Left to right: Dion Hrushkin, Nathan Hrushkin, Francois Therrien. (Supplied by Nature Conservancy of Canada)

By David Opinko

12-year-old from Calgary makes “significant find” of Hadrosaur bones near Drumheller

Oct 15, 2020 | 2:46 PM

DRUMHELLER, AB – A young aspiring Southern Alberta paleontologist found a set of dinosaur bones that could hold the key in understanding a period of prehistoric times.

Nathan Nrushkin and his family first went to the Horseshow Canyon near Drumheller two years ago and he found a few small bone fragments. He, his father Dion, and a few friends returned to the area in June 2020.

He says he has always had a fascination with dinosaurs and fossils, especially as bones, similar to ones in his own body, could essentially be turned into stones over millions of years.

Dion, a geologist himself, told his son that some of the bones might have washed up near the top of a plateau, so Nathan quickly made his way to the area.

There, the younger Nrushkin found a few dinosaur bones “in all its glory.”

Nighttime construction on Hwy 3 in Lethbridge starts April 17

Apr 17, 2025

SASHA launches #BuyABed fundraiser to support vulnerable Lethbridge residents

Apr 04, 2025

$20K grants available: TELUS STORYHIVE Pan-Asian Edition opens applications April 1

Mar 18, 2025

“The first thing that came across my mind was to call my dad up, so I was just like ‘oh my god, dad, you need to get up here’. My dad said he could tell by the tone in my voice that I had found something good.”

From there, the family got a hold of the Royal Tyrrell Museum.

Curator of Dinosaur Paleontology Francois Therrien went to the area with the family to examine what they had found.

It was part of a Hadrosaur from about 68-to-71 million years ago.

“Those are the most common dinosaurs found in Alberta, at least they were the most common at the end of the Cretaceous. They were probably as common as deer are today. The discovery made by Nathan is a young individual of a duck-billed dinosaur,” says Therrien.

“What’s interesting about this find is that it comes from a time interval for which we know very little about what dinosaur species lived in Western North America during that time period. It’ll probably fill in gaps in our knowledge.”

While scientists know that there were dinosaurs on the continent, they do not know if there were older species during that time or if newer ones were around.

The paleontologist says, in the initial photos that were sent to him, there were some bones that he could not immediately identify.

“Once I got on the field, I looked at some bones and I was like, I think that’s part of the lower jaw, that’s part of the skull of the animal, so this is a significant find. Finding dinosaurs that have the bones of the rest of the skeleton and we also have the head of the animal, that makes it extremely significant.”

The recovered bones include ones from all four limbs, hips, shoulders, and the partial skull.

The excavation process took a few months to complete due to the difficulty of removing the series of bones from the rocky hill.

The fossils arrived back at the museum Thursday.

“Now, the blocks are going to be rolled into our preparation lab, which visitors to the museum can look through the window and see all the technicians slaving away at opening the big blocks covered with burlap and plaster and then using a variety of small tools to carve out all the rocks and expose the bones very slowly.”

Therrien described the Hrushkin family as a “textbook example” of how people should go about finding fossils. They took photos of the fossils, noted the coordinations to their location and how they got to the spot, and emailed the museum.

Carys Richards, Communications Manager for the Nature Conservancy of Canada, says Alberta has strict rules when it comes to dinosaur bones, so it is important for people to not attempt to extract it themselves.

The Horseshoe Canyon is one of the NCC’s conservation areas.

“I think that the discovery of this dinosaur demonstrates the need for land conservation, not just for future generations, but also because it helps up unearth the mysteries of our planet’s history,” says Richards.

If you discover a fossil in Alberta, you are asked to visit the Royal Tyrrell Museum’s website or send an email to tyrrell.fossilreport@gov.ab.ca.

One of the Hadrosaur bones. (Supplied by Nature Conservancy of Canada)

Francois Therrien investigating the Hadrosaur bones. (Supplied by Nature Conservancy of Canada)

An artist rendering of a species of Hadrosaur. (Supplied by Smithsonian Magazine)

For local news delivered daily to your email inbox, subscribe for free to the Lethbridge News Now newsletter here. You can also download the Lethbridge News Now mobile app in the Google Play and the Apple App Stores.