Greetings,
I'm hoping someone can help me on this matter as it's been bugging me since I first heard of it and now I'm set to appear on the Discovery Channel all because of a supposed episode of Unsolved Mysteries that I've never seen.

A few years back I was told of an UM epsidoe that featured a story where a couple on horseback find a strange dead creature that looked amazingly like a perfectly preserved little dinosaur. Supposedly this segment even showed a photo of the carcass.

Now, along the line someone else who said they'd seen the segment told me it took place near the corner of southwest Colorado. Well, I contacted the newspaper of that area and made an inquiry to readers if anyone was familiar with such an incident taking place around that area.

I didn't get any replies regarding the alleged event featured in an UM episode but I did hear from someone who claimed to have seen a dinosaur-like animal the year prior. Upon stopping through the area I eventually learned of others who'd had sightings of similiar things. Upon asking the newspaper if they'd ever covered the matter before they ended up doing a story on it:

http://www.cortezjournal.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/news020730_3.htm

From there more people came forward contacting me and describing their own encounters (for many it was the first time they'd discussed it openly). Following a tip, I found something had been written about 'dino-lizard' sightings in the local paper back in the 1960s. Later that year Utah's NBC station did a two-part news segment on the matter as well:
http://web.ksl.com/dump/news/cc/local/leapin_lizards.php

Now the Discovery Channel has asked me to appear on a segment regarding the matter next month. And all this because I was trying to learn about the events that were supposedly featured on an episode of Unsolved Mysteries.

So, does anyone out there have any memory of UM airing an episode that involved someone finding a dead little creature that had some resemblence to a little dinosaur? I've tried writing to UM twice about it but never got a reply. Now the Discovery Channel program who wants to cover the matter has tried to contact them likewise on my behalf but thus far doesn't seem to be getting through. So my only hope at this point is that someone here had seen it so that I at least know for certain such an episode did occur on UM (and not SIGHTINGS or something similiar) and, if possible describe what is recalled of the story.

Thank you very much.

N. S.

I did not see this episode, sorry, but I do have a secondhand handed down family story to pass your way.

Way back toward the end of the depression and into the early 40's, my mom and her family used to follow the crops.

They travelled all over the states. Mom was really little and doesn't remember too much of this time in their lives, but two of my aunts, who were the two oldest, remember a lot.

Both of them absolutely swear to this day that during their travels out west , they found what they called, "the baby dinosaur". They said it looked a lot like "an itty bitty t-rex".

They said it used to come to their camp when Grandma was cooking dinner outside, and one day they caught it. They kept it in an old birdcage for awhile and fed it their leftovers when they had any. They said it liked both meat and veggies, that it had sharp little hooks on it's hands and really sharp teeth, like a baby kitten. They said it never tried to bite or scratch them, but it didn't like to be held, that it had skin like a lizard, and felt warm. They said it behaved kind of like a tame squirrell.
When they first told me this story, during the early 70's, they said that when it ran, it "flattened out, stretched it's head out front, tail out back and was really fast."
Scientists didn't figure out how that type of dino ran until many years later.

Following the crops means you don't stay in any one place for very long, so when they were done in that place, Grandpa said they had to leave their "pet" behind.
They said they were sad to have to do that, because none of their friends had a baby dinosaur, but that he had been growing and was almost too big for the bird cage.
They said it was about the size of a small kitten when they found it, but close to the size of a cat when they left.

My mom always teased them that they had over active imaginations, and liked having the center of everyone's attention, but after reading those articles, I'm not so sure.

Wow, fact or fiction that's certainly an interesting story. Did they recall what state they were in at the time? Not that it matters too much.

As you noted it's especially intriguing how the manner in which they described its running posture was somewhat ahead of the common perpection of the time. I'd also heard a story of a dinosaur encounter that was set during the Great Depression by a woman who described seeing a two-legged dino shot by a rancher in southern Colorado. The story seems too incredible to be believed and as tempted as I am to dismiss it, she describes a feature on the body that, like your aunts' story, is something that was not understood about dinosaurs until recently.

And what's even more crazy, when I spoke with this lady two years ago and mentioned that there was supposedly an Unsolved Mysteries episode on a baby dinosaur, she said she'd actually seen it! (I should point out it was during the 1980s that she first claimed to having seen dinosaurs back in years prior.) From what she remember of the segment the story took place near Cortez, CO.

Which is what brought me there from where I learned of those other reports.

So I've spoken to at least two people who've claimed Unsolved did such an episode. But if no one here remembers it I'm not sure what to think!

If you remember anymore details (don't suppose either aunt is still alive???) please feel free to contact me at neozoo@hotmail.com .

Many thanks for the input.

-Nick


In that case, one was supposedly killed by a rancher.

(Disregard that last sentence)

My Discovery Channel shoot is Thursday so I'm *bumping* this for one more try. Anybody have even a vague recollection of the above cited episode? If it did take place and it did take place in Cortez, CO as someone once told me, then I may be able to try and track down the people involved during my trip to Cortez for the upcoming shoot.

Thank you,
NS

I'm sorry, I don't believe that I've ever seen this case on Unsolved Mysteries. Perhaps it is one of those rarely seen cases though. Maybe Lifetime or whatever channel you watch has never aired it?

I did a searcxh on this board and found two posts similar to yours. However, there is not that much information. Sorry. :(

http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/search.php?s=&threadid=31057&highlight=Baby+Dinosaur+Discovered

http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/search.php?s=threadid=347068&highlight=Mummified+Dinosaur

I think that I messed up on the links. Sorry. When you go to search just type these in the search bar.

1. Baby Dinosaur Discovered

2. Mummified Dinosaur

You'll find two different posts.

Thanks for checking. Those, of course, were my previous posts from long before. It's puzzling because I have spoken with people who thought they'd seen the episode but none remember much in light of detail.

This missing episode of Unsolved is almost becoming mysterious enough to warrent it's own episode of Unsolved!

Thanks again,
-N

Ok, tomorrow I'm heading off to Cortez, AZ for the Discovery Channel shoot. Thought I'd toss in one final effort in the hopes of jolting some memories.

I suppose it's possible that the folks I'd spoken to about the UM segment were confused and had actually seen it on Inside Edition or Sightings or something. But, three did say they'd seen or heard about it on Unsolved...

Where ever it came from, trying to research this supposed segment is getting me on Discovery so can't complain too much!

All the bests,
-N

after 6 years...BUMPITA!

anyone recall this segment? sounds interesting.

EDIT: here's another thread on this:

http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=31057