Who I am

I have been interested into Dinosaurs since I was six or seven years old.  Most people learn to write in grade one, so did I.  During the following summer vacation, I was bored since we lived in a rural area and friends were far away.   Therefore, I decided to practice my writing and pick up the first volume of the encyclopaedia Grolier.  The volume first explains about Prehistoric Animals known alphabetically in French for “Animaux Disparues”. 

In grade three, my favourite activity was reading since they had a book on Tyrannosaurus Rex with a picture cover of this tyrant drooling.  Also, the school brought us on a trip to the Canadian Museum of Nature and I saw my first dinosaur skeleton.

Years went on, and I collected dinosaur books, posters, plastic figures of Dinosaurs, rocks, more likely everything that had to do with either dinosaurs or fossils. 

In 1993, “Jurassic Park movie” came out and dinosaur books became more than available and so on.  I spend many time looking for sea fossils around my house were I lived.

In 1997, I started off at Sir Sandford Fleming College, School of Natural Resources in Lindsay, Ontario.  This is were I started to work with many types of rocks, minerals, fossils, and bones.  I never work with bones before College.   My passion for prehistoric animals lead me into Dinosaur Provincial Park in Southern Alberta.  This is were I got my first training into the real scientific world.  The following year I collected fossils across ontario with fellow College classmates and teachers.  I also participated into a wildlife class in which I learned about skull features, bony plates and also how to prepare a skeleton.  Learning the techniques and graduating as a Geological Technician, I began working at a small museum near the College.  During the summer, I went to the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology from which I gain training, proper techniques for dinosaur excavation, interpretation, lab work, collections, screen washing, and a lot more…  I return to the museum for two more seasons.  I spent many months volunteering for the museum and many more doing my own research on my free time.  My personal research as lead me across Canada from Whitehorse (Yukon) to Central Manhattan, New York (United States) and to Cape Breton Island volcanic rock in Nova Scotia. During the 2001 winter season, I volunteered at the Canadian Museum of Nature learning about new fields of the biological and natural world.  Participating in library research at both the National Laboratory in Aylmer (Québec) and at the Geological Survey of Canada in Ottawa.  In 2002, I have been working on publishing my first novel about dinosaurs.  I am now working on multiple projects in which I hope soon to appear on the web.

Mélanie Villeneuve

Geological Technician