Valle de la Prehistoria – Cuba’s Jurassic Park

Valle de la Prehistoria, near the city of Santiago de Cuba, is a prehistoric-themed tourist attraction that features life-size models of over 200 dinosaurs and cavemen.

Located inside the Bocanao National park, Valle de la Prehistoria spreads over 11 hectares of land and is as close as it can get to a real-life Jurassic Park. The vast recreational park dedicated to science and palaeontology is split into multiple areas separated by geological epochs, and features lush vegetation, man-made waterfalls and 227 concrete statues representing 59 different species, including dinosaurs, mammoths, felines and early cavemen.

Perhaps the most spectacular statue in the whole Valle de la Prehistoria is the 12-meter-high Cro magnon welcoming tourists at the park entrance, with a giant stone axe in hand and a Flintstones-like sign post that reads “Do not hesitate! Go! Dare to discover the Jurassic Park dreamed by Spielberg himself”. According to people who visited this popular tourist attraction, it is indeed a fun way to travel back in time, and no other facility manages to recreate a prehistoric atmosphere as faithfully.

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Toysaurus – The Toy Dinosaur

Toysaurus is the creation of Japanese artist, Hiroshi Fuji, a man with a ton of patience. That’s the only way to explain how he built that thing, one toy at a time.

Apparently, Hiroshi Fuji spent years collecting old toys, before he began working on this ferocious masterpiece. Toysaurus is on display, in Tokyo’s Rappongi District.

via Tokyobling

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Cal Orko – The Dinosaur Wall of Bolivia

A cement quarry near Sucre is home the world’s largest site of dinosaur tracks, known by the locals as Cal Orko.

More than 68 million years ago, thousands of dinosaurs flocked at Cal Orko (a lakeside in those times) in search of food and water. This explains the over 5,000 dinosaur tracks, laid in around 350 criss-cross trackways, on a crumbling wall. The most amazing thing about Cal Orko is it features footprints from 330 dinosaur species, from the Cretaceous, just before they went extinct.

The fascinating 70-degree rockface is a rather new discovery, found by Bolivian workers, in 1994. It stretches 1.5 kilometers in length and it’s 150 meters tall. Compared to other dinosaur track sites, on any other continent, Cal Orko is by far the biggest and most important.

Unfortunately, Cal Orko is in constant danger of crumbling and Bolivian authorities spend $30 million every year, to keep it in place. With all their efforts, part of the Dinosaur Wall has crumbled at the beginning of February, and with it about 300 footprints have been lost.

Photos via Fogonazos

Cal-Orko-Bolivia

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Animatronic Dinosaurs Invade London

There must be something about Britain’s capital because after the invasion of the blue rubber duckies, it’s time for fierce dinosaurs to take over a part of the city.

Dinosaurs Unleashed is an animatronic dinosaur display that today opens its gates to the public. It is located on Oxford Street, a well-known shopping area of London turned dinosaur playground. 24 life-like dinosaur models (including stegosaurus, iguanadon, diplodocus or tyrannosaurus rex) will entertain visitors with their realistic movements and sounds. The largest dinosaur model on display is the 30-meters-tall Diplodocus, 3 times the length of an English double-decker bus

Just as impressive as the robotic dinosaurs is the incredible setting. Featuring marshland, forest and prehistoric plants that existed during the reign of the dinosaurs, it will take people 65 million years into the past.

Dinosaurs Unleashed will stay open starting from January 28 until April 30.

Dinosaurs-unleashed-London

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