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Dinosaur State Park And Arboretum
Dinosaur State Park and Arboretum is a state-owned natural history preserve occupying in the town of Rocky Hill, Connecticut. The state park protects one of the largest dinosaur track sites in North America. The park was created in recognition of fossil trackways embedded in sandstone from the beginning of the Jurassic period, about 200 million years ago. The facility is managed by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. History The Rocky Hill dinosaur tracks were uncovered in 1966, adding to the extensive legacy of fossil discoveries made in the Connecticut Valley since the 19th century. A bulldozer operator noticed the tracks while excavating the site for a new state office building. The site opened as Dinosaur State Park in 1968, the same year its dinosaur trackway was memorialized as a Registered National Landmark. Features ;Geodesic dome The park's geodesic dome (see picture at right) encloses some 500 tracks while another 1,500 remain buried f ...
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Rocky Hill, Connecticut
Rocky Hill is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 20,845 at the 2020 census. It was originally land of the Wangunks (a tribe of Native Americans). Europeans began to settle the area of Rocky Hill in 1650, as part of Wethersfield, the neighboring town to the north. In 1722, the area became known as Stepney Parish, until it was independently incorporated in 1843. Rocky Hill’s location on the Connecticut River made it a natural port for Wethersfield and an early center for shipbuilding, agricultural, and trade. Rocky Hill is a typical bedroom community as many residents commute to work in the larger urban centers of Hartford to the north and New Haven to the south. Rocky Hill is the home to the Dinosaur State Park. Rocky Hill also was once the headquarters of Ames Department Stores, which ceased business operations in 2002. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of . is land and (2.78%) is water ...
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Eubrontes
''Eubrontes'' is the name of fossilised dinosaur footprints dating from the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic. They have been identified from France, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Australia (Queensland), USA, India and China. ''Eubrontes'' is the name of the footprints, identified by their shape, and not of the genus or genera that made them, which is as yet unknown but is presumed to be similar to ''Coelophysis'' or ''Dilophosaurus''. They are most famous for their discovery in the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts in the early 19th century. They, among other footprints, were the first known non-avian dinosaur tracks to be discovered in North America, though they were initially thought to have been made by large birds. Discovery and identity The footprints were first described by Edward Hitchcock, a professor of Amherst College, who thought they were made by a large bird. He originally assigned them to ichnotaxon ''Ornithichnites'' in 1836, then ...
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Chamaecyparis
''Chamaecyparis'', common names cypress or false cypress (to distinguish it from related cypresses), is a genus of conifers in the cypress family Cupressaceae, native to eastern Asia (Japan and Taiwan) and to the western and eastern margins of the United States. The name is derived from the Greek ''khamai'' (χαμαί), meaning "on the earth", and ''kuparissos'' (κυπάρισσος) for "cypress". They are medium-sized to large evergreen trees growing from tall, with foliage in flat sprays. The leaves are of two types, needle-like juvenile leaves on young seedlings up to a year old, and scale-like adult leaves. The cones are globose to oval, with 8-14 scales arranged in opposite decussate pairs; each scale bears 2-4 small seeds. ;Species # ''Chamaecyparis formosensis'' Matsum. - Taiwan # ''Chamaecyparis lawsoniana'' (A.Murray) Parl., Port Orford cedar or Lawson cypress - California, Oregon, Washington # '' Chamaecyparis obtusa'' (Siebold & Zucc.) Endl. - Japan # '' Chamaecy ...
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Thuja
''Thuja'' ( ) is a genus of coniferous tree or shrub in the Cupressaceae (cypress family). There are five species in the genus, two native to North America and three native to eastern Asia. The genus is monophyletic and sister to ''Thujopsis''. Members are commonly known as arborvitaes (from the Latin term for 'tree of life'), thujas or cedars. Description ''Thuja'' are evergreen trees growing from tall, with stringy-textured reddish-brown bark. The shoots are flat, with side shoots only in a single plane. The leaves are scale-like and long, except young seedlings in their first year, which have needle-like leaves. The scale leaves are arranged in alternating decussate pairs in four rows along the twigs. The male cones are small, inconspicuous, and are located at the tips of the twigs. The female cones start out similarly inconspicuous, but grow to about long at maturity when 6–8 months old; they have 6-12 overlapping, thin, leathery scales, each scale bearing 1–2 small se ...
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Otozoum
''Otozoum'' ("giant animal") is an extinct ichnospecies of fossilized sauropodomorph dinosaur footprints and other markings in sandstones. They were made by heavy, bipedal animals (probably dinosaurs) with a short stride that walked on four toes directed forward. ''Otozoum'' tracks were discovered by American paleontologist Edward Hitchcock, who described ''Otozoum'' as the "most extraordinary track yet brought to light in this valley Connecticut_River.html" ;"title="he Connecticut River">he Connecticut Riverrepresenting a bipedal animal... distinguished from all others... in the sandstone of New England". The ichnogenus was named by him in 1847, after the giant Otus (mythology), Otus.Hitchcock, Edward, 1847, "Description of two new species of fossil footmarks found in Massachusetts and Connecticut, or of the animals that made them", ''American Journal of Science and Arts Series 2'', 4(3): 46-57 In 1953, Yale University paleontologist Richard Swann Lull revised Hitchcock's work, ...
