We returned from two weeks in Texas two days ago, visiting the grandson and family in Dallas/Fort Worth area, and took a day trip to this state park an hour southwest of the city. The Tyrannosaurus model is not accurate in that that species never lived in the area nor at the same time as the species that did live there, but it was obtained after the 1964 NY State fair from an exhibit that the Sinclair Oil Company had produced. Despite its inaccuracy it's still a hit with ‘kids’ of all ages. The Paluxy River runs through the park in which the old rock that contains the footprints has been exposed by erosion. The Acrocanthosaurus that made the tracks in the picture was a resident carnivore that weighed about 13,000 to 14,000 pounds and lived 123 to 113 million years ago. When the water level is very low one can literally walk the same path, although the local people also use deep pools in the river for swimming and there are picnic tables and playgrounds for family use. About ½ mile from the park entrance, religionists have erected what they call a ‘creation museum’, apparently to offer a counter message to the scientific reality of the geological history of the area. According to Wikipedia, certain people mistook some tracks to be human, and so:
“ 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 has noted that geologists in the 1980s "clearly demonstrated that no human being left those prints," but rather "they were in fact metatarsal dinosaur tracks, together with a few pure and simple fakes."[6]
AS always...click on pictures to enlarge them...
