1" Albertosaurus Premax Tooth - Alberta (Disposition #000028-29)

First, a note on the legality of this fossil. Alberta has very strict laws pertaining to fossil collection. Fossils may not be removed from the province of Alberta without permission from the government. To gain ownership of a fossil, you must be issued a Disposition Certificate from Alberta's Royal Tyrrell Museum. Only a few fossil types are currently eligible for disposition: mostly ammonites, petrified wood, leaves and fossil oysters.

This specimen is part of a collection of dinosaur material that was collected by a single individual (Steve Walchina) decades ago prior to the current law. Because it was collected before the law went into effect, the collection was "grandfathered" in. The collection was reviewed by the Royal Tyrrell Museum and a disposition certificate issued for portions of it that were not considered scientifically significant. This moved the fossils into private ownership and allowed them to be removed from the province. The disposition certificate (#000028-29) is on file with the Royal Tyrrell Museum. This makes the small amount of Alberta dinosaur fossils we recently acquired from this collection some of the only legal Alberta dinosaur material on the market.

Albertosaurus is a genus of tyrannosaurid dinosaur that lived in North America during the Late Cretaceous period, approximately 70 million years ago. It would have been very similar to a T-Rex, but was likely about half the size, weighing less than two tons.

Albertosaurus shared a similar body type with other tyrannosaurids. It was bipedal with very small forearms, each with only two claws. They could run 8-13 miles per hour and may have hunted in packs. Albertosaurus teeth had very thin serrations that would have been used to pull meat from the body of their prey rather than cut it.