pachyrhinosaurus lakustai

Alberta teacher finds namesake in newly discovered dinosaur

By Damien Wood, THE CANADIAN PRESS

GRANDE PRAIRIE, Alta. — Waiting for the naming of the dinosaur species he discovered in the Pipestone Creek area 34 years ago, Al Lakusta said the event would bring everything full circle for him.

He had no idea, walking into Grande Prairie Regional College on Wednesday night, just how right he was.

At the public presentation, Phil Currie — research chairman of dinosaur paleobiology at the University of Alberta — revealed the name of animal as pachyrhinosaurus lakustai, after the man who discovered it.

“It probably won’t surprise most people, but hopefully it will surprise Al a little bit,” said Currie prior to the announcement.

“Having something named after you — something that’s going to be long-lasting like a dinosaur — is really a great honour. Most people don’t get that opportunity, of course, and most people that do are already dead, so they don’t know.”

Currie said naming something after a living person signifies a respect even deeper.

“Al was so wonderful in bringing this material to us in the first place and donating the initial material to the (Royal) Tyrrell Museum, that really there was no question right from the beginning that we would name it after him,” said Currie.

“We’ve known that for years, but this is it.”

Lakusta was greeted was a standing ovation as he entered the room.

“It’s hard to put into words,” said Lakusta. “It’s the culmination of 34 years waiting for something to happen — something I was trying to get going and something that Tyrrell was trying to get going … it has been a work in progress.”

Lakusta, a former earth science teacher, made the discovery on Labour Day weekend in 1974, while exploring an area he had taken his Grade 8 students to many times.

This time, however, he explored a little further along the creek bed.

First he found rib fragments, then he came across vertebrae and part of a femur.

These were identified as dinosaur bones by the Provincial Museum in Edmonton, and it sparked an urge in Lakusta to begin excavation of the site himself.

Permit issues would cut his work short about a year and a half after he started, but in 1978, the Royal Tyrrell Museum took an interest and picked up where Lakusta left off.

“Since that discovery, which as it turns out is one of the richest bonebeds in the world, other discoveries are being made now … since then we’ve had half a dozen other species at least coming out of here, and I know there will be a lot more,” said Lakusta.

“Almost everything we touch right now is going to be new stuff.”

Currie has said the site has more than 100 bones per square metre.

http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Edmonton/2008/10/02/6959911.html

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Further Reading

History of Discovery
by Al Lakusta
http://www.riverofdeath.ca/pipestone/history.htm

Pachyrhinosaurus, “Thick-nosed Reptile”
http://www.riverofdeath.ca/pipestone/pachyrhinosaurus.htm