This information is from 2015. Check out the Family Fun Calgary Major Attractions Guide.

Meet Sam. He’s been a regular visitor to the Calgary Zoo since he was just 5 years old. Now he’s 9 and a junior expert on dinosaurs! He’s even one of the regular contributors to the zoo’s blog. Sam is going to take some time out of his busy days to introduce us to a few of the dinosaurs that inhabit the zoo’s Prehistoric Park.

Today, Sam is going to share with us what he’s observed about the zoo’s the fearsome Allosaurus. Take it away Sam!

“When I walk into Prehistoric Park the first moving dinosaur I see is the Allosaurus. It snarls so loud that little kids are afraid of it, but not me – I know it’s just roaring hello because it can’t talk. I think that Allosaurus looks a lot like Tyrannosaurus rex. It is just a little bit smaller and it has three claws and longer arms than its famous puny-armed, two-clawed cousins. Even though they look similar I see that the sign says that Allosaurus lived about 100 million years before Tyrannosaurus – that’s even older than my grandpa!

I see how sharp those claws and teeth are and all I can think is I that Allosaurus was a pretty tough creature, and I think he could even eat a whole cow! I wonder how strong an Allosaurus could bite? I think that scientists have found bones of really big dinosaurs like Stegosaurus and Apatosaurus that actually have Allosaurus tooth-shaped markings, so Allosaurus must have been pretty strong. Even though it’s food might have been bigger, I see that Allosaurus is still pretty darn big.

In my dinosaur books it says that he is the fifth largest meat-eating dinosaur after the big guys like Spinosaurus and, of course, Tyrannosaurus. Oh well – at least Allosaurus could always beat T-rex in an arm wrestling match!“.

Sam, the Allosaurus sounds like it was a pretty amazing dinosaur. All in all, though, I’m happy that we can meet the animatronic Allosaurus at Prehistoric Park – and not a real live one, face-to-face! We’re looking forward to hearing from you again soon, about another awesome dinosaur.

Did You Know?

  • Allosaurus is one of the most well-known dinosaurs because of the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry in Utah (where Allosaurus is the state dinosaur). This quarry has yielded more than 10,000 bones of many species since it opened in 1927, but more than half are Allosaurus. Usually one predator bone is found for every ten prey bones, which leads scientists to believe that many Allosaurus were trying to scavenge some other unfortunate dinosaur when they died en masse in a predator trap.

Would you like to meet Allosaurus too? He’s just one of sixteen animatronic dinosaurs inhabiting the Calgary Zoo’s Prehistoric Park, during Dinosaurs Alive. Visit the zoo to hear them roar, see them move, and learn all about these fascinating creatures from the past.

Go explore the dinosaurs with Sam. Download your own field notebook here and record your own discoveries during Dinosaurs Alive!

P.S. Don’t forget to download the zoo app to your iPhone or Android device to augment the reality of your already awesome visit!

Calgary Zoo Contact Details:

Time: open daily 9 am – 5 pm
Where: Calgary Zoo
Address: 1300 Zoo Rd NE, Calgary AB
Website: www.calgaryzoo.com