Dinosaurier-Park Altmuehltal at Denkendorf

The final day brought us back to Archaeopteryx, Nos 8 and 12 to be exact, which are on display at the dinosaur park.

A castle in the Altmuehltal

Wind turbines at the Dinosaur Park

I was a little wary of this at first, I knew pre-teens who had been there recently (and loved it) so wondered if it was going to be too much aimed at school age children. I need not have worried though - I thoroughly enjoyed it!
We went first to the main Museum Hall, dominated by a huge pterosaur fossil

Crowding round to see Archeopteryx albersdoerferi, the oldest specimen, known as "The Phantom". This was bought by Raimund Albersdorf in 2009, after being found in the 1990s, and John Nudds and Cindy Howells described it as a new species

A. albersdoerferi (No 8) - a skull, shoulder and left wing

John Nudds, who led this trip, with No 8 which he and Cindy Howells described

Once again there are some great specimens in this museum too

A cuttlefish with ink sac

Echinoid

Jellyfish

The ammonite shaped Archaeopteryx Pavilion, built of local stone, houses Specimen No 12

The Archaeopteryx Pavilion is shaped like an ammonite in plan view

Archaeopteryx No12

This, the oldest Archaeopteryx, was found in 2010 and was initially thought too fragile to survive preparation but skilled preparators managed it!

There's an excellent display with plenty of detail

The actual fossil - lighting and reflections make it hard to photograph

After a coffee we headed to the Forest Trail as we were due to meet up with the rest of the group to have lunch at the "Beergarden in the Forest". The trail is laid out through a shady, wooded area which gives it a nice "primeval" atmosphere (think "Lost World" or "Jurassic Park") and there ar areas devoted to the Palaeozoic Era, the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods of the Mesozoic, and to the Cenozoic Era.

There are life sized models of typical animals of the Era, and in this section there are displays of fossilisation and discovery

A "Wide mouthed Frog" (reminds me of a joke) in the Palaeozoic area

Demonstrating how animals become fossils

How fossils can be found and excavated

Life size models are pretty amazing! 

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Though they aren't all enormous!

A final quarry at Schamhaupten, where we could see some professional excavation going on, as well as having a last look round for ourselves

The excavation site

We finished off the trip with a "last night meal" at the Trompete in Eichstatt.