Dino Bones in New England

Dear Doc Rock,
     My family had a great road trip to the western US last summer. The kids (7 and 10) became rabid dinosaur nuts after seeing fossils at Dinosaur National Monument in northwestern Colorado. What a fabulous place to visit. Fossil bones were being excavated right in the visitor center.
     Did dinosaurs only live in the western part of North America. Is their anyplace close to our home in New England to see dinosaur fossils?

Jake Orr
Pittsfield, Massachusetts

Dear Jake,
     I became a dino-nut at about the age of your youngest. I still have a couple of books from that era of my life, which I'll admit was not all that long after the poor brutes went extinct. I'm pretty sure it was my early interest in dinosaurs that led me to become a geologist, and look where that got me! Now I'm on the internet and I have a blog. Great things await your dino-nuts!
     Dinosaur fossils are known from across North America, as long as the rocks are 1] of the right age, 2] exposed through erosion, and 3] those rocks have not been metamorphosed or too badly destroyed by faulting or intrusions. The western USA and Canada have the best combination of rocks and conditions to preserve dinosaur fossils. This website from the Washington State Department of Natural Resources lists some place to see dino fossils in the wild. It is sort of ironic, since no dinosaur fossils have (yet) been found in Washington.

Dinosaur tracks at Dinosaur State Park, Connecticut. Photo by Ken Zirkel (LeKriz). More  photos on Flickr

     Hmmmm, dinosaurs in New England. Massachusetts and Connecticut are famous for preserved dinosaurs foot prints. Dinosaur Footprints Reservation just north of Holyoke, Massachusetts is a famous dinosaur footprint site. There are hundreds of tracks preserved on sandstone slabs. They were left by a probable carnivorous dinosaur about 15' long of an unknown species- no fossil bones have been found with the tracks to identify the animal. The foot prints were given the scientific name Eubrontes giganteus. They were found in 1802, and are the first North American dinosaur fossils described by scientists. That alone makes the Heritage Reservation important. Visit their website for directions and information.

Eubrontes fossil dinosaur tracks at Amherst College.

    Dinosaur State Park in Rocky Hill, Connecticut also displays trackways. Kids can make plaster casts of these tracks to take home. Check out the Park's website. Learn about the track casting at another Connecticut State Park website.
     The Beneski Museum of Natural History at Amherst College has a wonderful exhibit of extinct animal fossils, and the original dino tracks salvaged from the Connecticut valley. (I've been there, very cool for kids.)