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Yahoo
6 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Archaeologists Unearth Dinosaur Fossil in Incredibly Ironic Location
Dinosaur discoveries are nothing new in Colorado, but this one took scientists by surprise because it was found beneath a dinosaur museum's own parking lot. While drilling 763 feet into the ground as part of a geothermal energy study, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science unearthed a fossilized vertebra belonging to a small, plant-eating dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous period. The bone, roughly hockey puck-sized, was buried for an estimated 67 million years, NBC News reported. 'Finding a dinosaur bone in a core is like hitting a hole in one from the moon,' said James Hagadorn, curator of geology at the museum. 'It's like winning the Willy Wonka factory. It's incredible, it's super rare.' The odds truly were astronomical. Bore samples that are narrow, just a couple of inches wide, rarely yield fossils, let alone a dinosaur vertebra beneath the museum's own lot. According to museum officials, there have been only two other similar finds from bore holes anywhere in the world. The fossil's characteristics suggest it came from an ornithopod—likely a duck-billed dinosaur or thescelosaurus. Nearby fossilized vegetation points to a lush, swampy environment once covering the area. The irony of the discovery isn't lost on museum staff. The DMNS is a popular destination for dinosaur enthusiasts, featuring full-size skeletons of species like the T. rex. Now, one of the museum's most recent fossil additions was sitting directly beneath the cars of visiting guests. While the find is generating buzz, not everyone is calling it a scientific game-changer. 'It's a surprise, I guess. Scientifically, it's not that exciting,' said Thomas Williamson, curator of paleontology at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science. Still, local paleontologists celebrated the moment. 'It's absolutely legit and VERY COOL!' said Erin LaCount of Dinosaur Ridge. As for excavating deeper? That's unlikely. 'I would love to dig a 763-foot hole in the parking lot to excavate that dinosaur, the rest of it,' Hagadorn joked. 'But I don't think that's going to fly because we really need parking.'Archaeologists Unearth Dinosaur Fossil in Incredibly Ironic Location first appeared on Men's Journal on Jul 13, 2025
Yahoo
13-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
See it: Dinosaur fossil found beneath natural history museum in Denver
DENVER - Officials stumbled upon a 67-million-year-old dinosaur bone beneath the Denver Museum of Nature and Science (DMNS) during a drilling project, the DMNS announced on Wednesday. The discovery occurred in the spring of 2024 when the museum was conducting a geothermal feasibility project. As part of that project, officials drilled cores about 1,000 feet into the ground to learn about the geology beneath City Park and the larger Denver Basin, the DMNS said. Inside one of those cores, scientists found a piece of vertebra from the backbone of a plant-eating dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period. Officials likened it to the two-legged Thescelosaurus. Dinosaur Fossil Revealed After Heavy Rains In Brazil During that time, the land that is now Denver was a tropical and swampy ecosystem with tall palm trees and lush vegetation, according to museum officials. This environment was rife for herbivorous dinosaurs, such as the species the partial vertebra came from, as they foraged amid the brush and even coexisted with the Tyrannosaurus rex. "The partial dinosaur bone found in a core sample beneath the Museum provides a direct glimpse into this buried world, preserved for millions of years beneath the city," the DMNS said in a statement. How To Watch Fox Weather Analysis of the dinosaur bone was published in Rocky Mountain Geology in article source: See it: Dinosaur fossil found beneath natural history museum in Denver
Yahoo
11-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Denver dinosaur museum makes ‘historically thrilling' discovery under its own parking lot
DENVER (KDVR) — The Denver Museum of Nature and Science (DMNS) announced on Wednesday that it had discovered a nearly 70-million-year-old dinosaur fossil underneath its parking lot. The partial-bone fossil was found 763 feet below the lot during a geothermal test drilling project in January, according to the museum. 'This is a scientifically and historically thrilling find for both the Museum and the larger Denver community,' said James Hagadorn, the curator of geology at the DMNS, in a statement. DMNS unveils plans to renovate, expand Gems & Minerals Hall The museum said the fossil is the deepest and oldest dinosaur fossil ever found within Denver city limits. 'This fossil comes from an era just before the mass extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs, and it offers a rare window into the ecosystem that once existed right beneath modern-day Denver,' Hagadorn said. The fossil bone has been identified as a vertebrae of an herbivorous dinosaur, according to the museum, which said the bone occurs in Late Cretaceous rocks that are dated to approximately 67.5 million years ago. Patrick O'Connor, director of Earth & Space Science at the DMNS, was part of the team that identified the bone and said it may be 'the most unusual dinosaur discovery' he had ever been a part of. 'Not only is it exceptionally rare to find any fossil as part of a drilling project, but the discovery provided an outstanding collaborative opportunity for the Museum earth sciences team to produce an article,' O'Connor said. 'Jurassic World Rebirth' bites off $318 million at the global box office That article, 'Denver's deepest dinosaur,' was published in the scientific journal Rocky Mountain Geology in June. The research was led by DMNS postdoctoral scholar Dr. Holger Petermann. 'This fossil underscores the highly fossiliferous nature of the entire D1 Sequence (Denver Formation) and increases the diversity of dinosaurs known from the Denver metropolitan area,' reads an excerpt from the article's abstract. The fossil bone is now currently on display at the DMNS in its 'Discovering Teen Rex' exhibition. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
