A glimpse of when Canada's badlands were a lush dinosaur forest by the sea | Elsa Panciroli

The fossils of Alberta capture a remarkable snapshot of a warmer, wetter North America

Cradling the shattered limb bone of a dinosaur in her hand, the technician was lit from underneath by a desk lamp. Around her, members of the public crowded close to watch as she carefully glued the fragments of bone together. The glow of the lamp picked out her features, like a kid telling a ghost story over a camp fire.

She was telling tales of the long-dead creatures of Canada. Massive herbivorous reptiles ten metres long once fed on the lush foliage of the north American continent, using batteries of grinding teeth in their long, duck-like snouts. Over 66m years later, their fossilised bones pepper the arid landscapes of the Canadian province of Alberta. Most of these bones make their way here: into the hands of technicians and researchers at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller.