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Dinosaur Ridge was featured in the 1999 Colorado Lottery wall calendar for September. The caption of the page is as follows:
"Lottery proceeds - $125,000 through Great Outdoors Colorado - helped to develop a visitors center at Dinosaur Ridge near Morrison"
A special thanks go to the Colorado Lottery !
DINOSAUR TRACKS IN THE NEWS
An article in the Denver Post, Nov. 7, 1998 (p.25A/28A), "Tracking an ancient mystery; Dinosaur prints' ID questioned", was about the tracks on Dinosaur Ridge. It reports the suggestions of Ken Carpenter (Denver Museum of Natural History) that the tracks on Dinosaur Ridge were not made by Iguanodon as has been presumed, but by a recently discovered, related dinosaur.
The new hadrosaurid ("duckbill") dinosaur, named Eolambia caroljonsea, was discovered in Utah by Carol Jones in 1993, and described as a new genus and species by James I. Kirkland. Dr. Carpenter points out that the feet of Eolambia would be about right to have made the tracks seen on Dinosaur Ridge, that the Eolambia discovery is of just about the same age (near 100 million years old) as the Dino Ridge tracks, and that the known records of Iguanodon are a few million years older (103 million years old) and it is not proven that Iguanadon still existed when the Dinosaur Ridge tracks were made in the Dakota sandstone.
The article notes that "the two dinosaurs resembled each other. The main difference lies in the jaws of duckbilled dinosaurs, which had more teeth and a broader crushing surface to chew tough plant material.", and that "The similarity of Eolambia and Iguanodon footprints may leave the question forever open."
DINOSAUR RIDGE IN THE NEWS
"Groups agree on Dinosaur Ridge road closure" appeared in the Rocky Mountain News on November 29, 1998 (p.46A/47A, printed only in the Mile High Suburbs edition of the News). The article reports the recently arrived at agreement between local city, county, and state agencies and the Friends of Dinosaur Ridge, that Alameda Parkway across Dinosaur Ridge will be closed as a public roadway in about 3-5 years, once a planned interchange at C-470 and Alameda is constructed by the City of Lakewood. The article notes that "Lakewood is depending on development of the Rooney Valley to pay for the [interchange] project"; expanding commercial development in the area south of Alameda and north of Morrison Road is expected to take place over this time period.