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Ball Python
The ball python (''Python regius''), also called the royal python, is a python species native to West and Central Africa, where it lives in grasslands, shrublands and open forests. This nonvenomous constrictor is the smallest of the African pythons, growing to a maximum length of . The name "ball python" refers to its tendency to curl into a ball when stressed or frightened. Taxonomy ''Boa regia'' was the scientific name proposed by George Shaw in 1802 for a pale variegated python from an indistinct place in Africa. The generic name ''Python'' was proposed by François Marie Daudin in 1803 for non-venomous flecked snakes. Between 1830 and 1849, several generic names were proposed for the same zoological specimen described by Shaw, including ''Enygrus'' by Johann Georg Wagler, ''Cenchris'' and ''Hertulia'' by John Edward Gray. Gray also described four specimens that were collected in Gambia and were preserved in spirits and fluid. Description The ball python is black, or ...
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Blue-tongued Skink
Blue-tongued skinks comprise the Australasian genus ''Tiliqua'', which contains some of the largest members of the skink family (Scincidae). They are commonly called blue-tongued lizards or simply blue-tongues or blueys in Australia. As suggested by these common names, a prominent characteristic of the genus is a large blue tongue that can be bared as bluff-warning to potential enemies. The type of predator/threat that is near will determine the intensity of colour present in the tongue. In addition, their blue tongue will produce a response in the prey which will in turn diminish the attack. The tongue can also deform itself and produce a thick mucus in order to catch prey. They are relatively shy in comparison with other lizards, and also significantly slower due to their shorter legs. Systematics and distribution Blue-tongued skinks are closely related to the genera ''Cyclodomorphus'' and '' Hemisphaeriodon''. All species are found on mainland Australia with the exception of ...
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Triassic
The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 Mya. The Triassic is the first and shortest period of the Mesozoic Era. Both the start and end of the period are marked by major extinction events. The Triassic Period is subdivided into three epochs: Early Triassic, Middle Triassic and Late Triassic. The Triassic began in the wake of the Permian–Triassic extinction event, which left the Earth's biosphere impoverished; it was well into the middle of the Triassic before life recovered its former diversity. Three categories of organisms can be distinguished in the Triassic record: survivors from the extinction event, new groups that flourished briefly, and other new groups that went on to dominate the Mesozoic Era. Reptiles, especially archosaurs, were the chief terrestrial vertebrates during this time. A specialized subgroup of archo ...
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Diorama
A diorama is a replica of a scene, typically a three-dimensional full-size or miniature model, sometimes enclosed in a glass showcase for a museum. Dioramas are often built by hobbyists as part of related hobbies such as military vehicle modeling, miniature figure modeling, or aircraft modeling. In the United States around 1950 and onward, natural history dioramas in museums became less fashionable, leading to many being removed, dismantled or destroyed. Etymology The word "diorama" originated in 1823 as a type of picture-viewing device, from the French in 1822. The word literally means "through that which is seen", from the Greek di- "through" + orama "that which is seen, a sight". The diorama was invented by Louis Daguerre and Charles Marie Bouton, first exhibited in Paris in July 1822 and at The Diorama, Regent's Park on September 29, 1823. The meaning "small-scale replica of a scene, etc." is from 1902. Daguerre's and Bouton's diorama consisted of a piece of mater ...
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Dinosaur State Park (Rocky Hill, CT) - Close-up
Dinosaur State Park and Arboretum is a state-owned natural history preserve occupying in the town of Rocky Hill, Connecticut. The state park protects one of the largest dinosaur track sites in North America. The park was created in recognition of fossil trackways embedded in sandstone from the beginning of the Jurassic period, about 200 million years ago. The facility is managed by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. History The Rocky Hill dinosaur tracks were uncovered in 1966, adding to the extensive legacy of fossil discoveries made in the Connecticut Valley since the 19th century. A bulldozer operator noticed the tracks while excavating the site for a new state office building. The site opened as Dinosaur State Park in 1968, the same year its dinosaur trackway was memorialized as a Registered National Landmark. Features ;Geodesic dome The park's geodesic dome (see picture at right) encloses some 500 tracks while another 1,500 remain buried for ...
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Dilophosaurus
''Dilophosaurus'' ( ) is a genus of theropod dinosaurs that lived in what is now North America during the Early Jurassic, about 193 million years ago. Three skeletons were discovered in northern Arizona in 1940, and the two best preserved were collected in 1942. The most complete specimen became the holotype of a new species in the genus ''Megalosaurus'', named ''M. wetherilli'' by Samuel P. Welles in 1954. Welles found a larger skeleton belonging to the same species in 1964. Realizing it bore crests on its skull, he assigned the species to the new genus ''Dilophosaurus'' in 1970, as ''Dilophosaurus wetherilli''. The genus name means "two-crested lizard", and the species name honors John Wetherill, a Navajo councilor. Further specimens have since been found, including an infant. Footprints have also been attributed to the animal, including resting traces. Another species, ''Dilophosaurus sinensis'' from China, was named in 1993, but was later found to belong to the ge ...
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Theropoda
Theropoda (; ), whose members are known as theropods, is a dinosaur clade that is characterized by hollow bones and three toes and claws on each limb. Theropods are generally classed as a group of saurischian dinosaurs. They were ancestrally carnivorous, although a number of theropod groups evolved to become herbivores and omnivores. Theropods first appeared during the Carnian age of the late Triassic Period (geology), period 231.4 million years ago (Year#SI prefix multipliers, Ma) and included all the large terrestrial carnivores from the Early Jurassic until at least the close of the Cretaceous, about 66 Ma. In the Jurassic, birds evolved from small specialized coelurosaurian theropods, and are today represented by about 10,500 living species. Biology Diet and teeth Theropods exhibit a wide range of diets, from insectivores to herbivores and carnivores. Strict carnivory has always been considered the ancestral diet for theropods as a group, and a wider variety of di ...
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