Where's Marty? Learning the history of Dinosaur Park in Laurel
Hi Everyone!
The most productive Dinosaur bone dig area east of the Mississippi River is in Prince Georges County. You read that correctly.
At the end of a winding road, through a very modern 2023 industrial park near Laurel, is "Dinosaur Park."
It sounds like an amusement park but that is where ANY similarity ends. Going back to the 1860s, paleontologists identified this area as part of a winding river running through a large flat plain. Dinos lived there.
And, also, washing down the meandering river would have been debris and a few dead dinosaurs.
Here is the site today:
Here is an artist's rendering of what it would have looked like 115 million years ago during the early Cretaceous period, about 50 million years before the first t-Rex. (Wrap your brain around that one.)
The wealth of knowledge that has come from the park, and what is learned daily, is enough to keep scientists busy for decades.
For instance, in this shot, you see two white objects.
Those are plaster shells protecting two just unearthed fossils. Right now they believe we are signing a large butt bone and a chest bone. That will be determined in a lab later.
In this shot the small plaster covering was removed so we could see the 115-million-year-old bone.
Crazy right? The staff onsite, JD, Federico, and Max Brough us a three-foot-long shin bone that Federico found, and unearthed, of a Raptor-like dinosaur. The shin bone is three feet long. Albeit likely smallish, still, imagine the size of that meat eater roaming around 50 million years before T-Rex!
The Dinosaur Park is open to the public, and you can help look for fossils. But those hours are limited.
They also have programs for groups.
Also on site is a cool playground you can take kids to that is adjacent to, but not in the dig area. The website has all the info you need. Absolutely amazing! Thanks for the time this AM guys!
Marty B!