VICTORIA ARBOUR: ARMOURED GIANTS, ANCIENT ECOSYSTEMS AND CUTTING EDGE CANADIAN PALEONTOLOGY

Dr. Victoria Arbour

Dr. Victoria Arbour, Curator of Paleontology at the Royal BC Museum in Victoria, British Columbia, is one of Canada’s foremost vertebrate paleontologists. 

Specializing in ankylosaurs—the club-tailed, heavily armored dinosaurs of the Cretaceous—Arbour has become a leading voice in both the scientific community and the public eye, reshaping how we understand dinosaur evolution, biomechanics, and paleobiogeography. 

Her research bridges detailed anatomical study with innovative technologies, yielding groundbreaking discoveries about how these ancient creatures lived, fought, and evolved. Charmingly humble and unassuming, she is a delight in the field and in front of the lens.

Victoria Arbour completed her Ph.D. at the University of Alberta under the supervision of renowned paleontologist Dr. Philip Currie. Her early work focused on ankylosaurid dinosaurs, particularly the tail club structures that define the group. 

Her doctoral thesis and subsequent studies dissected the biomechanics of ankylosaur tail clubs, demonstrating that these dinosaurs likely used their tails as active weapons—a concept that was previously more speculative than evidenced.

In one of her early papers, Arbour and Currie (2011) reconstructed the tail club’s structure and function using finite element analysis and compared it to weapon systems in modern animals. Her work helped establish ankylosaurs as more than passive tanks; they were dynamic animals capable of delivering powerful, bone-breaking blows to rivals or predators.

New Dinosaurs for a New Generation

Among Arbour’s most significant contributions are the descriptions and naming of several new species of ankylosaurs, including:

Zuul crurivastator (2017): Arbour co-authored the paper describing Zuul, a remarkably complete ankylosaur fossil from Montana. Named after the Ghostbusters monster, Zuul is preserved with intact skin impressions and tail club spikes. The species name, crurivastator, means "destroyer of shins"—a nod to its powerful tail weapon. The find gave paleontologists unprecedented insight into ankylosaur soft tissue, armor arrangement, and injury patterns.

Ziapelta sanjuanensis (2014): As lead author, Arbour described this ankylosaur from New Mexico, expanding the known diversity of North American ankylosaurs and underscoring biogeographic connections between Canada and the southwestern United States during the Late Cretaceous.

British Columbia’s Dinosaur Heritage

As Curator at the Royal BC Museum, Arbour plays a critical role in paleontology in British Columbia—a province better known for marine reptiles than for terrestrial dinosaurs. Nevertheless, her work has amplified interest in BC’s unique fossil heritage, from the ichthyosaurs of the Peace Region to marine reptiles like the Courtenay Elasmosaur.

Arbour has partnered with local scientists and citizen paleontologists to help elevate BC’s presence on the paleontological map. She has advocated for fossil protection legislation and regularly engages with the public through museum exhibits, interviews, and school outreach.

Technology Meets Deep Time

Arbour is also part of a wave of paleontologists bringing high-tech tools to ancient bones. She frequently uses 3D scanning, photogrammetry, and CT imaging to study fossils in unprecedented detail. These methods allow her to reconstruct the internal anatomy of ankylosaurs, visualize muscle attachment points, and model how these creatures moved and fought.

In her 2020 publication with Mallon and Evans, Arbour examined the distribution of ankylosaur fossils across North America and evaluated their evolutionary history. 

Using phylogenetic methods and morphometric analyses, she tracked how isolation and habitat shifts influenced ankylosaur evolution—helping explain why Canada’s ankylosaurs were different from those in the southern U.S.

Champion of Public Science

Beyond her research, Arbour is a passionate advocate for science communication and equity in paleontology. Her Twitter feed, popular talks, and media appearances make complex science accessible and fun. She has written popular articles for The Conversation, participated in CBC’s Quirks & Quarks, and is a familiar face in science outreach events across Canada.

She is a very engaging speaker. For those who joined us for Arbour's engaging talk to the Vancouver Paleontological Society and members of the British Columbia Paleontological Alliance on her fieldwork at the Carbon Creek Basin Dinosaur Trackway—and so many others—will be pleased to hear that she will be delivering a talk on her most recent work at this 15th BCPA Symposium in Courtenay, August 22-25, 2025. 

The Carbon Creek Basin site is located just west of Hudson’s Hope in the Peace River area and boasts nearly 1,200 dinosaur tracks from at least 12 different types of dinosaurs—including two dinosaur track types that have not been observed at any other site in the Peace Region. Her talk showcased her work and her spirit in the field—coated in mud, dust and battling blackflies, but smiling through it all in the thrill of discovery.

Her mentorship of young scientists and support for women and underrepresented groups in science has made her a role model in the field. 

Dr. Victoria Arbour’s work continues to deepen our understanding of how dinosaurs lived and interacted in their environments. Her contributions are a testament to the power of curiosity, perseverance, and scientific rigor. In the layered rocks of Alberta and the museum halls of Victoria, her legacy is already well-anchored—and growing with every new discovery.

