Dinosaur Valley State Park is a state park near

Glen Rose, Texas Glen Rose is a city in and the county seat of Somervell County, Texas, United States. As of the 2012 census estimate, the city population was 2,502. History 19th century The area was first settled in 1849 by Charles Barnard, who opened a tradin ...

, United States.

History

Dinosaur Valley State Park, located just northwest of

Glen Rose Glen Rose (April 23, 1905 – September 3, 1994) was an American football and basketball coach. He served as the head basketball coach at the University of Arkansas from 1933 to 1942 and again from 1952 to 1966, as well as the head football coach ...

in Somervell County, Texas, is a scenic park set astride the Paluxy River. The land for the park was acquired from private owners under the State Parks Bonds Program during 1968 and opened to the public in 1972. In addition to being a state park, it is also a

National Natural Landmark The National Natural Landmarks (NNL) Program recognizes and encourages the conservation of outstanding examples of the natural history of the United States. It is the only national natural areas program that identifies and recognizes the best ...

. Eastward-dipping

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

s, and mudstones of the

Glen Rose Formation The Glen Rose Formation is a shallow marine to shoreline geological formation from the lower Cretaceous period exposed over a large area from South Central to North Central Texas. The formation is most widely known for the dinosaur footprints ...

were deposited during the early

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...

Period approximately 113 million years ago along the shorelines of an ancient sea, and form the geological setting for the park area. Over the last million years or so, these layered formations have been

eroded Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is disti ...

, dissected and sculpted by the Paluxy River which, in many places, has cut down to resistant beds and planed off sizable exposures of rock in the river bottom.

Controversy

Near Dinosaur Valley State Park, in the limestone deposits along the Paluxy River, "twin sets" of tracks were found in the Glen Rose Formation as early as 1908. These footprints were once thought to be evidence that humans and non-avian dinosaurs lived at the same time, but now are identified to be created by dinosaurs. However, young-Earth creationists continue to believe that humans and non-avian dinosaurs lived at the same time, a notion that is contrary to the standard view of the geological time scale. Biologist

Massimo Pigliucci Massimo Pigliucci (; born January 16, 1964) is Professor of Philosophy at the City College of New York, former co-host of the '' Rationally Speaking Podcast'', and former editor in chief for the online magazine ''Scientia Salon''. He is a critic o ...

has noted that geologists in the 1980s "clearly demonstrated that no human being left those prints," but rather "they were in fact

metatarsal The metatarsal bones, or metatarsus, are a group of five long bones in the foot, located between the tarsal bones of the hind- and mid-foot and the phalanges of the toes. Lacking individual names, the metatarsal bones are numbered from the me ...

dinosaur tracks, together with a few pure and simple fakes."

, '' Denying Evolution: Creationism, Scientism, and the Nature of Science,'' (Sinauer, 2002, page 246): The family of George Adams, who claimed to have found human footprints in the Glen Rose Formation, later admitted that Adams' and some others' fossil footprints were a hoax. Zana Douglas, the granddaughter of George Adams, explained that during the 1930s' Great Depression her grandfather and other residents of Glen Rose made money by making moonshine and selling "dinosaur fossils". The faux fossils brought $15 to $30 and when the supply ran low, they "just carved more, some with human footprints thrown in."

References

External links

Dinosaur Valley State Park
official website

by Glen J. Kuban.

by Glen J. Kuban from talk.origins
Film footage of Dinosaur Valley State Park from ''Texas: The Beginnings, Part I''
on the Texas Archive of the Moving Image {{authority control Fossil parks in the United States Fossil trackways in the United States Cross country running courses in Texas Dinosaur museums in the United States IUCN Category III Museums in Somervell County, Texas National Natural Landmarks in Texas Natural history museums in Texas Protected areas of Somervell County, Texas Paleontology in Texas State parks of Texas 1968 in paleontology 1972 establishments in Texas Protected areas established in 1972

History

Controversy

See also

References

External links