Dinosaur Sighting: A Cheerful Diplodocus

If you are on your way to Dinosaur National Monument in Utah, keep your eye out for dinosaurs by the side of the road. There are plenty of them, and one of the most prominent is a large Diplodocus that stands outside a gift shop just before the entrance to the park. The store itself was closed when I stopped by (the closure of the monument's famous fossil wall has hurt local businesses that have depended on tourists coming to see the dinosaurs), but the sauropod still stands outside ready to pose for a picture with you.

And on another note, a few readers raised questions about one of our earlier "Dinosaur Sightings." Some have said that the Tyrannosaurus from Oregon's "Prehistoric Gardens" was actually from Colorado, Texas, or another state. I did some checking and it looks like we got the right Tyrannosaurus in the right place, but the statue did look very similar to other versions of Tyrannosaurus seen on roadsides across America. Perhaps, just like the real prehistoric creature they are based on, this particular form of man-made Tyrannosaurus inhabits a range over much of North America.

Have you seen a dinosaur in an unexpected place? Snap a photo and send it to [email protected] and you just might see it here!

Riley Black | | READ MORE

Riley Black is the author of The Last Days of the Dinosaurs and many other books. She is a science correspondent for Smithsonian magazine covering fossils and natural history, and she writes about the prehistoric past for a variety of publications.