Cretaceous Christmas Celebration

Our Cretaceous Christmas celebration will be held on December 12th. Come see how we celebrate Christmas in the Cretaceous. Christmas music, free admission from 2 pm until close, (5:00 pm) Santa Claus from 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm, Raptor Claws' elves will help you make a Christmas craft in the museum classroom and an all day sale in the gift shop 10% off all purchases. 

We hoe you can attend.

Little Time Left to Visit the Kennewick Man Exhibit

There is little time left to see the Kennewick Man on Trial Traveling Exhibit. It will leave the museum on September 27th. Don't miss out on the opportunity to see this wonderful exhibit. We have been fortunate to have it here in our area.

Kennewick Man was about 5 feet 9 inches tall, and had a robust, muscular build. At the time of his death, he was between 30 and 50 years of age and had survived a projectile point wound in his right hip. The area of Eastern Washington where he was found was cooler and wetter 9,000 years ago than today, with grasslands and scattered pine forests covering the land. Ancient large bison, elk, deer, fish, freshwater shellfish, and plants were important sources of food. In the 1960s and 1970s, other human remains dating to 10,000 years ago were found just north of Kennewick with knives, spear blades, drills, spear-thrower parts, and other tools, as well as shell jewelry.

Illustration by Joyce Bergen, 1999.

An Accidental Discovery – On July 28, 1996, two men watching the annual hydro boat races at Columbia Park in Kennewick, WA, found part of a human skull on the bottom of the Columbia River about 10 feet from shore. Later deliberate searches turned up a nearly complete male skeleton with a projectile point – similar to the one in this photo – lodged in his right hip. This figure is now known as Kennewick Man. Scientists used radiocarbon dating on the remains and analyzed the projectile point to determine the age of Kennewick Man.
Image courtesy of the Burke Museum.

We would like to thank our sponsors

Rock On!

We have a new exhibit at the CEU Prehistoric Museum - Rock On!

It is a spectacular little room located in the corner of our art gallery where the rocks do turn on when the lights go out. One case contains a stunning display of rocks found locally and the other case displays fabulous rocks from Utah.

Not that our museum wasn't well worth the trip before, but this gives you just one more reason to INTRODUCE YOUR MONSTERS TO OURS because There's No Time Like The Past, the College of Eastern Utah Prehistoric Museum - Dinosaurs, Ice Age and Archaeology 200 million years in the making!

(Photos of courtesy of John Bird aka Paleo Dude)

A New “Monster” Dinosaur Hits The Record Books in Eastern Utah

Carpenter, Bartlett, Bird and Barrick co-author paper, “ANKYLOSAURS FROM THE PRICE RIVER QUARRIES, CEDAR MOUNTAIN FORMATION (LOWER CRETACEOUS), EAST-CENTRAL UTAH” in the December issue of the Journal of Paleontology introducing a newly discovered species that smashes world records for size as the largest nodosaur ever discovered.

Researchers in the western US have unveiled another gigantic dinosaur and given it a fitting name. Peloroplites cedrimontanus, the “gigantic monster from Cedar Mountain,” tops out as the biggest example ever discovered of the dinosaur group known as nodosaurs.

Kenneth Carpenter, noted research paleontologist and author of “The Armored Dinosaurs,” presented in print a new description of the gigantic tanklike creature in collaboration with staff of the College of Eastern Utah Prehistoric Museum, who discovered the remains at one of their most prolific quarries. Their paper describes the animal as a gigantic contemporary of similar dinosaurs in the family Ankylosauridae, with interesting features such as large fused bony bumps covering its back. With its great size and formidable defenses, an adult Peloroplites would have been nearly invulnerable to predators of its day.

Another massive armored dinosaur, also discovered by the CEU Prehistoric Museum and named Cedarpelta, sheds new light on the relationships among members of the ankylosaur family in North America and Asia. This and the other armored dinosaurs, dating from the middle Cretaceous period, pose new questions about why the family’s diversity occurred at that crucial time in evolutionary history.

The College of Eastern Utah Prehistoric Museum is grateful to these individuals for their dedication to dinosaur discovery and bringing these scientific discoveries to the public.