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Münchehagen Dinosaur Park

Münchehagen Dinosaur Park is a privately run open-air museum in Münchehagen in Lower Saxony, a district of Rehburg-Loccum. It was built around the natural monument Saurierfährten Münchehagen. Exhibits are mainly life-size dinosaur models.

History

Scientific publications from the middle of the 19th century already document finds of fossil dinosaur stepping seals in the Rehburg mountains, part of the area of the Wesling quarry, which has been in operation since 1925.

In 1980, a temporary shelter was built over part of the site where fossil dinosaur stepping seals were found. In 1987, shortly before the quarry area and the adjacent wetland biotope were declared a natural monument, the area was fenced off.

In 1990, the government of Lower Saxony provided funds for the construction of a large-scale protection hall. The project was supported by the District of Nienburg, the Lower Saxony Sparkassenstiftung and the "Förderkreis Saurierfährten Münchehagen". The shelter was handed over to the public in 1993.

At the same time, Ferdinand Wesling sen. and Bernd Wolter founded a dinosaur park corporation, which provided the foundation stone for the open-air museum. The dinosaur park opened in 1992, even before the renovated shelter.

Museum

The approximately 2.5-kilometre-long circular path of the park leads thematically through the history of the earth from the Palaeozoic (Palaeozoic) through the Mesozoic (Earth Medieval) to the Cenozoic (Earth New Age). Along its course, more than 230 (as of 2020)[1] life-size static models of prehistoric animals, which were created under scientific consultation, are set up to match the respective earth ages. The main focus is on dinosaurs, including one of the largest dinosaur models in the world: seismosaurus with a length of around 45 metres. A "museum within a museum" also exhibits some obsolete models and explains how scientific understanding of the appearance of these animals has changed over time.

In the so-called "Mit-Mach-Halle" there is the possibility, especially for children, to take part in several activities. Among other things, children can dig up an (artificial) dinosaur skeleton, search for fossils and semi-precious stones and learn about dinosaurs through painting and handicrafts. Original dinosaur bones, mainly from the dwarfed sauropod dinosaur Europasaurus, are prepared in a preparation workshop which can be viewed by visitors.

Natural Monument

The natural monument Saurierfährten Münchehagen (Munchehagen Dinosaur Trails) is a series of fossil dinosaur tracks consisting of a total of around 250 footprints, which were formed around 139 million years ago at the beginning of the Lower Cretaceous in the soft mud of a coastal estuary delta. Of the total area of 15,000 square metres of the natural monument, 3,500 square metres are covered with a hall for protection from the weather. Since 2010, the hall has been used to exhibit further excellently preserved dinosaur tracks of allosauroid theropods and iguanodontid ornithopods, which were recovered in the currently active Wesling Quarry in Münchehagen as part of the paleontological excavations initiated by the Dinosaur Park.

Literature

•U. Richter: Dinosaurier-Freilichtmuseum und Naturdenkmal Saurierfährten Münchehagen. Verlag Selb, Münchehagen, 1. Auflage, (2007)

•R. Fischer: Die Saurierfährten im Naturdenkmal Münchehagen in: Heft 37 in der Reihe der Institutsmitteilungen des Institut für Geologie und Paläontologie der Universität Hannover

•Richter, Annette / Nils Knötschke / Ferdinand Wesling (2008): Die Nutzung der Unterkreidesandsteine von Münchehagen – vom Rohstoff zum Wissenschaftspark, in: Rohstoffgewinnung und Landschaftsgestaltung, 26. Aufl., Hannover, Deutschland: Akademie für Geowissenschaften und Geotechnologien, S. 121–128.