Skip to content

Researcher who unveiled B.C. dinosaur ‘Buster’ receives research grant

Royal BC Museum paleontologist receives more than $150,000 for dino research
21801933_web1_191106-VNE-VictoriaArbour
Victoria Arbour, the Royal BC Museum’s curator of palaeontology conducted years of studying to uncover a news species of dinosaur: the Ferrisaurus sustutensis. In May she was announced as the recipient of a research grant totalling more than $150,000. (Photo Courtesy of the Royal BC Museum)

The Victoria paleontologist behind confirmation of a new dinosaur species unique to the province has received a grant for more than $150,000 to continue her research.

Victoria Arbour, curator of paleontology at the Royal BC Museum, earned the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada’s Discovery Grant. In her role as an adjunct University of Victoria professor, Arbour will use the funding – $31,849 per year for five years – to support the research of students under her supervision.

READ ALSO: Victoria museum unveils ‘Buster’ a new unique-to-B.C. dinosaur (with video)

“Dr. Arbour’s work is of enormous importance to all who wish to gain a better understanding of life in the Cretaceous, a time of great geological upheaval,” says a statement from Prof. Jack Lohman, CEO of the Royal BC Museum. “This grant will facilitate and accelerate her research, fieldwork and collections projects at the Royal BC Museum on her specialty, Cretaceous vertebrates.”

Arbour will also receive a one-time ‘discovery launch supplement’ of $12,500 to support student research, training and travel related to research in Cretaceous vertebrate paleo-communities of western North America.

In fall 2019, Arbour unveiled Buster, a newly-confirmed dinosaur species, discovered in 1971 in northern B.C. Buster was a ‘Ferrisaurus sustutensis,’ a specific-to-B.C. dinosaur from a rare family of dinosaurs called ‘Leptoceratopsidae.”

In summer 2021, Arbour will continue to search for dinosaur fossils in northern B.C.’s alpine plateaus.

For more news from the Island and beyond delivered directly to your email inbox, click here.

READ ALSO: Buy your own dinosaur fossil for as low as $7

Want to support local journalism during the pandemic? Make a donation here.