College of Eastern Utah
Prehistoric Museum, UT

Sep 28,. 1998

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The College of Eastern Utah is the affiliated museum of the famous Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry, the most prolific quarry in the World. Over 70 complete skeletons from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods have been found there.

The now famous Utahraptor was discovered in the area during the filming of the movie "Jurassic Park." When Michael Crichton wrote the book, he made up huge raptors, though none that large had ever been discovered. Then the Utahraptor was found that was just about exactly the size of the Velociraptors in Jurassic Park.

The museum is pretty small now, but they are working on 11 new full skeletons, including the Utahraptor. We were still able to learn some important things.

Links: (See below for resources you can buy online)

• College of Eastern Utah Museum
• Cleveland Lloyd Quarry
• Guide to Dinosaur Diamond Sites
• Magic School Bus in the Time of the Dinosaurs - Book

-By Harrison Well, the main thing I learned was the difference between the two major types of dinosaurs, the Ornithischian and Saurischian. The difference is their hips, basically. The hips, or pelvis has two bones between the legs. In the saurischians, the front bone is pointing forward. In the ornithischians, it is pointing back. Orni means "bird," so ornithischian means "bird-like." Saur means "lizard," so saurischian means "lizard-like." Can you tell what type this skeleton is?

Dino Matchup! Click on this picture for a full size one that you can print and color. Count how many lizard hips and bird hips are on the page.

It was hard to pronounce saurischian and ornithischian and. Dad had to ask someone and we learned that they are pronounced, saw-RISK-ee-un, and or-ni-THIS-kee-un. Can you pronounce them? (We have also heard it pronounced "saw-RISH-ee-un" and "or-ni-THISH-ee-un." We're still uncertain which is right.)

How do we know dinosaurs really existed? We have their bones. Here is Harrison posing like an Allosaurus, a saurischian dinosaur. Who looks meaner?

Color Me! Click on this picture for a full size one that you can print and color.

We have seen a lot of dino tracks on our tour. This museum had a collection of track casts, and feet. Here is a picture of a track with a foot in it so you can see how it might have fit.

This is the backbone of an Iguanodon. This shape is called a chevron. What else do you know with the name of Chevron? (hint: gas) Can you think of anything else that uses a name from paleontology like Chevron?

Resources
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The Glow-In-The-Dark Book of Dinosaur Skeletons (Glow-Backs) by Annie Ingle, Peter Barrett (Illustrator)