FLORIDA PLACE TO EXPLORE
Dinosaur World
Hillsborough County · Gulf Coast
An outdoor walk in Plant City among nearly 200 life-size dinosaur sculptures set in gardens of ancient plants.
ABOUT THIS PLACE
Dinosaur World opened off Interstate 4 in Plant City in November 1998, the first of three parks in a small chain that later added locations in Glen Rose, Texas and Cave City, Kentucky. Christer Svensson made the sculptures. There are close to 200 of them here, built at life size and placed along shaded paths through the woods rather than lined up in a hall, so a visitor comes around a bend and finds a full-grown Tyrannosaurus or a Brachiosaurus standing among the trees. Plants along the route are chosen from species that date back to the age of the dinosaurs and are marked with signs. This is not a ride park and there are no animatronics. What it offers besides the walk is a fossil dig, where children sift a sand table for real fossils and keep three of them, and a gem excavation where they crack geodes or wash gravel for stones. There is a covered picnic pavilion, a playground and a gift shop. The route is outdoors throughout and open to the sky in places, so heat and rain matter. A visit takes one to two hours
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