Scientists at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science have made a groundbreaking discovery that has left them “nothing short of magical”. A team led by Dr. Bob Raynolds, Earth Sciences Research Associate, drilled over 1,000 feet into the ground beneath the museum’s parking lot in City Park and uncovered a stunning 70-million-year-old partial dinosaur fossil.
The discovery was part of a geothermal test drilling project aimed at assessing the possibility of using geothermal energy to cool the museum. However, what they found 763 feet under the ground defied expectations – a remarkably well-preserved fossil from the Late Cretaceous period, around 67.5 million years ago.
According to experts, this find is historically thrilling and offers a rare window into the ecosystem that once existed beneath modern-day Denver. The fossil has been identified as a vertebral centrum belonging to a plant-eating dinosaur similar to Thescelosaurus or Edmontosaurus.
The discovery has now been named the deepest and oldest dinosaur fossil ever found within Denver city limits, with the fossil on display at the museum’s “Discovering Teen Rex” exhibition.
Source: https://www.denver7.com/news/local-news/oldest-known-dino-fossil-in-denver-basin-recently-found-beneath-citys-museum-of-nature-science-parking-lot