Dinos in Pop Culture - Animal Kingdom: The Boneyard

Today we are going into an area within DinoLand U.S.A called:

The Boneyard: Fossil Fun Site

The Boneyard was probably the best "paleontological" area of all of DinoLand U.S.A. and has several features within it. The first thing you notice as you enter DinoLand U.S.A. is a giant Brachiosaurus skeleton that you walk under.

The story behind this area is that the Boneyard is "run" by an organization called The Dino Institute. The Institute is a made up organization (at least I'm pretty sure it is) designed to make the experience appear that much more real. Within the Boneyard there are several slides, mazes, stairs, and bridges around fake rock walls will "fossils" built into them.

 A welcoming sign. 

The Dino Institute's logo

A view of a potential dinosaur excavation site.

A large bone within that excavation site.

 A Parasaurolophus skeleton built into one of the walls. 

  Random mammoth skull within a field of dinosaur bones. Seemingly out of place but we will come back to the mammoth. It does have a purpose here. 

T. rex skeleton towards the back of the complex.

 Many of the dinosaurs also come with informational signs so that the kids can learn some more about them if they are interested.

 Pachycephalosaurus

Towards one side of the area there is a walkway that brings you across a bridge to another area that is an active "dig" and theoretically a different rock layer since this area isn't dinosaur specific. To get there you must now walk essentially within the Brachiosaurus. 

 Looking up into the Brachiosaurus skeleton as I walk by.

 As you leave the walkway, you can look down into this separate area made up of an entire dig site. And what are they digging here?

 Why it's a mammoth! Told you we would come back to that.

 Complete with a descriptive board to give the kids the information that they need.

 Back across the bridge we head to go to the play area. As you walk around the back it appears they have a whiteboard set up with with a list of the fossils they are working on.

 However, looking at the names of the species and other info, I'm questioning the veracity of this information.

 Random T. rex statue next to the whiteboard.

 And a little more information about the science of paleontology in general. 

You can find all of my Dinos of Disney compiled on my website at Dinojim.com.

Dinos in Pop Culture - Animal Kingdom: Chester and Hester's Dino-Rama!

Today we are going into Animal Kingdom's DinoLand U.S.A and focusing on an area of DinoLand U.S.A. called:

 "Chester and Hester's DinoRama!"

We are welcomed by several dinosaurs including front and center a Parasaurolophus with a long-tailed pterosaur above, possibly a Rhamphorhynchus. 

Disney has described this area of the park as such:

The Story of Chester & Hester’s Dino-Rama! After rare dinosaur fossils were discovered in 1947, a group of scientists decided to buy the dig area. But one small property—owned by locals Chester and Hester—refused to sell and instead opened a dino-themed midway called Chester & Hester’s Dino-Rama!

So it is basically a dinosaur themed carnival attraction area. Not the most innovative Disney design, but whatever, it has dinosaurs.

So let's head on inside.

They have two rides within the DinoRama!

The first is the Tricera-Top Spin. You won't catch me dead on it but there are several Triceratops in which you can ride, similar to the main entrance model.

 But somehow my daughter convinced me to go on the other ride, the Primeval Whirl. Here is the banner over the front of the ride. The ride has since closed back in March of 2020, luckily I got the pictures when I did.

 There was a giant dinosaur in the vein of those dinosaur model kits where each bone is a piece of wood that locks together stuck into the middle of the ride. I think it is a T. rex but I am not certain.

 And...I'm on the ride.

 Here is the concept for the ride:

Back In Time

Take a trip aboard a spinning rollercoaster in this dinosaur-themed carnival-style attraction.

Hop inside a time-machine-styled contraption—created by research-scientist cousins Esther, Fester, Nester and Lester—and journey back to when dinosaurs ruled the earth. Climb a ramp and pass through a zany 4-ringed time portal before beginning a steady, swinging descent into the past.

