Patulosuros puzzle, the comprehensive grave in Canada

Hidden under the lush forest slopes in Alberta, Canada, is a massive grave on a huge scale.

Thousands of dinosaurs were buried here, killed in a moment in complete destruction.

Now, a group of environmental scientists came to Pipestone Creek-nicknamed the “River of Death”-to help solve a 72 million-year-old puzzle: How did they die?

Trying to work exactly what happened here begins with the huge strike of the hammer.

The brutal force is needed to open the thick layer of rocks that cover what Professor Emily Bamflith, who leads the pits as “Balo Gold”, is needed.

When its team begins the most sensitive task in removing the layers of dirt and dust, a mixture of fossilized bones slowly begins to appear.

“This large point of bones, there is a part of the hip,” says Professor Bamfaret.

“Then here, we have all these slim bones. These are all ribs. This is an elegant one – it’s part of the toe bone. This is here, we have no idea what it is – it’s a great example of the Pipestone Creek puzzle.”

BBC News has come to Pipestone Creek to see the huge scope of this prehistoric cemetery and see how researchers collect clues together.

Thousands of excavations were collected from the site, and constantly generated New discoveries.

All bones belong to a dinosaur called Pachyrhinosaurus. The species, Professor Bamflith, are engraved in a prominent BBC series – walking with dinosaurs – which use visual effects and science to make this prehistoric world.

These animals, which lived during the late Cretaceous era, were close to Tricaratops. It is about five meters long and weighs the tinnitus, The monsters had four large headsDecorate with a distinctive bone pillar and three centuries. The feature of determining it was a great bump on the nose called its boss.

The excavation season has just started and lasts every fall. Excavations in the small correction of the land on which the team works incredibly packed. Professor Bamflith estimates that there are up to 300 bones per square meter.

Until now, her team has dug an area the size of a tennis court, but the bone bed extends to one kilometer next to the hill.

She tells us: “It is the jaw decreases in terms of its density.”

“We believe, one of the largest bone family in North America.

“More than half of the known dinosaurs in the world have been described from one sample. We have thousands of Pachyrhinosaurus here.”

Selling scientists believe that dinosaurs migrated together in a huge flock for hundreds of miles from the south – where they spent winter – to the north for the summer.

The area, which had a warmer climate than it was today, was covered with rich plants, providing abundant food for this huge group of animals that eat plants.

“It is one of one type of animal from a time shot, which is a huge sample size. This never happens in the fossil registry,” says Professor Bamflith.

This correction from northwest of Alberta was not home to Pachyrhinosaurus. Even the largest dinosaurs that wandered this land, and its study is necessary to try to understand this old ecosystem.

Two hours by car, we reach Deadfall hills. Reaching there is a picnic through a dense forest, or going through – or sticking to dogs in the case of ASTER – via a fast -range river, climbing on slippery rocks.

Do not dig up here; The super -sized bones are located next to the coastal line, washing them from the rock and cleaning them with flowing water, just waiting for capture.

A huge paragraph is quickly monitored, as well as parts of the ribs and teeth scattered across the mud.

The jazz world is concerned with the Palaeontival Jackson Sweder in particular with a part of the dinosaur skull. He says: “Most of what we find here is a dinosaur filled with ducks called Edmontosorus. If this is a bone of a skull, this is a large dinosaur – it may be 30 feet (10 meters).”

Edmontosorus, other herb, wandered by forests like Balalosurus – and environmental scientists help build a picture of this old land.

Sweder is the assembly manager at the Philip J Currie Dinosaur Museum in the near Grande Prairie, where the bones are considered from these two giants to clean and analyze them. It is currently working on a huge Pachyrhinosaurus skull with a length of about 1.5 meters, and it has been called “Big Sam”.

It indicates the place where the three centuries should be in the upper part of the decoration, but those in the middle are missing. He says: “All the skulls that have been completely completed have a rise in that spot,” he says. “But it seems that the gentle unicorn height does not look there.”

Over the years working on the extraordinary site, the museum team collected 8000 dinosaur bones, and covers the surfaces of the laboratory in the excavations; There are bones of Pachyrhinosaurus of every size, from young to senior.

The presence of materials from many animals allows researchers to identify dinosaurs biology, and answer questions about how species grow and community makeup. They can also look at the individual differences, to see how Pachyrhinosaurus can emerge from the herd – as it may be the case with Big Sam and its lost height.

All this detailed research, in the museum and at the two sites, helps the team to answer the vital question: How did many animals die in Pipestone Creek at the same time?

“We believe this was a flock to a seasonal migration in some catastrophic events that have been effectively eliminated, if not the whole herd, then a good percentage of it,” says Professor Bamflith.

All evidence indicates that this catastrophic event was a flashing flood – perhaps a storm on the mountains that sent a torrent that cannot be stopped from the water towards the herd, and tear trees from its variable roots and rocks.

Professor Bamflith says Pachyrhinosaurus will not stand a chance. “These animals are not able to move very quickly because of their absolute numbers, and they are very heavy – not very good in swimming at all.”

The rocks on the site show the sediments of fast water that flows everything. It seems as if the destruction freezes in time as a wave in the stone.

But this nightmare day for dinosaurs has now become a dream of environmental scientists.

“We know, every time we come here, it is guaranteed 100 % we will find bones. Every year we discover something new about the species,” says Professor Bamflith.

“That is why we continue to return, because we still find new things.”

Since the team packs its tools ready to return on another day, they know that there is a lot of work in the future. They only scratched the surface of what is here – and there are many secrets that date back to prehistoric pending disclosure.

The new series of walking with dinosaurs begins on Sunday, May 25 at 18:25 GMT on BBC One, with all loops on BBC iPlayer.