I've always thought dinosaurs were cool but after going to the Dinosaur Journey Museum, Museums of Western Colorado earlier this summer with my niece and nephew I became a bigger fan. And I find it very interesting that there have been dinosaur fossils found right here in Grand Junction.

The website Simplemost just published an article showing an interactive map of which dinosaurs lived in your town millions of years ago. While I was hoping that a Tyrannosaurus rex or pterodactyls were living here before we got here it is pretty cool to find out that 20 million years ago we did have some really cool dinosaurs here.

Specifically, in Grand Junction, you could find fossils for three creatures including:

  • Grallator - A carnivore also found in such places as China, England, and France
  • Segisaurus - A Carnivore also found in Arizona that liked to live in a canyon and reproduced by laying eggs, two different specimens have been found
  • Dolichorhynchops - A marine reptile (not actually a dinosaur) though it lived with dinosaurs. A carnivore who reproduced by live birth, sixteen different specimens have been found.

When looking at the interactive map you can see what the earth looked like between 20 million years ago all the way back to 750 million years ago. It's almost difficult to imagine life on this planet that long ago but really interesting and fun to learn about.

If you or someone you love have fun learning about dinosaurs or life millions of years ago make sure you search around on the interactive map.

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