A Trip to the Prehistoric Age 

Sweep through a series of sudden dips and turns as your time machine spins on its own path. Whiz by cartoon-styled dinosaurs hastily preparing for their impending extinction and glimpse a shower of kooky meteors. Thrill to twists and turns and glide through a fossilized jigsaw puzzle of dinosaur bones before leaving the past behind and making your way back to the present.

So basically you go back in time and are trying to outrun the meteor at the end of the Reign of Dinosaurs.

After finally getting off the ride, you are treated to a meteor pointing the way to where to throw up your lunch. 

One of the main eye pieces of the area is this giant Apatosaurus. I took this picture of it back in 2016 (above) but apparently the dinosaur changed color since then (below). 

 2017 had a new paint scheme. 

He's happy.

Like all good carnivals, they have an assortment of carnival style game spread throughout the area called Fossil Fun Games.

 Bronto-Score

 Whac-A-Packycephalosaur (sp)

 Get some treats at the "Corn-ivorse" (the puns were relentless).

Not an actual game but it might have been back in the day. It is also one of the few artistic reconstructions of T. rex that actually appears to have two fingers.

And of course I couldn't have left without getting a picture of this tribute to the past The Dino Diner. This appears to be a reconstruction of the original Iguanodon reconstruction from the Crystal Palace. 

Crystal Palace Iguanodon courtesy of Darren Naish of Scientific American.

And to add to the history, the original reconstruction of Iguanodon actually predates these Crystal Palace reconstructions where a dinner was held inside the dinosaur reconstruction on December 31st, 1853. So, it is fitting that the homage is a diner. 

Invitation sketch created by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins for the December 31st dinner. Printed in the January 7th, 1854 edition of the Illustrated London News. 

You can find all of my Dinos of Disney compiled on my website at Dinojim.com.

Dinos in Pop Culture - Animal Kingdom: Ticket Booth, Tree of Life, and Misc.

Main Entrance Ticket Booth

During one of our recent trips to Walt Disney World last, we hit up one of the four main parks, Animal Kingdom. Animal Kingdom, as the name suggests, it dominated by animals (shocker!), but they also have a section of the park called "DinoLand U.S.A.". The inclusion of Dinoland U.S.A. means that there are actually A LOT of dinosaurs to be had at the park (non-avian dinosaurs for the pure hearted if you will). I know I didn't capture all of them but I definitely got as many as I could. We are going to go through the park, attraction by attractions starting with the front gates.

The main entrance to the park has a big sign that says Animal Kingdom and a skull of an elephant on it. However to the left and right of that sign are skulls of other animals that are meant to be represented within the park. On the right side is the skull of a Triceratops. 

For comparison, here is a Triceratops from Chicago's Field Museum. One thing I notice immediately are that the horns over the eyes are much bigger on nearly every specimen of Triceratops that I am aware of in real life versus what was presented on the Ticket Booth model.

 And on the left side is the skull of a dragon. Even though they never actually created any of it, the park was supposed to have an element of fantasy animals being the trifecta along with the real animals and the dinosaurs. Coincidentally enough, this element of the park has now coming to fruition with the opening of the Pandora land. And I have to include dragons under the dinosaurs of Disney because my love of dragons as possibly being influenced by dinosaurs.

Tree of Life

At the center of the park is what is known as the Tree of Life. This is a concrete tree with "carvings" of animals located all over it. If you look closely though you may find a dinosaur or two included with them. Here I found an Ankylosaurus. I feel like there was more but I couldn't find them at the time. Maybe next trip?

Miscellaneous

 And to top it off, I found these images which are remarkable similar to trace fossils that I worked on for my PhD research termed "graphoglyptids". 

Cosmorhaphe from the Palaeocene-Lower Eocene of Poland.

Spirorhaphe from the Late Cretaceous of Tanzania.

For the next entry, we will delve into Dinoland U.S.A. itself.

You can find all of my Dinos of Disney compiled on my website at Dinojim.com.