feature the display during school visits and other educational experiences.
FUN FACTS
- Lambeosaurus was named after the Canadian palaeontologist Lawrence Lambe, who was one of the first scientists to study Alberta’s dinosaurs.
- It is known for the axe-shaped crest on top of its head, which was likely used to attract a mate.
- This Lambeosaurus is so well preserved that the skeleton includes traces of skin along the neck and forelimbs.
- Hadrosaurs had stacks of teeth for grinding up the plants they ate. As older teeth wore down, new ones grew in to replace them.
- Hadrosaurs were herbivores, and were nicknamed "cows of the Cretaceous" because they were abundant, lived in herds and grazed on plants with their flat-surfaced teeth.
For more on Royal Tyrrell Museum’s 40th anniversary, visit www.tyrrellmuseum.com
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