Darren Tanke
Encyclopedia
Darren H. Tanke is a Canadian fossil preparation technician of the Dinosaur Research Program at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Drumheller, Alberta. Born in Calgary, Tanke became interested in natural history at an early age. In 1979, Tanke began working for Philip J. Currie in the paleontology department of the Provincial Museum of Alberta, originally as a volunteer. From 1979 until 2005 (when Dr. Currie left the Tyrrell to become a professor at the University of Alberta in Edmonton) Tanke worked as a lab and field technician, a job he still holds today.
At the museum he is a senior technician in the preparation lab. He does not hold any formal post-secondary degrees, but is active in research and numerous writing projects. Senior editor of the 2001 book Mesozoic Vertebrate Life: New Research Inspired by the Paleontology of Philip J. Currie, Tanke appeared in the 1998 documentary film
Dinosaur Park, and the 1993 educational film Messages in Stone.
s and dinosaur paleopathology
; his recent work includes preparation of Pachyrhinosaurus
fossil
s. He worked on a large monograph describing a new species
(Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai), with senior co-authors Philip J. Currie and Wann Langston, Jr.
Most of the material described therein was prepared by him. This monograph, 21+ years in the making, was released at Grande Prairie Regional College on October 1, 2008. This publication describes skull material from the extremely rich Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai bonebed on Pipestone Creek, southwest of Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada. Also with this publication are two other papers, one describing the site taphonomy and quarry map and another paper describing the endocast and brain structure of P. lakustai. Tanke has also authored papers on Tyrannosaurus
, Daspletosaurus
, Styracosaurus
, Chasmosaurus
, Stegoceras
, Centrosaurus
, Eoceratops, and various other hadrosaurid
s, ceratopsians, and tyrannosaurids.
Tanke is presently the longest serving employee (32+ years) with the Royal Tyrrell Museum. On August 7, 2008 at the 33rd International Geological Congress meetings in Oslo, Norway, he was made a member of INHIGEO
(International Commission on the History of Geological Sciences) and is now the Canadian editor for that organization. He is also a member of the PSP (Paleontological Society of the Peace; Grande Prairie, Alberta) and the APS (Alberta Palaeontological Society), where he regularly gives oral and poster presentations at their annual symposia in Calgary.
The Cenomanian (early Late Cretaceous) marine bird Pasquiaornis
tankei (Tokaryk, Cumbaa and Storer, 1997) from Carrot River, Saskatchewan, Canada was named in Tanke's honor. He also discovered the type specimen of the Late Cretaceous pachycephalosaurid dinosaur Texacephale langstoni.
Darren Tanke has a number of jobs at Tyrrell, including fossil preparation, moulding and casting (in previous years), giving talks to the public or identifying fossils the public brings in for identification. In the field, he looks for, identifies, and collects fossils as well as training and supervising summer field staff and preparation laboratory volunteers.
Tanke is interested in technical applications to dinosaur site preservation using quarry stakes (on-site metal markers embedded in concrete); GPS and historical information and garbage to relocate lost quarries (some dating back to 1913) using historical archaeology techniques. He is also interested in dinosaur paleopathology
, dinosaur ontogeny
, and all aspects of horned dinosaurs. He has been heavily involved in the paleontological activities in the Grande Prairie
region since 1983. Much of his recent research focuses on various aspects of Alberta's early human history of paleontological discoveries and research in the province. These include biographies of some of the lesser-known paleontology workers in the province, relocating "lost" fossil specimens, the World War I sinking of the merchant ship SS Mount Temple and her Albertan dinosaur cargo, etc. He has worked in the field across western Canada and in Montana (1982), Utah (1997), and Texas (2008), mostly in middle and especially Late Cretaceous beds. Overseas fieldwork or history-based research has taken him to Australia (1991), Argentina (2000), China (2005), England (2005, 2008, 2009), France (2001), Mongolia (2005), and Norway (2005). He has also done fieldwork in British Columbia (1985) and Saskatchewan (1985). He has recently set up an annual ceratopsian (horned dinosaur) research scholarship for University-level students under the Dinosaur Research Institute in Calgary, with whom he is on the board of Directors (beginning in 2008). $1500.00 CDN is awarded each year, the winner notified in May.
His current lab work involves the preparation of a small Late Cretaceous
Gorgosaurus libratus skull and partial skeleton, collected from Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta in 2009.
Current research and writing projects include several articles on the use of helicopters in Alberta to collect fossils and lift heavy dinosaur skeletons in their plaster field jackets; relocation of a lost (1914) Basilemys turtle quarry and other fossil turtle sites in Dinosaur Provincial Park
; and a biography of Albertan amateur fossil collector and artist Hope Johnson (1916–2010). Dozens of other writing projects on widely varying aspects of vertebrate paleontology and paleontology history are in various stages of completeness. Two of these are detailed histories of hadrosaur collection and research in Alberta, and a detailed 25+ year chronological history of the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta. Another project, done in his own time, was the 2010 reenactment of the 1910-1914 paleontological expeditions who used large flat-bottomed boats or scows in their search for Late Cretaceous dinosaur bones on the Red Deer River, Alberta, Canada. The project ran into medical and technical difficulties in 2010 and will be reattempted by Tanke and others in the summer of 2012.
At the museum he is a senior technician in the preparation lab. He does not hold any formal post-secondary degrees, but is active in research and numerous writing projects. Senior editor of the 2001 book Mesozoic Vertebrate Life: New Research Inspired by the Paleontology of Philip J. Currie, Tanke appeared in the 1998 documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
Dinosaur Park, and the 1993 educational film Messages in Stone.
Lab and field work
Tanke has authored papers on dinosaurDinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...
s and dinosaur paleopathology
Paleopathology
Paleopathology, also spelled palaeopathology, is the study of ancient diseases. It is useful in understanding the past history of diseases, and uses this understanding to predict its course in the future.- History of paleopathology :...
; his recent work includes preparation of Pachyrhinosaurus
Pachyrhinosaurus
Pachyrhinosaurus is a genus of ceratopsid dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous period of North America. The first examples were discovered by Charles M. Sternberg in Alberta, Canada, in 1946, and named in 1950. Over a dozen partial skulls and a large assortment of other fossils from various species...
fossil
Fossil
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
s. He worked on a large monograph describing a new species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
(Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai), with senior co-authors Philip J. Currie and Wann Langston, Jr.
Wann Langston, Jr.
Wann Langston, Jr. is an American paleontologist and professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He has worked on a number of different reptiles and amphibians in his long career, beginning with the 1950 description of the theropod dinosaur Acrocanthosaurus...
Most of the material described therein was prepared by him. This monograph, 21+ years in the making, was released at Grande Prairie Regional College on October 1, 2008. This publication describes skull material from the extremely rich Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai bonebed on Pipestone Creek, southwest of Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada. Also with this publication are two other papers, one describing the site taphonomy and quarry map and another paper describing the endocast and brain structure of P. lakustai. Tanke has also authored papers on Tyrannosaurus
Tyrannosaurus
Tyrannosaurus meaning "tyrant," and sauros meaning "lizard") is a genus of coelurosaurian theropod dinosaur. The species Tyrannosaurus rex , commonly abbreviated to T. rex, is a fixture in popular culture. It lived throughout what is now western North America, with a much wider range than other...
, Daspletosaurus
Daspletosaurus
Daspletosaurus is a genus of tyrannosaurid theropod dinosaur that lived in western North America between 77 and 74 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous Period. Fossils of the only named species were found in Alberta, although other possible species from Alberta and Montana await...
, Styracosaurus
Styracosaurus
Styracosaurus was a genus of herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaur from the Cretaceous Period , about 76.5 to 75.0 million years ago...
, Chasmosaurus
Chasmosaurus
Chasmosaurus is a genus of ceratopsid dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous Period of North America. Its name means 'opening lizard', referring to the large openings in its frill . With a length of and a weight of , Chasmosaurus was a ceratopsian of average size...
, Stegoceras
Stegoceras
Stegoceras is a genus of plant-eating pachycephalosaurid dinosaur that lived in what is now North America during the Late Cretaceous period....
, Centrosaurus
Centrosaurus
Centrosaurus is a genus of herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaurs from the late Cretaceous of Canada. Their remains have been found in the Dinosaur Park Formation and uppermost Oldman Formation, dating from 76.5 to 75.5 million years ago....
, Eoceratops, and various other hadrosaurid
Hadrosaurid
Hadrosaurids or duck-billed dinosaurs are members of the family Hadrosauridae, and include ornithopods such as Edmontosaurus and Parasaurolophus. They were common herbivores in the Upper Cretaceous Period of what are now Asia, Europe and North America. They are descendants of the Upper...
s, ceratopsians, and tyrannosaurids.
