Digging Deeper | Dinosaur Ridge in Detail

This page contains more detailed information about some of the dinosaurs and other resources along Dinosaur Ridge.

Use the links below to jump to areas of this page.

Dinosaurs & Fossils

1) What is a dinosaur? How is it different from other animals? Is it just a big lizard?

Dinosaurs aren't actually lizards, they're reptiles. The most well known group of animals that dinosaurs are closely related to is the birds, not crocodiles, even though dinosaurs had more scales than feathers.

2) What is a fossil?

Fossils are the remains or evidence of prehistoric living things.

3) When did the dinosaurs die out? How come other animals didn't die out.

Dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago, although scientists don't know exactly how it happened. Since no one really knows how the dinosaurs died out, it's hard to say why the other animals didn't die along with them.

4) Why did the dinosaurs die out?

No one knows, though the most popular theory is the meteor crashing into the planet.

5) Why were the dinosaurs so big?

No one really knows why dinosaurs were so big. Over time, possibly for protection, some dinosaurs grew to immense sizes to keep predators away.

6) Besides Dinosaur Ridge, where else can I find fossils?

There are plenty of great fossil sites in the United States, but keep in mind that fossils should not to be collected by ANYONE unless you're working with a museum. The Denver Museum of Nature and Science's exhibit called Prehistoric Journey is a great display of ancient life from the beginning of time up to the present. Fossil Trace Golf Course is a new site affiliated with Dinosaur Ridge, with trails and fossils you can explore that are 67 million years old. Dinosaur National Monument and several areas in western Colorado (Grand Junction and Fruita) have many good museums and displays for dinosaurs.

7) Why are the bones along Dinosaur Ridge broken up? Why don't we see complete skeletons here?

Dinosaur Ridge isn't the only place where the dinosaur skeletons do not stay together (articulated). In fact, most dinosaurs found in the world aren't fully complete. Dinosaur Ridge's Jurassic bone bed was jumbled up by a river most likely flooding and scattering the bones along the riverbed. After the bones shifted along and finally settled down in the mud, more mud covered them up, burying them in place (and over time) fossilizing them.

8) Where can I find fossils, crystals, etc. to keep?

Unless you are in a gift shop, museum store, etc., you should NEVER collect any artifacts, rock or dinosaur. Leave that up to the museum professionals please! Though you can find some very nice specimens or both dinos and rocks at the Dinosaur Ridge Gift Shop!

9) Why don't we find raptors or T. rex on Dinosaur Ridge?

In Dinosaur Ridge's case, it's because of the time period. We're too old! The east side of Dinosaur Ridge is 100 million years old, and the first T. Rex didn't show up until 68 million years ago. The closest thing Dinosaur Ridge has to a T. Rex is Allosaurus, a 150 million year old meat eater nearly 40 ft. long.

10) How do dinosaurs get their names?

With most dinosaurs, it has everything to do with their skeleton. Certain Latin or Greek words will be given as a description of what the dinosaur looks like. Tri-cera-tops means Three-Horned-Face, because it has three horns on its face.

Rocks

1) How are rocks different? Where can I find different rock types near Dinosaur Ridge?

Colorado is full of formations and rock types. Most of the rocks on Dinosaur Ridge are sandstone and mudstone, but Colorado's rock history stretches from 1.7 billion years ago up to 10,000 years ago. Most of the Rockies and surrounding mountains are made up of granite, and the small foothills are commonly made of hard sandstone and softer shales.

2) How does stuff become a rock?

There are a few different answers to this question. With most rocks, it takes merely pressure, heat, and time with the proper materials.

3) How long does it take for stuff to become a rock?

Rocks can take a very long time to form. Harder rocks, like granite can take millions of years. But some rock can form in just a few hours. Lava cools quickly, sometimes forming new layers in a weeks time.

4) How do you know how old rocks are?

There are many different ways to test the age of rocks, though you're not actually testing the rocks themselves. By testing the minerals and the growth of the crystals within the rocks you can almost accurately find out the age.

