Dinosaur State Park and Arboretum facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Dinosaur State Park and Arboretum
The park's geodesic dome
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Location	Rocky Hill, Connecticut, United States
Area	80 acres (32 ha)
Elevation	187 ft (57 m)
Established	1968
Administered by	Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection
Designation	Connecticut state park
U.S. National Natural Landmark
Designated:	April 1968

Dinosaur State Park and Arboretum is a special place in Rocky Hill, Connecticut, USA. It's like a big outdoor museum that protects 80 acres of land. This park is super important because it has one of the biggest collections of dinosaur footprints in all of North America!

The park was made to protect these amazing fossil footprints. They are pressed into sandstone rock and are about 200 million years old, from the early Jurassic period. The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection takes care of the park.

Discovering Dinosaur Footprints

Imagine this: in 1966, a bulldozer operator was working on a new building in Rocky Hill. He suddenly saw some amazing dinosaur footprints! This discovery was so important that the park opened in 1968. In the same year, the 7-acre area with the dinosaur tracks became a special National Natural Landmark. This means it's a very important natural site in the country.

What You Can See at the Park

The Big Dome and Dinosaur Tracks

The park has a huge, cool-looking building called a geodesic dome. It covers about 55,000 square feet! Inside, you can see about 500 real dinosaur footprints. Another 1,500 tracks are still buried to keep them safe for the future.

These footprints are found in a layer of sandstone rock. This rock was once a sandy lakeshore over 200 million years ago, during the Early Jurassic period.

The biggest and most common footprints are called Eubrontes. A geologist named Edward Hitchcock gave them this name. Scientists think these tracks were made by a meat-eating dinosaur, like the Dilophosaurus. The Eubrontes tracks are usually 10 to 16 inches long. They are spaced about 3.5 to 4.5 feet apart.

Close-up of Eubrontes prints from Dinosaur State Park

Inside the dome, you'll also find life-sized models of plants and creatures. These models show what the world looked like during the Triassic and Jurassic periods. You can see a Dilophosaurus model! There are also fun, interactive displays and a display showing how the tracks were found in 1966.

The discovery room is a cool place with a blue-tongued skink and a ball python. You can also do dinosaur-themed arts and crafts there. You can even see other fossil tracks from the Connecticut Valley. Some of these include large, four-toed Otozoum tracks with visible skin patterns!

The Arboretum: A Garden of Ancient Plants

The park also has an arboretum, which is like a special garden for trees and plants. It has 2 miles of trails. You can walk through collections of about 250 different types of conifer trees. There are also collections of arborvitae, chamaecyparis, ginkgo, juniper, katsura, pine, sequoia, and magnolia trees.

Some of the rarer trees include the evergreen southern magnolia and the monkey puzzle tree. The arboretum tries to grow as many plants from the Mesozoic era as possible. This is the time when dinosaurs lived!

Fun Activities and Events

Dinosaur State Park offers many exciting things to do. You can watch educational films and go on guided walks along the trails. There are also interesting talks about dinosaurs and nature.

When the weather is warm, you can even make your own dinosaur footprint casts! You can also try mining for gems and fossils. Every August, the park celebrates Dinosaur State Park Day. This special day has games, arts and crafts, and live music.

A stone path leads to the domed museum. Along this path, you'll see a timeline showing Earth's history from the very beginning until today. From May to October, you can visit an outdoor exhibit. It teaches you how paleontologists (dinosaur scientists) do their important work. The park also has two and a half miles of hiking trails for you to explore!

See also

In Spanish: Arboreto y parque estatal Dinosaurio para niños

• Connecticut River Valley trackways
• Dinosaur Footprints Reservation