Do Mormons believe in Dinosaurs?

What young child hasn’t been fascinated by dinosaur skeletons, or jumped in their seat watching Jurassic Park? Dinosaurs are fascinating on a number of levels. I assume this question relates to the nature of what is the history of the earth and do Mormons believe in a scientific view of the fossil record.

Members of the LDS church do believe in the fossil record. I mean, it’s right there in the open for everyone to see, especially in Utah, which I think is one of the dinosaur capitols of the world (if there is such a thing). Thanksgiving Point has an incredible museum full of enormous skeletons and hands on exhibits which are loads of fun for the kids.

Personally, I’m not aware of any statements from church leaders in particular about dinosaurs, but there are statements about evolution. The LDS church teaches that Adam and Eve were the first man and woman on this earth and were created by God in his image approximately 6,000 years ago. What happened prior to that time is a matter of speculation in the absence of direct revelation on the matter.

I have speculated in another post titled “How did God create the world?” on how it’s possible for God to create the world in 7 days and yet have the temporal timeline be millions or billions of years. During that time it is easy to believe God let dinosaurs roam the earth and go extinct to help provide fossil fuels for us today, and marvel at the enormous creations he made.