Dinopark in ZOO Košice

Hi.

Today, my daughter and I were talking about dinosaurs. We bought plastic figures in a toy store and immediately tried them on. Well, I was not at all prepared for the question my daughter asked me. Daddy? When are we going to see the dinosaurs?

One question and a problem is in the world.

Of course, I started to explain to her that dinosaurs lived a long time ago and are now extinct. That we can no longer see them even in the zoo. As you can imagine, this explanation was in vain. I was on the verge of tears when I got the idea. We will not go to see live dinosaurs, but they have a Dinopark in the ZOO in Košice. Large, moving dinosaur sculptures. Some of them make sounds and the whole exhibit is displayed in the forest. So I promised her that we would go and see them. My daughter was happy to see them and I was happy that we were going on a trip.

Already from a distance we hear sounds coming from the leafy forest. We pass through the gate and enter the territory of dinosaurs. I see excitement in my daughter. He is looking forward to what we will see in the forest.

And it's here! The head of an Allosaurus stares at us from among the trees. This carnivore, whose biggest weapon was 10-centimeter teeth and a strong jaw, weighed around two tons. However, it was not so much by dinosaur standards. He was so much faster and smarter. He was also able to stun his prey with a strong blow from his horned head. He mostly hunted alone, but he also dared to hunt larger prey. An Allosaurus attack on a sauropod is documented, which takes great courage. It was found in the USA, but its fossils were also found in Portugal.

This little thing reached a length of up to 27 meters and a height of 13 meters. With a weight of 40 tons, he belonged to individuals from the heavy weight category. We are talking about Brachiosaurus. It is unbelievable that a herbivore could grow to such dimensions. We don't have many fossils of this species. It seems that Brachiosaurus did not live in herds but alone in the USA.

From the giant we pass to the smaller bird-like predator Compsognathus. This dinosaur probably had a body covered with primitive feathers. However, no traces of feathers or scales were found in the found fossils. It had a long tail and only two toes on its front legs.

We move on to other dinosaurs. This time it's the bloodthirsty Deinonychus feasting on their prey. It is understandable that my daughter did not like this dinosaur. This bird-like dinosaur was up to 4 meters long. He hunted in packs, thanks to which he dared to catch prey much larger than himself. An attack by a group of Deinonychus on a Tenontosaurus is recorded. In addition to the Tenontosaurus, a few Deinonychus individuals lost their lives at that time.

I really like this unusual dinosaur. It is probably because it is completely different from the classic dinosaurs that we imagine when we think of the word dinosaur. From the top, it looks like a pancake, and many claim that it is the ugliest animal in the world. We can certainly agree that it is very unusual. It is also because this dinosaur opened the upper jaw and the lower one was firmly fixed. It reached a length of one meter and inhabited the warm waters of lakes. He especially liked greater depths and was fortified with armor.

Am I boring you? I hope you will bear with me for a while with this article.

On the other hand, my daughter liked this cute dinosaur. Meet the Maiasaur. It was a 9-meter long herbivore that fed on woody plants. He lived in herds, the number of which reached several thousand. To be honest, I can't even imagine such a picture. He was a very caring dinosaur. Colonies built nests where they laid eggs. They dug their nests into the ground and buried the eggs in the pits with plants. These produced heat by rotting which helped the little Maiasaurs to hatch. Mothers fed the cubs until they reached approximately 120 cm. Then the entire colony left the nests and set off to return again in a year.

We look up and see a Pteranodon flying above us. They were toothless birds with a wingspan of up to 10 meters. He lived near the sea and made a living by fishing. He flew low over the waves and collected fish in his bag, which he had under his beak.

I probably don't need to introduce this dinosaur. We saved the best for last and our reward is a sight of a Tyrannosaurus. It was found in North America. It was the largest and strongest predator of its time. His teeth were up to 15 centimeters long, and if one fell out, another grew. Something like how it works nowadays with sharks. The tyrannosaurus reached a height of 6 meters and a length of 13 meters. He had a big head and a strong tail, thanks to which he kept his balance. It had only two toes on its small front hands, while it had four toes on its strong hind legs. Researches proved that he had very good eyesight. He even saw 13 times better than a human. Some scientists claim that Tyrannosaurus was a scavenger, as evidenced by its short forelimbs that were useless for hunting and its good sense of smell. However, most experts do not agree with this hypothesis. The proof is supposed to be the excellent eyesight that he needed when hunting. Well, who knows where the truth is.

We continue our learning about dinosaurs by visiting the cinema, where something about them is told ivote you can find out.

At the end, we go through the exit where we look at examples of fossils. And of course we have to bring home some nice souvenir from every trip. And so we choose our dinosaur at the counter.

It was an interesting and informative trip. For a moment, we went back to the time when dinosaurs ruled the earth.

Thank you and have a nice day everyone.