Welcome To Jurassic Park

Well, not exactly.

Nobody got eaten.

The boy and I took the trip to Dinosaur State Park today. This was a highly anticipated trip for a boy is on his second copy of the 2 disc dvd of Walking With Dinosaurs. This is not a passing fascination for him. Unlike the fleeting obsession with the Disney character of the moment dinosaurs have been it for about 3 years. To provide just a little perspective, he was awed by the dinosaur footprints stenciled on the sidewalk.

The exhibits under the geodesic dome were limited but interesting. At least they would have been if we had seen them at less than a full run. (I have found out more searching out links for this post than I was able to read in the museum.) He did slow down at a couple of exhibits long enough for me to snap a few photos. They just happened to have on display the fossilized skeleton of on of his favorite dinosaurs, coelophysus.

He was also fairly impressed with the main attraction of the bid diorama that takes up most of the dome, Dilophosaurus,

The main attraction however was the casting area. If you bring with you 10 pounds of plaster of paris, a bucket to mix it in some rags and some cooking oil, you can make your own plaster cast of a Eubrontes track.

(pronounced you-BRONT-tees) Eubrontes giganteus is a dinosaur known only from its fossilized, three-toed footprints, an ichnogenus. Eubrontes means “true thunder.” The sandstone tracks range from 10-16 inches (25.5-41 cm) long and they are spaced 3.5-4.5 feet (1-1.4 m) apart. These sizes indicate that the dinosaur who made the prints was about 5 feet (1.5 m) tall at the hip (about the size of Dilophosaurus). The shape and pattern of the prints indicate that it was a theropod, a bipedal meat-eater. The tracks date from about 200 million years ago, during the early Jurassic period. Eubrontes trackways were found in Connecticut, USA. Geologist Edward Hitchcock named them in 1845. No fossilized bones have been found in the vicinity, but over 2,000 tracks have been uncovered in what is now Dinosaur State Park. Eubrontes is the state fossil of Connecticut.

I was worried that we would not be able to make a casting due to the fact that it had been raining all night and was lightly raining when we arrived. But the rain let up so we gave it a go. The park provides a metal ring that you put around the print as a form, They have water available and well as Mike who was wonderfully helpful. It did start to rain while we were waiting for the plaster to dry but luckily we had brought an umbrella with us. Rain would not have been good for the plaster. It took a little longer than normal but eventually the plaster dried and we had our very own cast of the official State Fossil of Connecticut.

We dropped a quick $30 at the gift shop and were on our way home.

Posted by: Stephen Macklin at 02:42 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment