Ancient Colorado; Triassic Thickets
Denver Public Art 1%
2005.4.3
Triassic Thickets
Rifle Falls State Park
225 million years ago
Armored plant-eaters known as aetosaurs once rummaged through a Colorado understory filled with Sanmiguelia plants. Dense thickets of giant rushes rose overhead. This otherworldly 225 million-year-old landscape also was home to the small, carnivorous Coelophysis, Colorado’s oldest known dinosaur.
The brick-red Chinle Formation occurs throughout the Four Corners area, including southwestern Colorado. This Triassic Period scene is based on plant and animal fossils collected near Telluride and Rifle Falls State Park, not far from the western slope town of New Castle.
Rifle Falls State Park
225 million years ago
Armored plant-eaters known as aetosaurs once rummaged through a Colorado understory filled with Sanmiguelia plants. Dense thickets of giant rushes rose overhead. This otherworldly 225 million-year-old landscape also was home to the small, carnivorous Coelophysis, Colorado’s oldest known dinosaur.
The brick-red Chinle Formation occurs throughout the Four Corners area, including southwestern Colorado. This Triassic Period scene is based on plant and animal fossils collected near Telluride and Rifle Falls State Park, not far from the western slope town of New Castle.
Jan Vriesen and Kirk Johnson (rights held by)