Alberta’s best-known dinosaur hunter is recognized with special award

Posted Nov 8, 2012 01:46:56 AM.

This article is more than 5 years old.

ALBERTA-Alberta’s best-known dinosaur hunter has been given a lifetime achievement award by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.

Philip Currie, 63, says when he started his career, there were just two palaeontologists in all of Canada and about a dozen people in the world hunting for dinosaur fossils.

Now there are about 125, and movies such as “Jurassic Park” have made dino-mania mainstream.

In fact, Currie’s award was to be handed out in Ottawa on Wednesday by a celebrity fan, actor Dan Aykroyd.

Currie helped found the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Drumheller, Alta.

His career includes so many dinosaur finds that funding is currently underway to support the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum, anticipated to open in July 2013 in northwestern Alberta.

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