“DINOSAUR” GARDEN.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 123, 6 March 1936, Page 7

“DINOSAUR” GARDEN.

PREHISTORIC MONSTERS. A PARK AT CALGARY. A graphic portrayal of an Alberta swamp in. the prehistoric period 50,000,000 years ago is to be created by the Calgary Zoological Society, in co-operation with outstanding Canadian and United States paleontologists. Forty dinosaurs, some as long as 120 feet and as big in proportion, will be erected in natural posture and as nearly as possible the same size as the extinct reptiles. Flying fish, fisheating lizards, and other curious creatures which sloshed through the steaming swamps and dense jungle growths in the long ago will be displayed. The reptiles will be ranged along a narrow creek on ,St. George’s Island, one of the city parks at Calgary. The fossil beds on one side of the creek will contain genuine remains of crabs, soft-shell turtles, a 20-foot long section of a huge petrified tree, and other specimens dug up by scientists in the Red Deer River “bad-lands,” 100 miles east of Calgary. This field has yielded up more paleontological information than any other in the world. When the exhibit is finished, it is believed it will attract tourists and scientific visitors from all parts of the world. The only other dinosaur garden known is at Hamburg, Germany, but it is getting old and some of the information on which it was built has been rendered obsolete through subsequent discovery. Many varieties ot jungle plants that grew in Alberta ages ago—palms, cacti, swamp lilies, and water lilies—will be copied and set in natural positions to give an accurate and detailed picture. Alberta is the Canadian province which borders the Rockies, the northern extension of the “backbone” of the Americas which begin in the Andes. Most of the province is rolling prairie land sloping east and north. Galgaiy is located in the southern part, about 60 miles from the mountains. One exhibit for the new gardens—a chasmosaurus, or horned dinosaur, was made from a model and finished last autumn. Dr. L. S. Russell, of the Department of Mines, Geological Buivey, Ottawa, built- the model. After workmen had made a life-size dinosaur from the model, C. M. Sternberg, Canadian authority on the subject, came from the National Museum at the capital (Ottawa) to apply the finishing touches. Earn uni Brown, famous paleontologist of tli e American Museum of Natural History at New York, has fashioned a model of a duck-bill sauiian or trachodon, the next to bo added. It wilf be 39ft. Sin. from snout to tip of tail. Mr Brown will make additional models later.