Denver, CO – Most visitors to the Denver Museum of Nature & Science probably don’t realize they’re parking right on top of a piece of prehistoric history. Earlier this year, a surprising fossil discovery was made directly beneath the museum’s own parking lot, and now a small section of that ancient dinosaur is on public display.
The find happened in January during a routine drilling project. The museum wasn’t searching for fossils at the time—the team was actually exploring options for geothermal energy and needed to test the ground. As they pulled up a core sample from over 700 feet below the surface, a fossilized vertebra was found, measuring about 2.5 inches across.
According to museum officials, the fossil belonged to an ornithopod, a type of bipedal, plant-eating dinosaur that lived more than 67 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous period. It’s believed to be the oldest and deepest dinosaur fossil ever discovered within Denver city limits. While scientists can’t pin down the exact species from just this partial bone, they say similar dinosaurs were known to roam Colorado and nearby states long ago.
This rare fossil is now part of the museum’s permanent collection, which includes over 100,000 specimens. However, the rest of the dinosaur will stay underground. Excavating the parking lot simply isn’t possible, so for now, only this small vertebra is available for visitors to see. The accidental discovery also adds to researchers’ understanding of Denver’s ancient landscape and suggests there could be even more fossils hidden beneath modern city life.
The museum’s findings were recently published in a geology journal, giving paleontologists new clues about dinosaurs that once called Denver home—right where people now park their cars.
