The Boneyard Playground is a playground located at Disney's Animal Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida. It was a premiere attraction when DinoLand U.S.A. opened together with the park on April 22, 1998.
The play area is themed as an active dinosaur dig-site that some of the students treat as a playground when they aren't busy with the digs. Scaffolding and tubes for transporting specimens have become a jungle gym with slides. Hoses used for cleaning mud off bones have become weapons for water fights.
On March 12, 2020, following Walt Disney World Resort's temporary closure, Disney's Animal Kingdom announced that the original version of the attraction would be closed temporarily due to the COVID-19 outbreak's impact on Florida. However, following Walt Disney World Resort's reopening, Disney's Animal Kingdom announced that an updated version of the attraction would return on August 15, 2021, in time for Walt Disney World's 50th Anniversary celebration.
Summary[]
The Boneyard is the primary dig site of the Dino Institute. In 1947, amateur fossil hunters uncovered the remains of a Tyrannosaurus rex and work on the site has been ongoing ever since, with the Dino Institute being established in 1949.
Most of the findings have been left in situ as to better enhance the play elements and are accompanied by signage featuring field notes from the Dino Institute's researchers and mischievous students. Specimens found in the Boneyard include:
- The original Tyrannosaurus skeleton discovery, marked with vintage signing and a newer sign to illustrate how our views of dinosaurs have changed.
- A dinosaur track site of prints from a sauropod and theropod, possibly evidence of a chase. When guests stomp on these prints, dinosaur sounds play.
- Pachycephalosaurus.
- The entangled skulls of two Triceratops that possibly died in combat with each other.
- Parasaurolophus.
- A mounted Brachiosaurus cast from the Field Museum crowning the "Oldengate Bridge" that connects the two sides of the Boneyard and serves as an entry gate for Dinoland in general.
- A Columbian Mammoth, serving as a fossil dig sandbox on the opposite side of the bridge.
A pirate radio station, K-DINO, operated by Digger and the Bonehead, two of the Dino Institute's interns, plays science and dinosaur-themed music throughout the Boneyard area while offering "morning zoo" style commentary in-between tracks.
Gallery[]
See also[]
- Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: Movie Set Adventure, similar attraction formerly located at Disney's Hollywood Studios also at the Walt Disney World Resort.
