The Dinosaur Mural of Manti

Hidden within the ornate interior of the Manti Utah Temple is one of the most unexpected images in all of Latter-day Saint architecture: dinosaurs. In the Creation Room, where temple patrons symbolically witness the creation of the world, Norwegian-born artist C.C.A. Christensen painted a sweeping landscape that includes depictions of prehistoric creatures alongside the biblical narrative of the earth's formation.

Carl Christian Anton Christensen (1831–1912) was one of the most prolific and important artists of early Utah. A convert from Denmark who crossed the plains in 1857, Christensen became known for his grand panoramic paintings of Church history. When he was commissioned to paint the murals for the Manti Temple in the 1880s, he brought both his faith and his intellectual curiosity to the work.

By the 1880s, paleontology was captivating the public imagination. The "Bone Wars" between rival fossil hunters Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope were making headlines, and reconstructions of dinosaurs were appearing in scientific journals and popular magazines. Christensen, eager to depict the creation in a manner that was both scripturally faithful and scientifically informed, incorporated these recently discovered creatures into his vision of the world's primordial era.

The result is a mural that seamlessly blends theology with natural history. Prehistoric-looking animals inhabit a lush landscape alongside the creative work described in Genesis and the Book of Abraham. The dinosaurs are not presented as contradictions to the scriptural account but as part of it — a reflection of the Latter-day Saint theological openness to the idea that the "days" of creation may represent vast periods of geological time.

The murals were partially obscured during a 1970s renovation that replaced the live endowment presentation with film. However, a subsequent restoration in the 1990s recovered portions of the original artwork. Today, the Manti Temple remains one of just a few temples where the original progressive-style murals can still be experienced, making it a living museum of 19th-century Latter-day Saint art and theology.