Travel through time in the Geology Gallery and discover how life and landscapes on the Colorado Plateau have changed over billions of years. A colorful mural guides you from the earliest days of Earth to more recent times, while fossils, rocks, and minerals show the clues scientists use to understand the past.
One of the gallery’s highlights is the Age of the Dinosaurs exhibit. A cast skeleton of Dilophosaurus wetherilli—a fierce meat‑eating dinosaur—stands alongside a much smaller skeletal model of Scutellosaurus lawleri, the first known armored dinosaur. These two ancient creatures lived in northern Arizona about 200 million years ago.
The gallery also explores powerful forces beneath our feet. See an artist’s view of the giant volcano that formed the San Francisco Peaks, examine rocks from the region’s many volcanoes, and learn how flowing water carved the Grand Canyon, revealing nearly 2 billion years of Earth’s history.
Come explore the Geology Gallery and discover how dinosaurs, volcanoes, and rivers shaped the land of northern Arizona and the Colorado Plateau.