China-Canada Dinosaur Project
In the 19th and early-20th centuries, foreign and domestic researchers, including Roy Chapman Andrews and Yang Zhongjian, made many dinosaur-related discoveries in China and Mongolia, particularly in the Gobi Desert.
Noble received an $8,000 CAD grant from the Canada Council to begin a feasibility study into creating a cultural program that could facilitate joint research missions by Canadian and Chinese palaeontologists, and in 1984 founded the Ex Terra Foundation, an Edmonton-based non-profit.
"[8] Field work related to the China-Canada Dinosaur Project began in May 1986 with an eight-day expedition to the Gobi Desert, the first to involve Western scientists since 1930.
[9] This three-week excursion was the first major operation of the Dinosaur Project and marked the first use of eight Jeeps granted to the CCDP by the Toronto-based Donner Canadian Foundation.
The team also visited fossil sites in Alberta, Montana, and the Arctic, with their first fossil-collecting mission occurring in Dinosaur Provincial Park in July, where the project's first major find, a troodontid braincase, was made by Tang Zhilu.
A team led by Phil Currie uncovered five juvenile Pinacosaurus and sixty-six protoceratopsians near the town of Bayan Mandahu, in addition to three dinosaur egg nests and an incomplete Alectrosaurus skeleton from the Iren Dabasu Formation.
Canadian researchers arrived in China and began work on dig sites in Xinjiang amid ongoing protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.
Canadian scientists returned to China again in 1990 to continue excavating at dig sites identified on earlier expeditions, and noteworthy discoveries were made on a near-daily basis.
A final expedition was made to Dinosaur Provincial Park and Grande Cache in 1991,[4][13] during one of the most successful field seasons in the history of the Royal Tyrrell Museum.
This includes a partially-complete ankylosaur skull discovered in 1959 or 1960 by a multinational expedition made up of Chinese and Soviet researchers but which was placed into storage and never properly described.
[29] Even after the CCDP ended, some Canadian and Chinese palaeontologists continued to work together, resulting in the description of newly named dinosaurs like Gobisaurus and the reevaluation of known genera such as Shanshanosaurus.
[30] Zhao Xijin and other participants in the CCDP continued to lead multinational expeditions to the Gobi Desert for years after the project ended.
At the conclusion of the 1990 field season, Ex Terra Foundation CEO Kevin Taft was quoted as saying, "This concludes one of the biggest hunts in history.
"[14] In recognition of shared customs between the Indigenous peoples in Canada and China, the Indian Association of Alberta (IAA) organized a symbolic exchange of tipis from the Peigen Reserve (now Piikani 147) and yurts from Kazakhs living in Inner Mongolia.
[38] One of the largest science exhibitions in history was organized by the Ex Terra Foundation to showcase dinosaur fossils from China and Canada, with a heavy focus on those discovered by the CCDP.
"[7][41][43] A number of artistic recreations were prepared for the tour, including a life-size Albertosaurus sculpture created by Canadian palaeoartist Brian Cooley.
The Great Hall, or "Boneworks,"[39] featured not only dinosaur fossils but an interactive centre for children and several tables where guests could engage with CCDP researchers.
