Canadian geologist Joseph Burr Tyrrell (1858--1957) inadvertently made one of the most important discoveries of dinosaur bones in North America in 1884. The skull and skeleton he dug up by accident in a remote part of Alberta proved to be the Albertosaurus sarcophagus, a slightly smaller cousin of Tyrannosaurus rex and the first of its genus found anywhere in the world. Tyrrell's findings aroused international interest and brought hordes of paleontologists to dig in this unpopulated part of western Canada. Tyrrell was one of Canada's most famed geologists and explorers and mapped out vast stretches of its northern lands.
Avoided Career in Law
Tyrrell was born on November 1, 1858, in Weston, Ontario, a town his father had founded. It later became part of metropolitan Toronto. His father's family was an esteemed Irish clan that hailed from Castle Grange in County Kildare. The elder Tyrrell emigrated to Canada and made a fortune as a stonemason in Ontario before marrying Elizabeth Burr, whose family roots in the New World dated back to 1682.
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