Hidden Beneath Denver Museum’s Parking Lot, Unearthed Dinosaur Bone Could Rewrite History
The Denver Museum Makes An Unlikely Find In Its Own Parking Lot
In January, construction workers carried out a drilling project at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science to determine the viability of installing a geothermal heating system. A drill bored a two-inch-wide hole deep into the ground beneath the parking lot, and scientists at the museum took the opportunity to analyze the core samples and take a look at the geology of the land that Denver sits upon.
Rick Wicker/Denver Museum of Nature and ScienceThe dinosaur fossil was found incidentally during geothermal testing.
Within a section of the core taken from 763 feet beneath the ground, the scientists spotted a small dinosaur vertebra.
Bob Raynolds, the Earth Sciences Research Associate at the museum, said in a statement: “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. That this fossil turned up here… is nothing short of magical.”
Although there are plenty of fossils in the Denver area, it was incredibly lucky that one turned up in the two-inch core.
“Finding a dinosaur bone in a core is like hitting a hole in one from the Moon,” James Hagadorn, the museum’s curator of geology, told the Associated Press. “It’s like winning the Willy Wonka factory. It’s incredible, it’s super rare.”
Which Dinosaur Did The Fossil Belong To?
According to a recent study published in Rocky Mountain Geology about the unlikely find, this fossil dates back 67.5 million years to the Late Cretaceous period. The asteroid impact believed to have brought about the dinosaurs’ demise occurred around 66 million years ago.
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