Walking with dinosaurs in Thermopolis

When we left Laramie, WY this morning, there was a guarantee that rain would be the rule of the day.  Sure enough, as we turned north, the skies opened and my car was buffeted by gusty winds.  The worst of it didn't last too long, but it was drizzling when my sister and I reached the Wyoming Dinosaur Center in Thermopolis.  This wonderful museum has displays of fossils and bones from the earliest life forms to the dawn of the dinosaurs.  Here is a beautiful wall of trilobites that collectively met their end together, and crinoids which inspired the Sentinels seen in the The Matrix films.  

They had an awesome example of the first Pterosaur identified as a flying reptile.  There was also a Petrosaur in the process of swallowing a small fish being grabbed by an even bigger fish.

There were many excellent fossils in the museum's exhibits, but none more so than the Archaeopteryx.  This creature was the first fossil to show the link between reptiles and birds.  Archaeopteryx possessed feathers on its wings, but had a reptilian skeleton.  This specimen was discovered in Germany in 2005 and is the most complete and well preserved in the world.  It's also the only Archaeopteryx on display in the U.S.

Other fossils that I found particularly interesting are the horseshoe crab that died after leaving a long track behind it, the aquatic Elasmosaur and the tri-horned Albertaceratops.

When we walked out of the museum, it was still drizzling.  And, the rain only came down harder as we drove to our pit stop for the night.  Tomorrow, the plan is to visit Yellowstone National Park.  But, there is more rain in the forecast.  I'm not one to let a little rain stop me from having fun...as long as I don't get TOO wet!