Hold On To Your Butts: Dinosaurs Roamed Through Colorado State Parks
You read that right. We've got prehistoric evidence right in our backyard.
According to an article published on the Colorado Parks & Wildlife website, Trinidad Lake not only features the K-T Boundary but also has dinosaur tracks on display at their visitors center, tracks that may have meant that dinosaurs lived in that area or roamed through it all those years ago.
What is the K-T boundary, by the way? When the asteroid hit earth all those years ago (65 million, to be exact) the impact, according to CP&W, "sent waves of radioactive dust circling the planet, choking out sunlight and inhibiting photosynthesis, leading to the extinction of dinosaurs and most other life." That means that, yes, you can touch the same layer of dust that remains from the moment in time where the dinosaurs were wiped from the earth. Crazy!
That's not the only place you can see evidence of dinosaur life, though-- John Martin Reservoir State Park also features prints dating back to 97 million years ago.
Colorado is considered a 'dinosaur graveyard', according to CPR, with many remains and evidence found on our soil-- it's actually why Dinger, the Rockies mascot that Colorado loves to hate, is a triceratops (you can see him 'hatch' in the video above). If you aren't familiar with that story, the first-ever triceratops found anywhere in the world was found in Denver...so chill out on the Dinger hate. After all, it all makes sense.
Colorado not only is an amazing place to live, it's the place to be if you're a geology nerd. Even if you aren't, you gotta admit-- it's pretty cool to think abut dinosaurs roaming through Fort Collins, right?