Real. Old.

Looming over the entrance to Dinoland U.S.A. is a structure affectionately known as the Oldengate Bridge. It's a great representation of this corner of Disney's Animal Kingdom - playful on the surface, but based on some really cool reality.

The fossil on display (minus the seasonal addition of the Santa hat) was cast from the real bones of an 80-foot-long Brachiosaurus, part of the collection at the Field Museum in Chicago.

You can get an even better look by traversing the bridge itself, connecting the Boneyard and its neighboring Dig Site.

Disney's relationship with the Field extended beyond borrowing fossils. Before the park opened, Disney and McDonald's (an original sponsor of the Dinoland area) partnered with the Field to offer the winning bid on what was at the time the largest, most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton ever unearthed.

In the early years of Disney's Animal Kingdom, Guests could visit the Fossil Prep Lab to watch scientists from the Field Museum actually preparing the bones. Each was meticulously cleaned, the earth and debris removed, then carefully packed and shipped back to Chicago. The resulting complete T-Rex skeleton, dubbed "Sue," is now on display at the Museum. Two casts were also made from the fossil. One toured the world as part of a promotion with McDonald's. The other can be seen today in Dinoland U.S.A.

Another dose of prehistoric reality can be found in Dinoland along the Cretaceous Trail, a sort of botanical garden sponsored by the Dino Institute. Here, you'll come across one of the largest collections of cycads in North America. Cycads are palm-like plants (gymnosperms for you green thumbs) which have survived on earth since the age of dinosaurs.

Along with some "living fossils" like the Ginkgo biloba and Monkey-Puzzle trees (an example of which is pictured below), they create an appropriately primeval environment for our adventures in Dinoland U.S.A.