Wallpaper pictures of the "Dinosaur" thrill ride in the DinoLand USA section of Disney's Animal Kingdom - presented in 4:3 regular and 16:10 widescreen formats!

Opening with the rest of Disney's Animal Kingdom in 1998 and one of the two "real" rides (not counting the "Discovery River Boats" or "Wildlife Express" as rides since they were used as transportation) in the park at that time, "Countdown to Extinction" was an instant hit with the crowds.  It was high tech, intense, and gave the park guests a thrill.

Plus, who out there doesn't like dinosaurs?

This ride used the fancy Enhanced Motion Vehicles (EMV) just like in the incredibly popular "Indiana Jones Adventure" ride in Disneyland in Anaheim, California.  The only difference between Indy Jones and CTX was the theming.  One of the rides had guests racing through an ancient temple while dodging deadly traps while the other one sent guests back in time and had chilling encounters with angry, life-sized dinosaurs.

The only problem was that the ride was intense and scary, and with a heafty 46" minimum height requirement, little kids couldn't enjoy this major ride.

Changes were on the way to help reduce the long line and make the ride a little bit more kid friendly.

In 1999, FASTPASS was added to "Countdown to Extinction."  The line queue was changed to its current format and guests were able to "skip" all of the outside and most of the inside line queue and merge with the stand-by line in the preshow room.

The other major change to "Countdown to Extinction" came in 2000 when the ride was changed to "Dinosaur" as the full length Disney movie of the same name and same dinosaurs came out in that year.  The ride's name was changed ("Dinosaur" is more kid friendly than "Countdown to Extinction"), the main dinosaur outside the building in the pool was changed from a generic Styracosaurus to Aladar the Iguanodon from the movie, and the motion effects were toned down a little bit to allow the six inch drop in the height requirement from 46" to only 40".

In addition to the changes to the main building and ride, the "Fossil Preparation Lab" on the opposite side of DinoLand USA was removed and the "Dino-Sue" Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton was added to the outside area of "Dinosaur."  There aren't any T-rex encounters on this ride though.  For that you'll want to check out the "Jurassic Park River Adventure" at Universal Orlando's Islands of Adventure theme park just up I-4.

The only overlooked problems were that the dinosaurs were still loud and quite frightening and the ride took place in a dark and ominous environment.

From what I've seen, it's a toss up as to whether or not the slight taming of the motion effects and lowering of the height requirement was worth it in the end.  About half of the young kids seem to enjoy the ride, whereas the other half are usually quite upset and visibly shaken.  There are warning signs reminding parents that it still is an intense ride that takes place in the dark, but as well all know, people tend to ignore that kind of stuff when on vacation and will still take their kids on everything as long as they meet the height requirement.

Personally, this is my favorite ride in Disney's Animal Kingdom.  I was a little disappointed when the ride changed from "Countdown to Extinction" to "Dinosaur" back in 2000, but most of the ride was virtually identical to the previous version as the changes were relatively minor.

This ride also has one of the best line queues in all of Walt Disney World.  The outdoor line queue weaves through the primeval forest (complete with a couple of dinosaurs that remind us of what we're about to encounter on the ride) before snaking back and forth on the outside of the building.  The building itself looks awesome in its design and has that friendly yet ominous factor where it looks safe, but you know that there still may be something sinister waiting inside.

Once inside the building we see that the Dino Institute is more like an old museum than an experimental facility.  The place seems harmless as the museum educates people about fossils and the different theories of what caused the mass extinction event of the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous period some 65 million years ago.  But then as we make a turn and enter the rotunda, things get a little more serious.

Staring at us as we enter the last part of the main line queue is a skeleton of a life size Carnotaurus.  Its jaws are open and full of teeth as it looks down and "greets" the guests.

This is an important part of the line queue if you're visiting the ride for the first time with young children.  Let them see the skeleton.  That's the same size of the nasty Carnotaurus that you'll be encountering several times on the ride.  The only differences will be that the encounters on the ride will be in the dark and the dinosaur will be roaring and trying to eat you.  If the kids are already intimidated by the skeleton in the line queue, then they most likely will not enjoy the ride.

This rotunda is also one of the best parts of the line queue as there's so much stuff to see while waiting to go into the preshow room.  And if you time it right you'll get to enjoy one of three entertaining and educational presentations by Bill Nye the Science Guy.

Up next in the line queue is the preshow briefing followed by the final short wait in the ride's loading station and then the ride itself.  The seats are comfortable, the pouch holds items quite well, and the ride is still thrilling and a lot of fun.

If you're looking for a thrill ride in Disney's Animal Kingdom, or if you just love dinosaurs and want to see a different side of them, then definitely check out "Dinosaur" in the back of DinoLand USA.  The wait times can get long during the middle of the day, so you may want to use the FASTPASS system and just come back to it later.

Note - Each picture can be opened in one of two styles - regular (4:3 ratio) and widescreen (16:10 ratio). You may download and share these pictures, but please, do not modify or alter them in any way!  All shared photos must be referred back to this website!

The above Disney's Animal Kingdom guidemap pictures are (c) The Walt Disney Company.

