Devil's Coulee Dinosaur Heritage Museum Fossil Hunting Guide

Introduction

Devil's Coulee, about 20 km west of Warner, Alberta, is Canada's first confirmed dinosaur nesting site. A local teenager, Wendy Sloboda, found eggshell fragments there in 1987. The Late Cretaceous Oldman Formation holds nests, eggs and embryos of the duck-billed dinosaur Hypacrosaurus stebingeri.

The Alberta government owns the land and designated the site a Provincial Historic Resource. The public can enter only on a guided tour from the Devil's Coulee Dinosaur Heritage Museum in Warner. Visitors cannot dig or keep fossils.

The museum opened in 1997. It lets you touch real fossils in the gallery. The site tour takes you to the coulee where the eggs came out of the ground.

Location and Directions

The museum is in the County of Warner Administration Building in Warner. The village lies about 30 minutes south of Lethbridge and 12 minutes north of Milk River. Turn west off Highway 4. Ample parking is available, and the museum is wheelchair accessible.

The nesting site is about 20 km west of Warner on the Milk River Ridge. Its coordinates are not published, and you cannot go there on your own. Site tours leave the museum at 9:00 am and 11:00 am, weather permitting. The drive to the site takes about 25 minutes.

The museum lists the next season as 19 May to 6 September 2027. It lists hours of 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, Wednesday to Sunday. Older pages show Tuesday to Sunday and slightly different dates, so confirm before you travel.

A museum visit costs $11 for adults and $6 for children aged 3 to 17 and seniors. The museum and site tour costs $36 for adults and $26 for youth and seniors. The extended site tour costs $46 for adults and $36 for youth and seniors. Children under 3 enter free. Solo travelers pay $50 or $60.

The museum recommends a reservation but does not require one. Email info@devilscoulee.com or call 403-642-2118. The museum collects payment on arrival.

What Fossils You'll Find

Eggs and eggshell are the signature fossils. Provincial heritage records note that both hadrosaurs and theropods nested at the site. Palaeontologists found eight nests with embryonic remains of Hypacrosaurus stebingeri. The finding suggests that these animals nested together and cared for their young.

Kevin Aulenback of the Royal Tyrrell Museum found embryos curled inside broken eggs on the final day of the first expedition. Philip Currie of the Tyrrell led the work. The site also holds a juvenile bone bed.

The Paleobiology Database lists other animals from Devil's Coulee collections. They include the theropods Troodon formosus, Saurornitholestes langstoni and Dromaeosaurus albertensis. It also lists the small theropod Hesperonychus elizabethae, the ceratopsian Prenoceratops and an ankylosaur. The database names eggshell types such as Prismatoolithus levis.

On a site tour you can explore the coulee and discover eggshell and other fossils. The museum states that you cannot remove them. In the museum gallery, you can touch real fossils on a guided gallery tour. Visitors can also make plaster casts.

Geologic History

The Oldman Formation formed in the middle Campanian, between about 77.5 and 76.5 million years ago. It lies in the Belly River Group. Light-colored sandstone, siltstone and mudstone built up in river channels and on floodplains.

The nesting site is a sharply cut ravine and an upland area of shortgrass prairie on the Milk River Ridge. The designated site covers about 275 hectares. Erosion cut the ravine and exposed the fossil-bearing beds.

Hadrosaurs nested on this floodplain in groups. The nests and embryos show that they nested communally. Theropods also nested at the site.

The sediment came mostly from northwestern Montana. The Oldman Formation lies above the Foremost Formation and below the Dinosaur Park Formation.

Collecting Rules and Regulations

You cannot dig or keep anything at Devil's Coulee. The museum states that Alberta fossil laws do not permit visitors to dig or to keep any fossils found at the site. If you find something notable, the museum says it might end up at the Royal Tyrrell Museum with your name as the official discoverer.

Alberta's Historical Resources Act sets the rules, and the Royal Tyrrell Museum calls them some of the strictest fossil protection laws in the world. The Act protects fossilized remains of plants and animals and traces of their activity. Fines run up to $50,000, one year in prison, or both. Alberta allows surface collecting of isolated fossils only on provincial Crown land or on private land with the landowner's permission. Excavating needs a permit that only professional palaeontologists receive.

You cannot collect in any provincial or national park or protected area. A legally collected fossil stays the property of Alberta. The finder is a custodian. You cannot sell, alter or remove it from the province without permission. Only leaf impressions, petrified wood and invertebrate fossils can gain a Disposition Certificate for personal ownership. Dinosaur fossils are not on that list.

If you find a fossil elsewhere in Alberta, photograph it and note its location. Leave buried fossils in the ground. Report the find to the Royal Tyrrell Museum.

Safety

The site tour is a moderate walk of about 1 km. There are no paved paths or handrails. The route does not suit wheelchairs, walkers or strollers. The coulee floor is clay, and wet clay shifts.

The museum cancels tours for heat, wind, waterlogged clay or an air quality warning. Check the forecast. Bring sturdy footwear, because flip-flops are not allowed. Carry one or two water bottles, a hat, sunscreen, insect repellent and snacks.

Stay with your guide at all times. The site is an active research area and a protected historic resource.

Sources

https://www.devilscoulee.com/tours/ https://www.devilscoulee.com/visit/ https://www.devilscoulee.com https://www.warner.ca/p/devil-s-coulee-dinosaur-heritage-museum https://www.travelalberta.com/listings/devils-coulee-dinosaur-museum-3463 https://historicplacesdays.ca/places/devils-coulee-dinosaur-museum https://heritageguide.ca/dinosaur-egg-site-near-warner-alberta https://albertashistoricplaces.com/2022/05/18/stories-of-discovery-devils-coulee-nesting-site/ https://tyrrellmuseum.com/node/54 https://www.lawnow.org/bone-up-on-the-law-before-collecting-fossils/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldman_Formation https://paleobiodb.org/data1.2/colls/list.json?lngmin=-112.6&lngmax=-112.0&latmin=49.1&latmax=49.5&show=loc,strat,coords,paleoloc&limit=50