Here are some key scientific papers authored or co-authored by Dr. Victoria Arbour:

Arbour, V. M., & Currie, P. J. (2011). Ankylosaurid dinosaur tail clubs evolved through stepwise acquisition of key features. Journal of Anatomy, 219(6), 672–685. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7580.2011.01437.x

Arbour, V. M., Zanno, L. E., & Evans, D. C. (2014). A new ankylosaurid dinosaur from the Judith River Formation of Montana, USA, based on a complete skull and tail club. Royal Society Open Science, 4(5): 161086. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.161086

Arbour, V. M., & Evans, D. C. (2017). A new ankylosaurine dinosaur from the Judith River Formation of Montana, USA, based on a complete skull and tail club. Royal Society Open Science, 4: 161086. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.161086

Brown, C. M., Henderson, D. M., Vinther, J., Fletcher, I., Sistiaga, A., Herrera, J., & Arbour, V. M. (2017). An exceptionally preserved armored dinosaur reveals the morphology and allometry of keratinous structures. Current Biology, 27(16), 2514–2521.e3. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2017.06.071

Arbour, V. M., & Evans, D. C. (2020). A new ankylosaurine dinosaur from the Judith River Formation, Montana, USA, and implications for the diversification and biogeography of Late Cretaceous ankylosaurs. PeerJ, 8:e9603. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.9603

Arbour, V. M., & Currie, P. J. (2013). Anatomy, evolution, and function of tail clubbing in ankylosaurs (Dinosauria: Ornithischia). Journal of Zoology, 292(2), 111–117. https://doi.org/10.1111/jzo.12033

ANKYLOSAURS: THE LAST OF THE NON-AVIAN DINOSAURS

Ankylosaur — Armoured Plant-Eating Dinosaur

Ankylosaurs were armoured dinosaurs. We find their fossil remains in Cretaceous outcrops in western North America. They were amongst the last of the non-avian dinosaurs.

These sturdy fellows ambled along like little tanks all covered in spiky armour. They munched on foliage and were the original lawn mowers — 68 - 66 million years ago.

They reached about 1.7 m in height and weighed in at 4,800 – 8,000 kg. You can see the club at the end of their tail that they used to defend against predators. It would have packed quite the wallop.

The lovely illustration you see here is by the supremely talented Daniel Eskridge, shared with permission. You can see more of his work at www.fineartbydaniel.com

WOLVERINE RIVER DINOSAUR TRACKS

Jen Becker, British Columbia Paleontological Alliance Field Trip

In the summer of 2005, I joined Jen Becker, and fellow delegates from the British Columbia Paleontological Symposium for an impromptu late-night tour of Wolverine River, one of many prolific research sites of Lisa Buckley, a vertebrate paleontologist working in the Tumbler Ridge area of British Columbia.

There are two types of footprints at the Wolverine River Trackside –theropods (at least four different sizes) and ankylosaurs. The prints featured in this photo were laid down by some lumbering ankylosaurs out for a stroll in soft mud. Many of the prints are so shallow that they can only be recognized by the skin impressions pressed into the mud. We'd been up to the fossil sites in the day but wanted to come back in the evening to see them by lamplight. After a lovely dinner, we hiked up to Wolverine in the dark. We filled the tracks with water and lit them with warm yellow lamplight. Some clever soul brought a sound system and played spooky animal calls to add prehistoric ambiance. A truly amazing evening.

LAMPLIT DINOSAUR TRACKS

Ankylosaur Trackway / Tumbler Ridge

A detailed view of the Dinosaur Trackway near Wolverine River, Tumbler Ridge, northeastern British Columbia.

The tracks are filled with water to reflect the lamplight, making them both beautiful and easier to view.

There are three types of footprints found in the Tumbler Ridge GeoPark. At the Wolverine River Tracksite there are theropods (at least four different sizes) and ankylosaurs. Also found in the area are ornithopod tracks from herbivorous dinosaurs with their nice wide tracks. You'll recognize them by their short-wide prints with three blunt toes. There are rare wee hand prints associated with some of those tracks if you look closely.

ANKYLOSAUR TRACKWAY

Fossil Field Trip / Ankylosaur Trackway

After an exciting hike in the dark through the woods and down a steep incline, we reached the river. The tracks in this photo are from a type of armoured dinosaur that dates from around 97 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous.

Imagine a meandering armoured tank munching on ferns, shrubs and low-growing vegetation as the grasses we picture in fields today had yet to evolve en masse. Their time would come about 30 million years later. We've found grass-like phytoliths (related to modern rice and bamboo) in the poop (coprolites) from Cretaceous dinosaurs.

There are three types of footprints at the Wolverine River site, the meat-eating theropods (at least four different sizes), the slow, lumbering plant-eating ankylosaurs and duck-billed dinosaurs. Bones from an Acrocanthosaurus, a meat-eating theropod have also been found in the area. These bad boys lived in the Aptian, in the Early Cretaceous and known from a single species, A. atokensis.

The trackway you see here was made by one of those armoured lumbering ankylosaurs and a few of the prints carry skin impressions. Filling the prints with water and using lamplight was genius for viewing tracks as they are all but invisible in the bright sunlight by day.

DISCOVERY: ANKYLOSAUR TRACK