Westward 2014: Dinosaur Park

I learned something my first week in Utah… apparently Dinosaurs are a big thing out here. This probably has to do with the fact they have a dinosaur named after their state, the Utahraptor. And there are plenty of good dig sites here as well, who would have thought?

So in Ogden there’s the George S. Eccles DinosaurPark. It was funny and cute to me. To get to the museum portion you walk past these cuties (a tyrannosaurus and triceratops)….

And there is a mini natural history area. I was a personal fan of the case full of Rocks That Look Like Food

And a personal favourite gem of mine, Ammolite.

It comes from 71 million years of pressure and elements. It used to be an Ammonite which was a hard chelled squid-like marine animal. They lived at the end of the Cretaceous era. They ranged in size from a few centimeters to a meter and a half.

Then there were some fossils…

And it was on to the main attraction. The outside park!

The first thing I saw walking out of the door into the park was this... a Tyrannosaurus Rex attacking a Parasaurolophus.

This is the Utahraptor it was 20 feet long. And the sign says "The Utahraptor may be the deadliest dinosaur yet known. it appears to have been a large, early member of the dromaeosaur family. it was a swift running rapt that was equipped with a huge claw on the middle toe of each foot. This 'killer claw' may have extended more than 15 inches. it could wield that claw in a single, leaping strike and slash other bigger dinosaurs to death. Palaeontologist James Kirkland, who named the predator, believed it was one of the most vicious as well as one of the most intelligent dinosaurs." Hmm... well I don't know about you but i think they've got to say such nice things about the Utahraptor since it's from their state. Just saying....

The Ever lovely Allosaurus

I was really scared by this Acrocanthosaurus Atokensis

The ever dapper Chasmosaurus. He was a heard dino of the late Cretaceous. He was a herbivore and fossilised imprints of his skin shows he had button-like scales.

We all know the Stegosaurus

And who cold forget the Elasmosaurus (on the left) and the Opthalmosaurus (on the right). Incase you did forget them the Elasmosaurus had the longest neck of all the plesiosaurs, it was 26 feet (8m) long! Which considering it's body was only 46 feet (14 meters) that's an impressive neck. He's from the late Cretaceous period. As for Mr. Opthalmosaurus he grew to be about 11.5 feet (3.5 m). It's been speculated this late Jurassic cutie was a nocturnal hunter since he had extremely large eyes.

The Erythrosuchus was an early dinosaur (aka proterosuchians). He was one of the largest land predators of the early to mid Triassic period. But fossils of this cutie has been found as early as the late Permian period. sadly the entire proterosuchians family died out by the end of the Triassic period.

A kid friendly display of some Deinonychus attacking a Tenontosaurus.

And a stellar display of an Allosaurus attacking a Diplodocus. And I must say that Diplodocus isn't going down without a fight!

What a cute Brachiosaurus...

I just and to give him a hug!

Check out these two feisty Stygimoloch! They were a bit short in my opinion, only 7 feet tall. But they're US locals since they lived in Montant 68-65 million years ago. 

Mamma Pteranodon. Did you know she could have a wing span up to 23 feet!

It was a grand adventure into the land of dinosaurs!

Cheers,