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Hi Everyone,
Our 12th Critter Rescue Round-up was a terrific success! Thanks go out to all the great animal rescue and support groups that were here to share their information with our visitors. This year 22 animals were adopted to their new forever homes. |
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| Congratulations go out to bride and groom Chloe (Moller) and Aaron Gawrych who had their Colorado wedding reception at the RMDRC. Our dinos out front got into the spirit with their own wedding regalia. They hosted a reception for all their local friends and family here in the company of dinosaurs on the evening of August 27th. We wish them all the best for the future. |
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September in Woodland Park is shaping up with a lot of early autumn events.
The annual Cruise Above the Clouds Car Show will be held Sept. 10th in Woodland Park and Sept. 11th in Cripple Creek. Over 250 cars were here last year and the Cruise Above the Clouds car club is expecting record numbers of cars to be entered again this year. This is your opportunity to enter 2 car shows in one week-end. Dennis Gage from the hit show, “My Classic Car” will be here taping for a future program to be broadcast on MAVTV. This is Dennis’s second time to showcase Cruise Above the Clouds on his program. He was here in 2013 and had such a great time, he decided to make a return trip to Woodland Park. There will be many activities as usual, come spend a week-end in the mountains enjoying the beauty of classic and custom vehicles. For details on this event visit www.cruiseabovetheclouds.com
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The Woodland Park Chamber of Commerce will celebrate their annual Oktoberfest at the Ute Pass Cultural Center and outdoors at the Midland Pavilion on Sept.15th and 16th. They have lots of entertainment planned so get your lederhosen on and bring your accordion out to the green for some good German food, beer and music. See the WP Chamber website for details on their
event. www.woodlandparkchamber.com |
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| Autumn is my favorite season of the year! School is here and the holiday season is approaching! The stores are already into Halloween and Thanksgiving…wish they would finish one holiday before starting another one! Take some time to relax and come visit DRC and see what is happening in Woodland Park. |
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FYI:
Largest of its kind ever found
The track, which measures 1.3 yards across, probably belonged to the Abelisaurus, a biped dinosaur that once roamed South America, said Argentine paleontologist Sebastian Apesteguia, who is studying the find. This was a meat eating predator which lived about 80 million years ago. The print was found about 40 miles outside the city of Sucre in central Bolivia by a tourist guide. The soft clay area is well known for dinosaur tracks. Skeletal remains of the Abelisaurus have also been found in this region. |
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Skull likely bridges gap in horned dinosaur evolution
A new species of dinosaur recently discovered is simply known as Hannah, for now. It is in the Ceratopsian family and it potentially bridges the |
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| evolutionary gap between the Centrosaurus and the Styracosaurus. Hannah would not be much different from either of these two previously discovered species, except that its horns show a combination of characteristics from both. Evolution would have continued to change the horns of dinosaurs over time, and that’s what is probably being seen here with Hannah. The Centrosaurus has been found in deeper layers of earth, while the Styracosaurus has been found in higher strata. Hannah was found in between the two, which shows it likely bridges an evolutionary gap between the two species. Hannah’s skull was discovered in 2015, and in June of 2016 the team returned to see what remained of the skeleton to still be unearthed. As of now the skeleton is nearly complete and they will finish the dig next summer. Hannah was found horn first, the tip peeking out of the dirt in Alberta’s Badlands. Scott Persons who originally found Hannah was allowed to nickname the dinosaur after his beloved dog who sometimes helps on digs with him. |
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Dinosaur found in South Africa
The dinosaur Heterodontosaurus tucki is believed to have roamed the earth about 200 million years ago during the Early Jurassic. Found in 2005, this is the most complete skeleton ever found of |
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this species. The Evolutionary Studies Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg took the skeleton to the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble, France to be scanned in July of 2016.
Heterodontosaurus was a small, plant eating animal with grinding teeth in the back of the jaw and big canines in the front. Billy de Klerk found the fossil in a stream bed on a farm near Grahamstown, in the Eastern Cape. Enough rock was removed from the bones to identify the animal, but the skeleton was too small and delicate, and the rocks around it too hard to enable scientists to fully study the anatomy. The fossil was therefore sent to the ESRF to be X-rayed which will allow scientists to reconstruct it in incredible detail. |
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Geri Lebold
Education Director |
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| Spend some time shopping at Prehistoric Paradise, the largest dinosaur store in the region for hundreds of unique gifts including real fossils, jewelry, games, books, stuffed dinosaurs, t-shirts and much more! A family membership makes a great gift that can be enjoyed for the entire year. If you have someone who’s difficult to buy for, a gift card is the perfect solution. Save yourself time and money by letting our staff gift wrap your purchases free of charge. |
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Fun with Science Day
September 10, Saturday, 9:00am-3:00pm. We will have various science related booths with lots of hands on things to do for the entire family… Pebble Pups (Steve Veatch), WIPS (Steve Miller), UCCS Geology Club (Bill Meyer), Fountain Creek Nature Center (Nancy Bernard), Science Matters activity table, Wildlife and dino paintings (John Patterson), Cave of the Winds, Flash and Thelma (Hedgehogs) will be here too. Come on up for a family fun day filled with science.
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Play Well Lego Event
September 24, Saturday 11:00am-3:00pm. Power up your engineering skills with Play-Well TEKnologies and thousands of LEGO’s at the Dinosaur Resource Center in Woodland Park. Apply real-world concepts in physics and engineering to design and build your own motorized car! Students will learn about gear transmissions and how to power their cars for torque and speed to complete challenges! Ages 5-16. Presentations are at 11:00am and 1:30pm. It is suggested that you come for the beginning of the presentations so that the instructors are better able to help you build your creations. (Please note: Students DO NOT get to keep the LEGO creations).
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September 15th-18th is the Denver Gem and Mineral Show held at the Merchandise Mart in Denver. This is a huge annual event featuring world class fossils, minerals and gems on display and for sale. The RMDRC will have activities set up in the children’s area along with Dinosaur Ridge and the Morrison Museum. If you love minerals and fossils this is your opportunity to see and purchase some of the best specimens available.
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The staff of RMDRC will have a booth at other events around the area in October including the Cool Science Festival at UCCS and Garden of the Gods for National Fossil Day on October 8th. These are all great events for the family, come on out and stop by our booth and say hi.
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October 12th we will start decorating for Halloween…come and see all the fun and scary decorations. We will of course have our Halloween Celebration event as usual. This year it is on Saturday, October 29th from 11:30-3:00.
This fall we have a very special event on Oct 15th to cap off Earth Science Week! Geoscientist, Steve Veatch, will present a 4 hour class on “Paleontology of the Pikes Peak region”. You must preregister for the 4 hour, private class which will include a tour of the museum through Steve’s eyes. The class size is limited and will cost $20.00 plus museum admission on that day. Current members will receive free admission as usual but must pay for the class. See RMDRC.com for class details. Register by calling 719-686-1820X104 and talking to Deb.
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With all of the rain we have had, the aspens should be spectacular this fall and it’s the most beautiful time of year here in Woodland Park. Take a day to enjoy the autumn color and stop by the RMDRC. We look forward to seeing you soon.
JJ Triebold
President
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