Dino-might! Ogden park promoting the study of the beasts

OGDEN — For some 140 million years, the creatures we know as dinosaurs ruled the planet. Then, relatively suddenly and quite mysteriously, they disappeared — so completely that some 65 millions years later when early "bone hunters" began to come across enormous fossils, they had no clue what they were looking at.

It has taken the past two centuries to piece it all together, and even now there are gaps and holes.

So far, paleontologists have uncovered about 125 different species of dinosaurs, says Kevin Ireland, executive director of Ogden's George S. Eccles Dinosaur Park. "But there are a lot more we haven't found. Scientists estimate that maybe about one-tenth of what's out there has been discovered."

Dinosaurs played an important part in the history of this planet, he says, and the study of them is not a dead science or even a dry-as-dust one, but a dynamic, ongoing discipline where new things are being learned all the time. "There's still a plethora of new, exciting discoveries to be made."

At the park, they are excited to be a part of that, he says. But for some time, it has seemed like the dinosaur park has been a well-kept secret all it's own. "We're trying to change all that," says Ireland. "We want to let people know that this is the largest dinosaur park in the country. We have more than a hundred models of dinosaurs scattered over eight acres, and what's more, 99 percent of them are indigenous to Utah."

The dinosaurs are life-size or large-scale replicas and are tucked among trees and foliage, so that wandering the trails becomes an exciting journey of discovery. Intermittent sounds of roars and crunching footsteps also add to the ambience. "We want it to be fun, maybe even a bit scary at times," says Ireland. "We don't want dinosaurs to seem musty, old."

Even more than that, says park spokesman Zane the Dino Brain, "we want to make it cool to be into dinosaurs. We like to say we have cool down to a science."

Zane was introduced this summer. "He's the 'Mickey Mouse' of the park," explains Ireland. "He'll be an identifiable presence that knows all about dinosaurs."

"We want kids to know that science is not for nerds, it's for adventurers," says Zane. "Paleontologists dig up big, beautiful bones." He'd like to be able to do for paleontology what Indiana Jones did for archaeology, he says. "This is the place for an intense, bigger-than-life look at adventure from the dinosaur's world."