Tanke is presently the longest serving employee (32+ years) with the Royal Tyrrell Museum. On August 7, 2008 at the 33rd International Geological Congress meetings in Oslo, Norway, he was made a member of INHIGEO
International Commission on the History of Geological Sciences
The International Commission on the History of Geological Sciences promotes ongoing research into the history of the earth sciences, particularly the history of geology...
(International Commission on the History of Geological Sciences) and is now the Canadian editor for that organization. He is also a member of the PSP (Paleontological Society of the Peace; Grande Prairie, Alberta) and the APS (Alberta Palaeontological Society), where he regularly gives oral and poster presentations at their annual symposia in Calgary.
The Cenomanian (early Late Cretaceous) marine bird Pasquiaornis
Pasquiaornis
Pasquiaornis is a prehistoric flightless bird genus from the Late Cretaceous. It lived during the late Cenomanian, some 95-93 million years ago....
tankei (Tokaryk, Cumbaa and Storer, 1997) from Carrot River, Saskatchewan, Canada was named in Tanke's honor. He also discovered the type specimen of the Late Cretaceous pachycephalosaurid dinosaur Texacephale langstoni.
Darren Tanke has a number of jobs at Tyrrell, including fossil preparation, moulding and casting (in previous years), giving talks to the public or identifying fossils the public brings in for identification. In the field, he looks for, identifies, and collects fossils as well as training and supervising summer field staff and preparation laboratory volunteers.
Tanke is interested in technical applications to dinosaur site preservation using quarry stakes (on-site metal markers embedded in concrete); GPS and historical information and garbage to relocate lost quarries (some dating back to 1913) using historical archaeology techniques. He is also interested in dinosaur paleopathology
Paleopathology
Paleopathology, also spelled palaeopathology, is the study of ancient diseases. It is useful in understanding the past history of diseases, and uses this understanding to predict its course in the future.- History of paleopathology :...
, dinosaur ontogeny
Ontogeny
Ontogeny is the origin and the development of an organism – for example: from the fertilized egg to mature form. It covers in essence, the study of an organism's lifespan...
, and all aspects of horned dinosaurs. He has been heavily involved in the paleontological activities in the Grande Prairie
Grande Prairie, Alberta
Grande Prairie is a city in the northwestern part of the province of Alberta in Western Canada. It is located on the southern edge of the Peace River Country . The city is surrounded by the County of Grande Prairie No...
region since 1983. Much of his recent research focuses on various aspects of Alberta's early human history of paleontological discoveries and research in the province. These include biographies of some of the lesser-known paleontology workers in the province, relocating "lost" fossil specimens, the World War I sinking of the merchant ship SS Mount Temple and her Albertan dinosaur cargo, etc. He has worked in the field across western Canada and in Montana (1982), Utah (1997), and Texas (2008), mostly in middle and especially Late Cretaceous beds. Overseas fieldwork or history-based research has taken him to Australia (1991), Argentina (2000), China (2005), England (2005, 2008, 2009), France (2001), Mongolia (2005), and Norway (2005). He has also done fieldwork in British Columbia (1985) and Saskatchewan (1985). He has recently set up an annual ceratopsian (horned dinosaur) research scholarship for University-level students under the Dinosaur Research Institute in Calgary, with whom he is on the board of Directors (beginning in 2008). $1500.00 CDN is awarded each year, the winner notified in May.
His current lab work involves the preparation of a small Late Cretaceous
Late Cretaceous
The Late Cretaceous is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous period is divided in the geologic timescale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous series...
Gorgosaurus libratus skull and partial skeleton, collected from Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta in 2009.
Current research and writing projects include several articles on the use of helicopters in Alberta to collect fossils and lift heavy dinosaur skeletons in their plaster field jackets; relocation of a lost (1914) Basilemys turtle quarry and other fossil turtle sites in Dinosaur Provincial Park
Dinosaur Provincial Park
Dinosaur Provincial Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located about two and a half hours drive southeast of Calgary, Alberta, Canada or , about a half hour drive, northeast of Brooks....
; and a biography of Albertan amateur fossil collector and artist Hope Johnson (1916–2010). Dozens of other writing projects on widely varying aspects of vertebrate paleontology and paleontology history are in various stages of completeness. Two of these are detailed histories of hadrosaur collection and research in Alberta, and a detailed 25+ year chronological history of the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta. Another project, done in his own time, was the 2010 reenactment of the 1910-1914 paleontological expeditions who used large flat-bottomed boats or scows in their search for Late Cretaceous dinosaur bones on the Red Deer River, Alberta, Canada. The project ran into medical and technical difficulties in 2010 and will be reattempted by Tanke and others in the summer of 2012.