Triceratops Trail, CSM Geology Museum, and Dinosaur Ridge - Essay Example

Triceratops Trail It is 5 mile hiking trail consisting of gravel situated in Colorado on the 19th street and 6th avenue a block east. Winds are trailed between vertical, large sandstone walls and into clay pits that have been reclaimed. The hike takes about one hour to make a trip and some places are not accessible by the handicapped or the elderly. Alongside the trail, there several stops that highlights dinosaur, clay mining, insect, mammal, bird and invertebrate traces and tracks likewise to many walls that are full of impressions by plants from the delta-like, tree-lined environment (Farlow et al, pp 30)The triceratops trail footprints are different from the Dinosaur Ridge ones in that the ones for Dinosaur Ridge are aged million and are viewed from top.

Triceratops Trail characterize tracks that are vied in three dimension formed if an animal leaves a print in mud that is afterwards filled hence forms a cast and vertically tilted by the rocky mountains uplift. The whole process leaves behind tracks that stick from the walls as the original layer had been mined away. Footprints of dinosaurs, birds, mammals and beetles are evident on the walls.Dinosaur RidgeIt is a trail of 1.5 mile along parkway of Alameda between county road and Rooney road on the North.

It has 100 tracks of dinosaurs, geological features and a quarry containing dinosaur bones. It takes about 2 hours to make trips. The trail is composed of more than 15 sites all marked by interpretive signs. At the ridge’s top there is a switchback curve that cuts through revealing the geological Hogback structure. Two overlooks scenes, west and east, are places where Front Range geology is studied or where one can sit and enjoy a beautiful scene. The interpretive signs on the curve show the gas and oil production, the basin of Denver, rocky mountains uplift and Golden fault.

The bone quarry was discovered in the year 1877 by a company known as Arthur Lakes. This site was initially known as Morrison quarry no 5. Among the fourteen sites in the location only 4 did produce bones. Quarry no 5 is the bone quarry where the first stegosaurus in the world was discovered. Many vertebrae, limb parts and famous plates’ pieces were discovered and are now evident on Morrison museum display. The bones that are presently exposed at their sites of interpretation are most probably from Apatosaurus and stegosaurs and are washed by rain into stream channel.

The bone quarry is amongst the few places where one can have a view of dinosaur bones and touch them in rocks in which they fossilized. CSM Geology MuseumThe museum acts as Colorado’s expository for heritage of minerals and it boosts its importance. Its intention is to inspire curiosity in science via research and education while encouraging admiration of earth and its minerals responsibility, meteorite, fossil and historical mining treasures. Main floor of the museum has feature specimen drawn from Colorado’s global localities, mining districts and geology video.

In the basement there are numerous exhibits entailing basic geology, meteorites, fossils, radioactivity, gemstones and ultraviolet minerals. The outdoor geology has seven outcrops having various paleontological and geological interesting points inclusive of leaves, logs and dinosaur tracks. Its shop is just situated on the lower part. It features lapidary materials, mineral specimens, fossils, and starter kits.Works CitedFarlow, James O. The dinosaurs of Dinosaur Valley State Park. Austin, Texas: 1993.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Press.