Triceratops Trail, CSM Geology Museum, and Dinosaur Ridge Essay

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