5) What is radioactive, or radiocarbon dating?

Radiation dating is some of the most accurate ways of dating minerals and rocks. By measuring the half-lives of the radioactive minerals, or compounds within the rocks, they can measure almost up to the day ages for nearly any rock types.

6) Why is Red Rocks red?

A rock called Mica, also called hornblend, when mixed with a mineral called manganese and water causes a red color to stain the sandstone, making most of the Fountain Formation (including Red Rocks and Garden of the Gods) a beautiful red color.

7) Where can I find rocks with fossils or crystals in them? Where can I find fossils or crystals that I can keep?

The best place to go to see fossils and crystals would be a museum. It isn't a good idea to collect fossils or crystals on your own, they should be left where they are.

8) How does gold or silver get into a rock?

There are a few different ways gold and silver can be found in rocks. In some instances, the gold and silver is eroded from earlier deposits and scattered in sands and gravels (called placers).

9) Are there underground rivers in rocks?

No, but there are aquifers, which are interconnected layers of rock that produce and collect water in the small gaps and cracks between them. Many cities get their water from underground aquifers.

Mountain Building & Miscellaneous

1) How do mountains form?

There are different ways for mountains to form. A common way for mountain to rise is from the on-going collision of the Earth's plates. Another way is for a volcano to leak lava out until it begins to grow into a higher mound (Hawaii and Japan are good examples of these).

2) Why are there mountains in Colorado, but not in other parts of the United States?

There are mountains in many parts of the United States, but the Rocky Mountains are well known. The Rockies pushed up when the North American plate and the Pacific plate pushed farther into one another, the Pacific plate slowly going underneath the North American plate.

3) Why do you say that some rocks, such as Red Rocks, are standing on edge?

When the Rockies were pushed up 65 million years ago, they broke and tilted them up on edge on both sides of the Rockies. Most of the layers heading down from the foothills toward Denver are tilted to a certain degree.

4) Why are some mountains higher than others?

Depending on how much push you have, some mountains will continue to grow or stop growing. The Himalayan Mountain Range (including Mt. Everest) is still growing because the Indian plate is still colliding with the Asiatic plate. Erosion on mountain ranges that have stopped growing will slowly weather them down.

5) What is Dinosaur Ridge - how did it form?

Dinosaur Ridge is two different formations that have been pushed up by the uplift of the Rocky Mountains. The Dakota Sandstone formation is on top (facing east), and nearly 50 million years younger than the Morrison Formation on the bottom (facing west), 150 million years old.

6) Why do you think that the continents were, or are, moving?

The Continental Drift theory is an accurate way of showing us that the continents are shifting. It isn't only the continents that are moving around, the entire surface (crust) of the Earth is made up of broken hardened slabs sliding around on top of molten lava in the mantle. They're constantly recycling themselves in the rock cycle by grinding against one another, sliding above or below other plates, causing earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis.

7) How do you know that we had glaciers? When were they here and when will they come back?

The face of the earth is covered with scars from glaciers and traveling ice sheets. U-shaped canyons with no river source were most likely carved out by glaciers, and gigantic boulders the size of trucks and houses in the middle of fields with no mountains around were probably carried in the thick ice and deposited as the glaciers melted and receded. We really don't know when another ice age will occur.

8) I heard that Colorado used to be under an ocean or next to a sea. Why do people think that's true, and if there was a sea, where did it go?

We have tons and tons of Marine fossils in Colorado and the Midwest. The Western Interior Cretaceous Seaway used to split the United States in half. Think of it as the Gulf of Mexico opening up and heading north into Canada. The beach of the seaway, 100 million years ago, was right on Dinosaur Ridge, and the other side was somewhere close to Missouri. As it started to recede, it branched off into lakes, streams, rivers and swamps some 68-70 million years ago.

9) Will new mountains form?

New mountains seem to be constantly forming today, though the process is so slow that it will take thousands and millions of years before any change will be apparent. Volcanoes beneath the oceans are continuously making new mountain ranges, some of which are higher than Mt. Everest!