Dinosaurs in Leeds - Part 1

 

A Tyrannosaurus in Leeds Trinity shopping centre

 

When writing this Language of Stone Blog, I started out with the intention to publicise my various professional work as a geologist and building stone specalist, restorer of historic buildings, photographer, writer, artist and teacher of English as a foreign language – all of which have grown from a passion for stone that I have had since I first collected pebbles on the beach as a baby - and is essentially an extended, illustrated Curriculum Vitae. 

 

A prize for creative writing

 

Having spent my first two days out in August to further survey the Magnesian Limestone in Rotherham and to investigate the Sheffield Board Schools, my next day out to Leeds was for pure pleasure. This harked back to my childhood fascination for dinosaurs – which influenced books that I chose when winning writing competitions in London, ceramic Plesiosaur and Triceratops that I made at Macaulay Primary School and the occasional set of stamps that I have bought since. 

 

A set of dinosaur stamps

In recent years, I have been on a mailing list for events in Leeds and I was particularly interested in the Jurassic Trail 2 that was being arranged for the school summer holidays, with life sized animatronic dinosaurs being located in the principal shopping centres - an event that is being repeated this summer as the Jurassic Trail 3. 

 

The Leeds Dinosaur Map

 

Arriving on the train from Sheffield, my first encounter was with the genus Baronyx in the Leeds station ticket office, whose name means “heavy claw”. This carnivore, which actually lived in the Early Cretaceous Period 130-125 million years ago (mya), primarily ate fish, but evidence of Iguanodon teeth associated with fossil finds suggest that it was also a scavenger and would feed on other dead dinosaurs. 

 

Baryonx in Leeds railway station

 

My interest in dinosaurs soon disappeared and I can’t recall been taught anything about them as an undergraduate geologist and, for my generation and very many others since, Steven Spielberg’s magnificent Jurassic Park and its sequels brought them back to life and terrify us – even though a palaeontologist might criticise these for their depiction of mainly Cretaceous dinosaurs. 

 

Tyrannosaurus in Leeds Trinity shopping centre

 

Continuing to the Leeds Trinity shopping centre, which like nearly all of the venues hosting these dinosaurs I had never visited before, the Late Cretaceous Tyrannosaurus (68-66 mya), with its massive animated jaws, was certainly very impressive. 

 

Spinosaurus in the Corn Exchange

 

The next dinosaur to be found on the trail at the Corn Exchange was the Late Cretaceous ((95-70 mya) Spinosaurus which, based on fragmentary remains in North Africa, is estimated to be 18 metres in length and therefore the longest known carnivore. 

 

A description of Spinosaurus

Although I have a general interest in the discovery of new species of dinosaurs, which might be announced on the public news or general science websites that I subscribe to, I still know very little about dinosaurs and I assumed that the anatomical details were based on up to date research; however, the Yorkshiresaurus at the Kirkgate Market was a complete fabrication. 

 

Yorkshiresaurus in the Kirkgate Market food hall

 

Leaving Kirkgate Market, the Victoria Centre was the next venue on my agenda, this time to see Amargasaurus, which I have to admit I had never heard of before. This Early Cretaceous (132-127 mya) herbivore is found in Argentina and has a double row of dorsal spines, which may have had a ‘sail’ attached to them and the spines on the neck vertebrae are very long. 

 

Amargasaurus in the Victoria Centre

 

When visiting the eastern part of Leeds city centre, when preparing a field trip with the Sheffield U3A Geology Group to look at its building stones, I got to know my way around the streets quite well and it only took 35 minutes from leaving Leeds railway station before I arrived at Victoria Leeds, where I found the Late Cretaceous (90-85 mya) Pteranodons.

Pteranodons in the Victoria Leeds shopping centre