Dinosaur Fossil Discovered Beneath Denver Museum Parking Lot
In a great discovery right beneath its grounds, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science dug up a 70-million-year-old dinosaur fossil during a
Scientists found the fossil, believed to be a fragment of a vertebra from an herbivorous dinosaur, 763 feet below the museum’s parking lot, which was far deeper than most fossil discoveries. This unusual find occurred while scientists were testing the ground’s geological makeup to explore geothermal energy as an alternative to natural gas for the museum’s heating and cooling systems.
Dr. James Hagadorn, the museum’s curator of geology, described the moment of discovery as a rare “fossil emergency.” A fossil emergency, as described by Dr. James Hagadorn, refers to a situation where a fossil is discovered unexpectedly and requires attention to prevent it from being damaged. In this case, he was referring to the discovery of the dinosaur fossil deep beneath the museum’s parking lot during a construction project. Since fossils are delicate and can be easily destroyed by construction equipment, the discovery created an urgent need to stop the work and call in experts to properly excavate and preserve the fossil. According to Dr. Patrick O’Connor, director of Earth and Space Sciences at the museum, fossil discoveries through such deep drilling methods are rare, making this an exciting development despite the fossil’s small size.
Findings through drilling methods are rare because drilling is primarily used for construction or resource extraction, rather than fossil discovery, and the process can easily damage the delicate fossil material. Most fossils are found near the surface, where natural erosion or careful excavation exposes them. In contrast, deep drilling involves powerful machinery that can destroy or overlook fossils entirely. Since fossils are fragile and often embedded in rock, the chance of encountering one during drilling and having it remain intact is extremely low.
“This is the first time anyone has recovered this kind of dinosaur fossil from this specific time interval in this region,” said Dr. Hagadorn. Based on its shape and estimated age, the fossil may belong to an ornithopod, a small plant-eating dinosaur, although its exact species remains unconfirmed.
Denver and the surrounding Colorado region are known for fossil discoveries thanks to their geologic past. During the late Cretaceous period, roughly 100 to 70 million years ago, the rising Rocky Mountains contributed to heavy erosion and sediment buildup in this area. These conditions helped preserve ancient plant and animal remains beneath layers of rock and clay. Historically, many of Denver’s dinosaur finds have been closer to the surface. For example, in 1993, construction workers building Coors Field uncovered dinosaur bones, which inspired the Colorado Rockies’ mascot, a purple triceratops named Dinger. Another skull discovery occurred in Thornton, Colorado, in 2017 as well.
What makes this recent find unique is its depth. Prior deep-earth fossil discoveries have been very rare, with only two other confirmed finds through similar drilling efforts. One from a North Sea oil well in 1997, and another in western Colorado in 2018.
Although the fossil itself may not change scientific understanding, the discovery shows the rich prehistoric record buried beneath urban landscapes, and the role that routine scientific work, such as geothermal drilling, can play in uncovering that past.
Dr. Christopher Junium of Syracuse University called the find “extraordinary,” noting, “Poking the Earth with what amounts to a needle and coming up with a dinosaur is more like fiction than reality.”
The museum continues to sift through the extracted material, hoping to find more fossil fragments and build a more complete picture of ancient life.
