Research conducted at the University of Saskatchewan Canadian Light Source is aiming to dig up information on the province’s prehistoric past.

Tim Tokaryk, the curator of paleontology at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum and an adjunct geology professor at the University of Regina, teamed up with fellow faculty member Mauricio Barbi in July 2011 to use the synchrotron to examine the molecular composition of dinosaur fossils.

The synchrotron focuses an extremely bright light onto objects through beamlines, which allows researchers to examine them at the molecular level. This technology can also be used to create high-resolution images of an object’s surface. The U of S is home to the only synchrotron facility in Canada.

By examining the composition of fossils from western Canada at the atomic level, Tokaryk is hoping to learn about the diet of these dinosaurs. This information could be used to make inferences about the conditions they lived in and how they adapted to changes.

“It helps to create a very vivid picture of life 65 to 68 million years ago,” Tokaryk said. “And that can be applicable to understanding environmental changes over time.”

Bone samples from the first Tyrannosaurus Rex found in Saskatchewan, Scotty the T. rex — discovered in 1991 and one of the largest in the world — were examined at the CLS. Tokaryk also studied bone samples from a duck-billed dinosaur found in Saskatchewan and skin impressions left in rocks from Alberta.

Tokaryk said that making broad assumptions based on fossils alone can be difficult, but that the results of his study will be highly applicable to western Canada. Tokaryk also said there is much that can be learned about Earth’s history as a whole from his project.

“If you think about it in a broad scheme, 99 per cent of the life that has ever existed on the planet is now extinct, our search for understanding the past will definitely have small-scale and broad applications to our environment today,” Tokaryk said.

Tokaryk and Barbi are hoping to have the results of their research published soon.

While the team’s research is not the first to use synchrotron technology to study fossils, Tokaryk said that its is the first of its kind in Canada. They credited previous experiments in Great Britain and Europe for helping to establish the methodology of his project.

Tokaryk became interested in paleontology in high school when he began volunteering at the Royal Alberta Museum in Edmonton, Alta.

“I used to skip my high school math class and volunteer at the museum,” Tokaryk said.

Tokaryk went on to work at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alta. before moving to Regina in 1984 to accept a job as technician at the Royal Museum of Saskatchewan. Since then, Tokaryk has worked his way up to his current position as the museum’s curator of paleontology — the highest post related to the science in the province.

Despite this, Tokaryk has received no formal education in paleontology. Tokaryk instead pursued his trade by working with fossils and by reading and collecting books.

Tokaryk now has 35 years of experience in paleontology.

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Graphics: Cody Schumacher/Graphics Editor