Millions of years ago, dinosaurs roamed the earth, and the prehistoric creatures are dominating the modern-day box office thanks to “Jurassic World Rebirth.” Some dinos used to roam the Chattnooga area, but they weren’t alone. These five creatures likely walked the Scenic City before humans did.
Pro tip: Dig deeper by exploring local museums like the Creative Discovery Museum.
Dinosaurs
It’s believed multiple dinosaur species roamed the Chattanooga area millions of years ago, but most evidence has been lost to time. However, there have been Edmontosaurus fossils discovered in Tennessee — a duck-billed species in the Hadrosaur family that lived in the Cretaceous period. It’s also theorized that tyrannosaurs and raptors could have roamed the area.
Giant ground sloth
Discoveries like a rib bone from this large mammal have been unearthed near Chattanooga, indicating it lived in the area during the Great Ice Age (aka the Pleistocene). While the giant ground sloth could be up to 15 ft and weigh thousands of pounds, its flat teeth tell us it was a herbivore.
Sabre-tooth cat
This sharp-fanged feline was believed to roam the area during the Ice Age, as recently as 11,000 years ago. Its presence is based on evidence from the Gray Fossil Site in east Tennessee and a notable discovery in Nashville in 1971 that later influenced the name of the city’s NHL team, the Predators.
Deinosuchus
Chattanooga’s access to water made it a popular spot for all types of animals, but the scariest one may have been a large crocodile named the Deinosuchus. It lived during the Late Cretaceous period, approx. 75 million years ago, and could reach nearly 30 ft in length. It was known to eat dinosaurs, and evidence of its existence has been found in nearby Georgia.
Mastodon
Another animal that was believed to roam Chattanooga during the Pleistocene epoch, these elephant-like creatures were built for colder temperatures. The American mastodon was usually 7 to 10 ft, smaller than its cousin the woolly mammoth, but they still had large features. Its existence in Chattanooga is supported by discoveries in nearby areas, including a tooth found in Townsend, TN, in 2017.
