by In 1966 Edward McCarthy was using a bulldozer to excavate a rocky site in central Connecticut; on the underside of one slab he noticed six large three-toed footprints. Excavation work was immediately halted, and over the next two years, 2,600 tracks were discovered at the site, one of the largest discoveries of tracks in the world. This site is now Dinosaur State Park in Rocky Hill, CT, where about 750 of the tracks are on display in a covered dome built in the 1970s, with the rest reburied and awaiting funding for proper display.
An elevated boardwalk allows visitors to observe the tracks beneath the dome.
Interestingly, conditions that are great for preserving dinosaur tracks are not great for preserving dinosaur bone fossils, so scientists can only speculate what dinosaurs were tromping through this field. The best guess is Eubrontes Giganteus, a meat-eating dinosaur with a length of up to 20 feet. These tracks are 200 million-years-old!
The field of tracks looks like the dinosaurs had a rave; it’s very chaotic and hard to follow the tracks of one dinosaur, even with a lighting aid to help in the exhibit area. The tracks are neat to look at for a few minutes for a non-dinosaur-fanatic, making this a quick visit.
There are a few educational displays in the visitors center, and the grounds contain hiking trails that are not related to dinosaurs.
