LEHI -- A 15-foot long raptor, considered by experts to be one of the most ferocious dinosaurs that lived on the Earth, has been spotted at Thanksgiving Point.
It stands seven feet tall and sports what once were razor-sharp 7-inch claws.But the public isn't in any imminent danger.
The grey stone dinosaur is the first of the fossilized exhibits to arrive in anticipation of the opening of the North American Museum of Ancient Life, which will be housed at Thanksgiving Point.
The dinosaur is expected to remain in the lobby area of the restaurant until the end of February.
The creature attracts a considerable amount of customer attention -- and also signals the start of a contest that will eventually send an explorer to an authentic dinosaur dig with museum paleontologists this summer.
Contestants are asked to guess what the raptor would have weighed when alive. Entry forms are available at the display.
"The contest winner will experience firsthand the life of a paleontologist," said Jeff Parker, museum paleontologist and field director. "The winner will be the first museum guest to participate in the discovery of fossils."
"The Utahraptor represents the first of more than 50 dinosaur displays that will call the museum home in 2001," said David Wanamaker, museum founder and marketing director.
The raptor family of dinosaurs, including the velociraptor, the deinonychus and the dromaeosaurus, may have hunted in packs and were capable of taking down dinosaurs much larger than themselves. The Utahraptor is actually a dromaeosaurid, discovered near Moab in Grand County in the early 1990s.
That discovery helped validate the unusual size of the raptors created for and used in the movie "Jurassic Park."
"Once open, the museum will likely be the largest full-skeletal display in the world," Wanamaker said.
The museum is currently under construction and is scheduled to be finished in May. The grand opening will be June 15, 2000. The Iwerks Extreme Screen Theater, gift shop, cafe, special exhibit hall and conference facilities should be ready for public use by early summer.
The second phase, which includes the completed dinosaur exhibit space, will open in 2001.