Old News

Hi Kids,
This is me above the banks of the Paluxy River in Dinosaur Valley State Park in Texas.  This is what it looks like now.  One hundred and eleven million years ago, this area looked very different.
Most of the area was covered by a shallow sea.  This part was on the shore -- a kind of squishy, muddy, sandy place.

The animals who lived here were very different from the ones we see today.  This was called the Cretaceous Period. 

One great big dinosaur who lived here was called Pleurocoelus (ploor-oh-see-lus).  He was a herbivore -- that means he ate plants.  He was about 50 feet long -- he couldn't have fit in your schoolroom!  Another dinosaur who lived around here was a carnivore -- he ate meat.  He looked a lot like T. Rex.  He was an Acrocanthosaurus (ak-row-can-tho-sore-us).  When these dinosaurs walked on the soft ground, they left foot prints.  This three-toed print is from the Acrocanthosaurus.

You can see his toes.  I didn't take a picture of the Pleurocoelus tracks because they just looked like big, round holes.  His feet were more like elephant feet -- made to carry heavy weight.
The mud eventually turned to rock and so the prints can still be seen today.  This is a picture of the river and river bank.  There are a lot of prints in the rock.

Here is a painting of what those two dinosaurs looked like. 

If that Acrocanthosaurus is planning on making a sandwich out of the Pleurocoelus, he's going to need a BIG loaf of bread!  I'm glad I didn't see these guys on my visit!

Love,
Fuzzy