Wyoming Dinosaur Center, Thermopolis

The Wyoming Dinosaur Center is located in Thermopolis, Wyoming and is one of the few dinosaur museums in the world to have excavation sites within driving distance. The museum displays the Thermopolis Specimen of Archaeopteryx, which is the only real specimen of this genus on display outside of Europe.

Fifteen minutes from the museum are their many dig sites. Located on the Warm Springs Ranch, more than 10,000 bones have been discovered and excavated, most of which are either on display or stored just down the hill at the museum.

One of the most notable fossil assemblies on the property is from the "Something Interesting" or SI excavation site. This site presents the rare occurrence of both dinosaur trace fossils and body fossils including footprints of many Sauropods and Allosaurus as well as skeletal remains from Camarasaurus, Diplodocus, and Apatosaurus - three of the sauropods most common in the area during the Late Jurassic. Most of the bones belong to a juvenile (30 foot long) Camarasaurus that was scavenged by many Allosaurs. This is known based on the presence of both teeth and claw marks on many of the bones present as well as an abundance of shed Allosaur teeth (more than 100) found among the bone debris. Research conducted by Debra Jennings back in 2006, determined that the bones were accumulated in the past when the site was part of a shallow alkaline lake. There are in fact at least two separate layers of bone bearing material created as the lake expanded and shrank with changes in the environment over time.(Jennings 2006).