Dinosaur Ridge, Natural landmark and paleontological site in Morrison, Colorado.
Dinosaur Ridge is a segment of the Dakota Hogback near Morrison, Colorado, where a closed paved road climbs about 700 feet (210 m) to the ridge backbone. The light gray and white rock surface is marked by dark, deeply impressed three-toed footprints of varying sizes, with thin fissures crisscrossing the stone. The 2-mile round-trip trail passes fossil bone quarries and track sites.
In 1877 Arthur Lakes, a clergyman and amateur paleontologist from Golden, and Henry Beckwith, a retired naval officer, found the first dinosaur material in the Morrison Formation here. Excavation began that year under Yale paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh, yielding the first identified Stegosaurus fossils. In 1937, workers building Alameda Parkway uncovered dinosaur tracks in the Dakota Formation.
The name Dinosaur Ridge comes from the fossils in its rock. The Friends of Dinosaur Ridge, a non-profit formed in 1989, runs guided bus tours, interpretive signs and the Exhibit Hall, and owns the Martin G. Lockley Discovery Center on the west side of the hogback. The ridge is also a migration corridor: over 2,000 raptors pass north along it each spring.
The location is easy to explore on foot since a paved path is accessible to visitors of different abilities. A visitor center nearby offers information, exhibits, and guided tours to help make the experience more understandable.
During the 1930s, when a road was built through the area, workers unexpectedly uncovered numerous fossilized footprints that scientists had never seen before. This accidental discovery greatly expanded knowledge about several dinosaur species and how they moved across the land.
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