Geological Museum

Wyoming


The Morrison Formation – a Jurassic sedimentary rock – stretches from New Mexico to Montana and is centered in Wyoming. This layer has produced many of the world's dinosaurs fossils, an impressive collection of which are on display in this tiny university museum, including a 75ft Apatosaurus excelsus (formerly known as the Brontosaurus) and a Diatryma gigantea (a 7ft-tall carnivorous bird discovered in Wyoming). Linger at the new 'Prep Lab' and watch researchers liberate brittle fossils from solid rock. Science!

Next door, the Geology Department has copies of just about every publication on Wyoming's minerals that an aspiring rock-hound could possibly desire. Other campus museums worth checking out on a rainy day include the Anthropology museum just to the north, and the American Heritage Center and Art Museum one mile east.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Wyoming attractions

1. Wyoming Territorial Prison

1.4 MILES

See the only prison ever to hold Butch Cassidy, who was in for grand larceny in 1894–96, only to emerge a well-connected criminal who fast became one of…

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