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Dinosaur Depot, Cañon City, Colorado
Story and photography © Kathryn
RetzlerMuseum—the very word
stirs up visions of dry and dusty, maybe one big yawn. Check out the
teeth on the big guys on your right. Now there’s a couple of mega
yawns! As for the dry and dusty, this museum is also a working laboratory, one
where you can see Curator Lorin King and various volunteers picking
through bags of anthill debris for micro bones, teeth, and other
bits while you watch.
Upstairs, the “Discovery Room” offers hands-on activities and learning opportunities. It’s a sort-of self-directed dino dig for the would-be paleontologist, although it’s doubtful you’ll dig out a complete eight and one-half foot tall dinosaur vertabra. Downstairs, the museum’s exhibits and displays tell a story in geological time in easy-to-understand terms.
Did you know that if the world’s
four-billion-year existence was viewed as a 24-hour time clock,
dinosaurs lived from 5 p.m.-11:30 p.m., and humans appeared just
one second before midnight. Dinosaurs are not all extinct, birds are
(modified) dinosaurs too, and a female bird’s hormonal DNA is the same
as that found in the bone marrow of a T-rex (in Montana).
And dinosaurs, which could grow to 130-feet long and over 150 tons
(although some were only the size of a chicken), co-existed with
mammals (much smaller and mostly nocturnal then), but
evolved much faster and became one of the world’s most successful life
forms.
Surprised? You’ll find even more surprises when you visit the museum. Stop by or visit online to learn more about these massive creatures.
800-987-6379. www.dinosaurdepot.com
Upstairs, the “Discovery Room” offers hands-on activities and learning opportunities. It’s a sort-of self-directed dino dig for the would-be paleontologist, although it’s doubtful you’ll dig out a complete eight and one-half foot tall dinosaur vertabra. Downstairs, the museum’s exhibits and displays tell a story in geological time in easy-to-understand terms.
Did you know that if the world’s
four-billion-year existence was viewed as a 24-hour time clock,
dinosaurs lived from 5 p.m.-11:30 p.m., and humans appeared just
one second before midnight. Dinosaurs are not all extinct, birds are
(modified) dinosaurs too, and a female bird’s hormonal DNA is the same
as that found in the bone marrow of a T-rex (in Montana).
And dinosaurs, which could grow to 130-feet long and over 150 tons
(although some were only the size of a chicken), co-existed with
mammals (much smaller and mostly nocturnal then), but
evolved much faster and became one of the world’s most successful life
forms.Surprised? You’ll find even more surprises when you visit the museum. Stop by or visit online to learn more about these massive creatures.
800-987-6379. www.dinosaurdepot.com
Photo Captions
Top: Sculls and other exhibits help to tell the story of the dinosaurs that roamed the region.
Above: Museum Curator and Chief Paleontologist Lorin King prepares fossil bones of a Mosasaurus, a marine reptile from the Cretaceous period.