Dinosaur Museum, Blanding

The Dinosaur Museum in Blanding, UT is a must see for dino lovers. It's located at South 200 West just a couple of blocks from U.S. 191. The museum features skeletal reconstructions, life size models, bones, skin, eggs, and footprints of dinosaurs from the Permian through the Cretaceous Periods. It features excellent exhibits on stegosaurs and feathered dinosaurs. It also has a hall devoted to dinosaurs in the movies, with the world's largest collection of dinosaur movie posters.
The museum has a well stocked gift shop, and a nice outdoor butterfly garden. It's open from the middle of April to the middle of October. I made my first visit in August of 2024. As usual, I've probably included too many photos in this presentation. Can't help myself.

The Dinosaur Museum, Blanding

Gift Shop

Dino Books

Butterfly Garden

Hummingbird Moth in the Butterfly Garden

Permian to Cretaceous

The museum is arranged so visitors start at the earliest geological time period and advance through succesively younger time periods. The tour starts with exhibits from the Permian Period, the last period of the Paleozoic Era. Visitors then enter into the Mesozoic Era, the age of dinosaurs. Exhibits or more or less arranged into the three periods of the Mesozoic: Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous.

Permian Period 299 to 251 million years ago. The supercontinent Pangaea was formed during the Permian Period. Primitive reptiles that lived during the Permian were precursors to the dinosaurs, often refered to as "proto-dinosaurs". The Permian Period ended with the largest mass extinction event in Earth's history, wiping out more than 90% of marine species and 70% of land animals.

The Permian Period
Before the Dinosaurs

Permian Logs

Permian Log

Animals of the Permian Period
Dimetrodon, Diadectes, and Seymouria

Seymouria

Dimetrodon and Procolophon

Triassic Period 251.9 to 201.4 million years ago. The Triassic is the first and shortest period of the Mesozoic Era, with major extinctions at both its start and end.

Plateosaurus

Herrerasaurus

Coelophysis - New Mexico State Fossil

Coelophysis

Coelurosaur and Prosauropod Distribution

Jurassic Period 201.4 to 145 million years ago. The climate of the Jurassic was warmer than today with no icecaps at the poles. Expanses of forests grew near the poles with arid regions at lower latitudes.

Early Jurassic Globe

Dilphosaurus wetherilli

Dilophosaurus wetherilli - Early Jurassic

Stegosaurus Exhibit - Colorado State Fossil

Stegosaurus - The Rubic's Cube of Dinosaurs

Sauropod and Stegosaur Distribution

Allosaurus - Utah State Fossil

Allosaurus - Late Jurassic

Common Characteristics of Theropod Dinosaurs
(Late Triassic through close of Cretaceous)

Cretaceous Period 145 to 66 million years ago. The Cretaceous is the final and longest period of the Mesozoic Era. Dinosaurs dominated the land and large reptiles populated the seas and flew in the sky. The period ended with one the the greatest mass extinctions in Earth's history, completely wiping out the dinosaurs.

Suchomimus Museum Model

Suchomimus - Early Cretaceous

T. rex - Cretaceous

Albertosaurus Skull - Late Cretaceous

Carnotaurus - Late Cretaceous

Styracosaurus

Styracosaurus - Late Cretaceous

Saichania Skull - Late Cretaceous

Dinosaur Tracks Exhibit

Birds of a Feather

When is a bird not really a bird? When it's a feathered dinosaur of course. The museum has several excellent exhibits devoted to feathered dinosaurs and the evolution of birds.

The Feather Controversy

Confuciusornis X-Ray Photograph - Early Cretaceous

Pterorhynchus

Caudipteryx

Pteraichnus Tracks

Feathered Deinonychus

Non-Feathered Deinonychus

Therizinosaurus

Dino Cinema

The museum has a hall devoted to dinosuars in the movies. I have never seen this at any other dinosaur museum I've visited, and I thought it was really cool.