Dinosaur State Park, Rocky Hill, Ct

[jbstedman]

Where I went on my winter break . . . .

Dinosaur State Park, located in Rocky Hill, Connecticut (just outside of Hartford), preserves a site with a couple of thousand dinosaur tracks from the early Jurassic period. A domed structure covers an area of East Berlin Formation sandstone with about 500 of the tracks (the rest have been buried for preservation).

The three-toed tracks abundant in the Park are called Eubrontes and are thought to have been made by a dinosaur similar to the Dilophosaurus, a carnivorous dinosaur. Interestingly, no bones from the dinosaur that made these tracks have been discovered. (Fossil tracks are given names independently, so there is an ongoing process of linking named tracks to the animals that made them.)

This is a nice kid-friendly site, and would be particularly inviting in warmer weather with its couple of miles of trails. The web page for the Park is at this link.

View of the dome

A section of Eubrontes tracks

Cast and mold of a track

[Dave Daniel AKA (Bones)]

Looks like a really sweat park. Thanks for sharing.

[TheFossilHunter]

Thanks for posting. Ive been to the park maybe 10 times or more. If you are into ichnology, you might want to consider visiting Hitchkock's ( pratt museum) in Amherst College, in Amherst, MA. They house the biggest collection of trace fossils in the world.

[2gould]

I went to the park on December 27th and thoroughly enjoyed it. The tracks are amazing and the museum also has some great fish fossils as well.

[Fossildude19]

Great Place, I highly recommend it to anyone in the area.

Very kid friendly, and lots of fossils to touch and see in the learning room.

Here is the link to help plan your visit.

http://www.dinosaurstatepark.org/index.htm

Enjoy!