11-07-2025
- Science
- The Hill
Denver dinosaur museum makes ‘historically thrilling' discovery under its own parking lot
DENVER (KDVR) — The Denver Museum of Nature and Science (DMNS) announced on Wednesday that it had discovered a nearly 70-million-year-old dinosaur fossil underneath its parking lot. The partial-bone fossil was found 763 feet below the lot during a geothermal test drilling project in January, according to the museum. 'This is a scientifically and historically thrilling find for both the Museum and the larger Denver community,' said James Hagadorn, the curator of geology at the DMNS, in a statement. The museum said the fossil is the deepest and oldest dinosaur fossil ever found within Denver city limits. BestReviews is reader-supported and may earn an affiliate commission. Amazon Prime Day Deals 'This fossil comes from an era just before the mass extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs, and it offers a rare window into the ecosystem that once existed right beneath modern-day Denver,' Hagadorn said. The fossil bone has been identified as a vertebrae of an herbivorous dinosaur, according to the museum, which said the bone occurs in Late Cretaceous rocks that are dated to approximately 67.5 million years ago. Patrick O'Connor, director of Earth & Space Science at the DMNS, was part of the team that identified the bone and said it may be 'the most unusual dinosaur discovery' he had ever been a part of. 'Not only is it exceptionally rare to find any fossil as part of a drilling project, but the discovery provided an outstanding collaborative opportunity for the Museum earth sciences team to produce an article,' O'Connor said. That article, 'Denver's deepest dinosaur,' was published in the scientific journal Rocky Mountain Geology in June. The research was led by DMNS postdoctoral scholar Dr. Holger Petermann. 'This fossil underscores the highly fossiliferous nature of the entire D1 Sequence (Denver Formation) and increases the diversity of dinosaurs known from the Denver metropolitan area,' reads an excerpt from the article's abstract. The fossil bone is now currently on display at the DMNS in its 'Discovering Teen Rex' exhibition.
Yahoo
11-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Denver museum finds dinosaur bone under its parking lot
The Denver Museum of Nature & Science already houses a vast trove of dinosaur bones, but it recently received an unexpected addition to the collection. The latest fossil didn't come from a generous benefactor or anonymous donor–it came from beneath the museum's own parking lot. 'This may be the most unusual dinosaur discovery I have ever been a part of,' DMNS director of Earth and Space Sciences Patrick O'Connor said in a statement. The find happened in January, when the museum began a drilling project to assess the possibility of switchingfrom natural gas to geothermal energy. The test also offered an opportunity for researchers to simultaneously oversee a scientific coring initiative to better understand the Denver Basin's geology. To do so, a pair of drill rigs each bored a one-foot-wide hole into the ground that the team then used to extract samples. But about 763 feet below the blacktop, geologists found more than just sediment deposited by the South Platte River—they discovered a pair of bone fragments. 'It's basically like winning the lottery and getting struck by lightning on the same day,' DMNS curator of geology James Hagadorn said in an interview. 'No one could have predicted that this little square foot of land where we started drilling would actually contain a dinosaur bone beneath it.' The larger of the two fossils unfortunately didn't survive its encounter with diggers' drill bit. But before fragmenting, the bone measured about 1.9 inches long, 2.3 inches wide, and 2.3 inches tall. A subsequent analysis published in the journal Rocky Mountain Geology indicated the vertebra belonged to an herbivore similar to a Thescelosaurus or Edmontosaurus. At 67.5 million years old, it is the oldest and deepest dinosaur fossil ever discovered in Denver, offering a window into the region right before the Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction event. As the DMNS explains in its accompanying profile, Denver looked vastly different during the Cretaceous than it does today. Instead of snowy mountains, tropical rainforests and swampy lowland floodplains covered Colorado with dinosaurs like the Tyrannosaurus rex roaming around. 'In my 35 years at the museum, we've never had an opportunity quite like this—to study the deep geologic layers beneath our feet with such precision,' DMNS Earth Sciences research associate Bob Raynolds said. 'That this fossil turned up here… is nothing short of magical.' It remains to be seen if the museum will eventually make the shift to geothermal energy. In the meantime, visitors can see the unexpected discovery on display as part of a temporary exhibit.
