The state of Idaho is known for many things, including potatoes and Craters of the Moon, meaning some people might not know about the rich history of dinosaurs that used to roam the land, such as dinosaur-eating crocodiles.
This weekend, the Idaho Museum of Natural History is putting on its 5th Annual Fall Fossil Fest, with this year’s theme being “Croc N’ Roll” for the worldwide premiere of the massive dinosaur-eating crocodile skull.
“I spent the last 2 years working on a digital reconstruction of the entire skull,” said Rob Gay, the education manager for the Idaho Museum of Natural History. “It’s related to an animal in Texas, but we have a fair number of the original bones of the skull here in Idaho as well. It’s about a yard long.”
In an interview with BYU-Idaho Radio, Gay said the crocodile has a long history in the Gem State.
“It lived right here in Idaho,” Gay said. “Its bones have been found from Idaho Falls almost down to Bear Lake. It’s from rocks that are about 100 million years old, so the cretaceous period.”
There will be a plethora of activities for both adults and children to take part in, such as museum tours, dinosaur drawing and 3D scan-and-print stations, and if the weather allows, ancient stone spear and ax throwing.
“If you wanted to see all of the talks and go through all of the stations, we figured it would take 4-5 hours,” Gay said. “It’s a whole day event. It’s going to be great.”
When Gay joined the museum in 2021, he proposed the idea of displaying the fossils for an event, since it’s the only place people can see them.
“What makes the Idaho Museum of Natural History so special is that we have all of Idaho’s dinosaurs,” Gay said. “It’s the only place you can go in the state to see all of these things, so we should have a public event that highlights these things. We are the state’s experts in these things, and we have them all hanging out here.”
The Fossil Fest is this Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Idaho Museum of Natural History on the campus of Idaho State University. For more information on tickets, click here.