A worker at Suncor has stumbled across one of the oldest dinosaur fossils ever unearthed in Alberta.

The discovery was made this week at a mine north of Fort McMurray.

Paleontologists from the Royal Tyrrell Museum rushed to the scene to start documenting the find.

It's believed the 110-million-year-old remains are of an ankylosaur, a plant-eating dinosaur with a large tail.

Originally, the creature was buried beneath a kilometre of earth, which would normally flatten out a fossil.

But this dinosaur was encased in extremely large rock.

Don Henderson of the Royal Tyrrell says it's a magnificent find.

"It's not disturbed at all. We've even got fingers and impressions of the scale that covered the outside of the body."

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