A headless dinosaur skeleton can rest easy now that it has its head back, about a century after decapitation.



University of Alberta researchers matched a skeleton in Dinosaur Provincial Park to a skull being stored at the university's Paleontology Museum, more than 400 kilometres away in Edmonton.



The Corythosaurus skeleton — remnants of a duck-billed dinosaur — was a tourist attraction, while its head had been collected by a paleontologist in 1920 in a practice known as "head-hunting," said a Wednesday press release.



“In the early days of dinosaur hunting and exploration, explorers only took impressive and exciting specimens for their collections, such as skulls, tail spines and claws,” said graduate student Katherine Bramble in the release. “Now, it’s common for paleontologists to come across specimens in the field without their skulls.”



The skeletal reunion was sparked after a group of scientists conducting research more than a decade ago noticed newspaper clippings from the 1920s around the site in Dinosaur Provincial Park, the release said.



Technician at the Royal Tyrrell Museum Darren Tanke connected the skeleton to the skull at the University of the Alberta and approached researchers there to confirm his belief.



“Using anatomical measurements of the skull and the skeleton, we conducted a statistical analysis,” Bramble explained. “Based on these results, we believed there was potential that the skull and this specimen belonged together.”