Rainbow Forest Museum, Petrified Forest National Park

[RaptorRex]

This past weekend I had the pleasure of visiting Petrified Forest National Park. The park is known for housing many Triassic fossils from the Chinle Formation and has an on site museum called the Rainbow Forest Museum. There are some really nice nondinosaurian archosaur specimens they have on exhibit.

Front entrance. I totally forget to take a picture of the front entrance so I just nabbed this image off of Google.



A Smilosuchus mount hangs on the ceiling in the main room.



Skull cast of Smilosuchus.



A vintage phytosaur diorama that is based on an actual phytosaur skull found with teeth marks.



The second room has an impressive mural of Chinle Formation fauna. This illustration was done by Victor Leshyk.



A tiny limb bone from a silesaur.



Skull of the metoposaur Koskinonodon. The skull shown here is made up of fragments of several different individuals, and skull fragments/clavicles are the only fossilized remains of metoposaurs in the Petrified Forest area.



Vancleavea (Cast? Not sure where the holotype is located so feel free to correct me).



Known elements of Chindesaurus, a small theropod from the Chinle. Along with Coelophysis, it is the only known dinosaur found on Petrified Forest grounds.



Skull cast of Revueltosaurus.



Placerias.



Postosuchus.



Business end of Postosuchus.



Desmastosuchus.



Dimorphodon hitching a ride on the aetosaur. This is actually a placeholder mount for the single pterosaur found in the Petrified Forest, which would've looked similar to Dimorphodon.



Overall, it's a nice little museum that displays the varied ecosystem of the Triassic nicely. Of course, I couldn't walk away with a few mementos...

[Lanthanotus]

Thanks for sharing, looks like a place worth visiting. I especially like the phytosaur diorama and that cute Dimorphodon skeleton atop the aetosaur.

[amargasaurus cazaui]

A place I would enjoy visiting, thanks for sharing all of this for us !

[Halichoeres]

Wonderful. I haven't been to Petrified Forest for close to 30 years, but if I'm ever back in Arizona I might need to pay a visit.

[Libraraptor]

Thanks for sharing!

[ceratopsian]

Thank you. Definitely a place to seek out if in the area.