Scientists in the US were in for a massive surprise when a drilling project beneath a Denver museum’s parking lot led to the unexpected discovery of a nearly 70-million-year-old dinosaur fossil.
The Denver Museum of Nature and Science was carrying out a geothermal test drilling project in January this year to assess the feasibility of transitioning away from natural gas, when researchers launched a scientific coring initiative.
However, upon drilling beneath the museum’s City Park parking lot in a bid to better understand the geology of the Denver Basin, the scientists were stunned when they stumbled upon a nearly 70 million old partial dinosaur fossil.
Buried 763 feet below the surface, the fossil was classified as a vertebra from a herbivorous dinosaur, similar to a Thescelosaurus or Edmontosaurus, and identified as the deepest and oldest dinosaur fossil ever found within the city limits.
“This is a scientifically and historically thrilling find for both the Museum and the larger Denver community,” James Hagadorn, PhD, curator of geology at the Museum said.
A rare piece of history
Radiometric dating places it at approximately 67.5 million years old, from the Late Cretaceous period, spanning from approximately 100.5 to 66 million years ago, just before the mass extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs.
“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 confirmed.
Credit: Andrey Atuchin / Denver Museum of Nature & Science
Meanwhile, Patric O’Connor, PhD, director of earth and space sciences at the museum who was part of the team that identified the bone, revealed that the discovery may well be the most extraordinary dinosaur discovery of his career.
“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 led by Denver Museum of Nature and Science postdoctoral scholar, Holger Petermann, PhD,” O’Connor stated.
Unearthing Denver’s prehistoric past
Hagadorn emphasized the significance of the find, saying it felt like winning the lottery and getting struck by lightning on the same day. “No one could have predicted that this little square foot of land where we started drilling would actually contain a dinosaur bone beneath it,” he revealed in a statement.
The project was supported by a USD 250,000 grant from Colorado’s Geothermal Energy Grant Program, as part of a larger USD 7.7 million state initiative to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
The museum is using the funds to explore sustainable energy systems that could one day replace its reliance on natural gas for heating and cooling.
Credit: Rick Wicker / Denver Museum of Nature and Science
Meanwhile, the fossil is now on public display in the Museum’s “Discovering Teen Rex” exhibition, where it’s drawing the attention of curious visitors and sparking new conversations about what else might lie hidden beneath our cities.
“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,” Bob Raynolds, PhD, earth sciences research associate concluded in a press release. “That this fossil turned up here, in City Park, is nothing short of magical.”
The study has been published in the journal Rocky Mountain Geology.