Paleontologists at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science have made an unexpected discovery beneath their parking lot – a 67-million-year-old dinosaur vertebra. The team was drilling to study rock layers underneath the site when they stumbled upon the fossil, which is now on display.
The disk-shaped specimen is from a plant-eating dinosaur that roamed the region during the Cretaceous period. Scientists were able to narrow down its classification to an herbivorous group of bipedal dinosaurs known as ornithopods. This rare find helps fill in the picture of the ecosystem during this time period.
While there isn’t enough fossil material to determine the dinosaur’s species, experts believe it is a significant discovery. The museum’s curator of geology, Dr. James Hagadorn, noted that finding fossils is not uncommon, but the timing and location of the discovery make it remarkable.
The drilling project’s initial purpose was to investigate the possibility of switching from natural gas to geothermal energy. However, the team’s luck led them to a dinosaur fossil instead. The museum has over 115,000 dinosaur fossils in its collection, and this is only the second instance of a dinosaur bone being uncovered in a core sample.
Dr. Paul Olsen, a paleontologist at Columbia University, stated that finding such a significant discovery can provide context for understanding the world’s history. He believes that studies like this help document changes over time and offer insights into climate change and mass extinction theories.
Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/17/science/dinosaur-fossil-denver-museum-rock-coring