Dinosaur Valley State Park#Controversy
{{short description|State park in Texas, United States}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2023}}
{{Infobox protected area
|name = Dinosaur Valley State Park
|iucn_category =
|photo = River with dinosaur footprints.png
|photo_caption = The Paluxy River with visible dinosaur tracks in Dinosaur Valley State Park
|map = USA Texas
|map_width = 250
|map_caption = Location of Dinosaur Valley State Park in Texas
|location = Somervell County, Texas
|nearest_city = Glen Rose, Texas
|coords = {{coord|32|15|11.7|N|97|49|6.91|W|region:US-TX_type:landmark_source:gnis|display=inline,title}}
|area_acre = 1524.72
|established = 1972
|visitation_num = 243,001
|visitation_year = 2022
|work= |website=KXAN.com |access-date=November 21, 2023}}
|governing_body = Texas Parks and Wildlife Department
|embedded1 = {{designation list |embed = yes |designation1 = NNL |designation1_date = 1968}}
}}
{{Lead too short|date=May 2025}}
Dinosaur Valley State Park is a state park near Glen Rose, Texas, United States.{{Gnis|1334378|Dinosaur Valley State Park}}List of Texas State Parks
History
Dinosaur Valley State Park, located just northwest of Glen Rose in Somervell County, Texas, is a {{convert|1524.72|acre|ha|0|adj=on}} scenic park set astride the Paluxy River. The land for the park was acquired from private owners under the State Parks Bonds Program during 1968 and opened to the public in 1972.{{Cite web |url=http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/park/dinosaur/ |title=Texas Parks and Wildlife: Dinosaur Valley State Park |access-date=2005-07-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050622083253/http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/park/dinosaur/ |archive-date=2005-06-22 |url-status=dead }} In addition to being a state park, it is also a National Natural Landmark.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nnlandmarks/site.htm?Site=DIVA-TX|title=National Natural Landmarks - National Natural Landmarks (U.S. National Park Service)|website=www.nps.gov|language=en|access-date=2019-03-30|quote="Year designated: 1968"}}
Eastward-dipping limestones, sandstones, and mudstones of the Glen Rose Formation were deposited during the early Cretaceous Period approximately 113 million years ago along the shorelines of an ancient sea, and form the geological setting for the park area. Over the last million years or so, these layered formations have been eroded, dissected and sculpted by the Paluxy River which, in many places, has cut down to resistant beds and planed off sizable exposures of rock in the river bottom.
Controversy
Near Dinosaur Valley State Park, in the limestone deposits along the Paluxy River, "twin sets" of tracks were found in the Glen Rose Formation as early as 1908. These footprints were once thought to be evidence that humans and non-avian dinosaurs lived at the same time, but now are identified to be created by dinosaurs.{{cite journal|last=Morris|first=John|title=Paluxy River: The Tale of the Trails|journal=Acts & Facts|date=May 2013|volume=42|issue=#5|pages=12–14}} However, young-Earth creationists continue to believe that humans and non-avian dinosaurs lived at the same time, a notion that is contrary to the standard view of the geological time scale. Biologist Massimo Pigliucci has noted that geologists in the 1980s "clearly demonstrated that no human being left those prints," but rather "they were in fact metatarsal dinosaur tracks, together with a few pure and simple fakes."Massimo Pigliucci, Denying Evolution: Creationism, Scientism, and the Nature of Science, (Sinauer, 2002, page 246): {{ISBN|0-87893-659-9}}
The family of George Adams, who claimed to have found human footprints in the Glen Rose Formation, later admitted that Adams' and some others' fossil footprints were a hoax.{{cite news | title=Human footprints beside dinosaur tracks? Let's talk| publisher=Fort Worth Star-Telegram |date=August 10, 2008 | first=Bud | last=Kennedy |page = B02}} Zana Douglas, the granddaughter of George Adams, explained that during the 1930s' Great Depression her grandfather and other residents of Glen Rose made money by making moonshine and selling "dinosaur fossils". The faux fossils brought $15 to $30 and when the supply ran low, they "just carved more, some with human footprints thrown in."
See also
{{Portal|Geology|Paleontology}}
References
{{Reflist|2}}
External links
{{Commons category}}
- [http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findadest/parks/dinosaur_valley/ Dinosaur Valley State Park], official website
- [http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/paluxy/dvsp.html A guide to the state park] by Glen J. Kuban.
- [http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/paluxy.html The Texas Dinosaur/"Man Track" Controversy] by Glen J. Kuban from talk.origins
- [https://texasarchive.org/2015_01025?b=348&e=513 Film footage of Dinosaur Valley State Park from Texas: The Beginnings, Part I] on the Texas Archive of the Moving Image
{{Protected areas of Texas}}
{{National Natural Landmarks in Texas}}
{{authority control}}
Category:Fossil parks in the United States
Category:Fossil trackways in the United States
Category:Cross country running courses in Texas
Category:Dinosaur museums in the United States
Category:Museums in Somervell County, Texas
Category:National Natural Landmarks in Texas
Category:Natural history museums in Texas
Category:Protected areas of Somervell County, Texas
Category:Paleontology in Texas