The regular 4:3 pictures all have a resolution of 1600x1200 (960x1280 for vertical pictures), unless it's otherwise noted.  They can also easily fit monitor resolutions of 1280x960 or even 2133x1600 without needing any special modifications.  Just select the image and have Windows stretch and fit it to the other 4:3 resolution.

The widescreen 16:10 pictures all have a resolution of 1440x900, unless it's otherwise noted.  They can also easily fit a resolution of 2560x1600 without needing any special modifications.  Just select the image and have Windows stretch and fit it to the other 16:10 resolution.

Warning - There will be some slight variations between the regular and widescreen pictures!

To help save bandwidth for the other visitors, please open each picture only once. If you like it, save it to your hard drive. You can also right click on the link and select "save as" instead of manually loading each picture.

- Disney's Animal Kingdom - DinoLand USA - Dinosaur - 01 - regular, widescreen

- Dinosaur - attraction poster - 01 - regular

- Dinosaur - Tyrannosaurus rex - "Dino-Sue" - 01 - regular, widescreen

- Dinosaur - Tyrannosaurus rex - "Dino-Sue" - 02 - regular, widescreen

- Dinosaur - 02 - regular, widescreen

- Dinosaur - Aladar - Iguanodon - 01 - regular, widescreen

- Dinosaur - Aladar - Iguanodon - 02 - regular, widescreen

- Dinosaur - Aladar - Iguanodon - 03 - regular, widescreen

- Dinosaur - Dino Institute - exterior - 01 - regular, widescreen

- Dinosaur - Dino Institute - exterior - 02 - regular

- Dinosaur - Dino Institute - Time Rover - 01 - regular

- Dinosaur - Dino Institute - logo - 01 - regular, widescreen 

- Dinosaur - sign - 01 - regular, widescreen

- Dinosaur - warning sign - 01 - regular

- Dinosaur - warning sign - 02 - regular, widescreen

- Dinosaur - FastPass distribution - 01 - regular, widescreen

- Dinosaur - line queue - primeval forest - 01 - regular, widescreen

- line queue - primeval forest - dinosaur #1 - 01 - regular, widescreen

- line queue - primeval forest - dinosaur #1 - 02 - regular, widescreen

- line queue - primeval forest - dinosaur #2 - 01 - regular, widescreen

- line queue - primeval forest - dinosaur #2 - 02 - regular

- line queue - Dino Institute - 01 - regular, widescreen

- Dinosaur - Dino Institute - logo - 02 - regular, widescreen

- Dinosaur - line queue - T-rex head - 01 - regular, widescreen

- line queue - dinosaur #3 - 01 - regular, widescreen

- line queue - dinosaur #3 - 02 - regular, widescreen

- line queue - Dino Institute - fossil wall - 01 - regular

- line queue - Dino Institute - diorama - 01 - regular, widescreen

- line queue - Dino Institute - diorama - 02 - regular, widescreen

- line queue - Dino Institute - Albertosaurus dinosaur skull - 01 - regular, widescreen

- line queue - Dino Institute - Anchiceratops dinosaur skull - 01 - regular, widescreen

- line queue - Dino Institute - theories of extinction - 01 - regular, widescreen

- line queue - Dino Institute - theories of extinction - 02 - regular, widescreen

- line queue - Dino Institute - rotunda - Carnotaurus - 01 - regular, widescreen

- line queue - Dino Institute - rotunda - Carnotaurus - 02 - regular

- line queue - Dino Institute - rotunda - Carnotaurus - 03 - regular, widescreen

- line queue - Dino Institute - rotunda - Carnotaurus - 04 - regular, widescreen

- line queue - Dino Institute - rotunda - 01 - regular, widescreen

- line queue - Dino Institute - rotunda - Pteranodon - 01 - regular, widescreen

- line queue - Dino Institute - rotunda - meteor shower - 01 - regular, widescreen

- line queue - Dino Institute - rotunda - asteroid impact - 01 - regular, widescreen

- line queue - Dino Institute - rotunda - life continues / rise of mammals - 01 - regular, widescreen

- line queue - Dino Institute - loading station - 01 - regular, widescreen

- Dinosaur - picture purchasing area - Carnotaurus - 01 - regular, widescreen

- Dinosaur - "The Dino Institute Gift Shop" - 01 - regular

- Dinosaur - "The Dino Institute Gift Shop" - giant prehistoric sea turtle skeleton - Archelon (?) - 01 - regular, widescreen

- Dinosaur - "Did somebody say Styracosaurus?" sign - 01 - regular

- Dinosaur - "Food, Fangs and Fun." sign - 01 - regular

- Dinosaur - "Have you had a Crocodilian today?" sign - 01 - regular

- Dinosaur - dusk - 01 - regular, widescreen

- Dinosaur - sign - dusk - 01 - regular, widescreen

- Dinosaur - night - 01 - regular, widescreen

- Dinosaur - night - 02 - regular, widescreen

- Dinosaur - sign - night - 01 - regular, widescreen

- Dinosaur - Velociraptor fountain - night - 01 - regular, widescreen