Denver Museum of Nature and Science finds a dinosaur fossil under its own parking lot

[Nittersing]

https://coloradosun.com/2025/07/11/denver-museum-nature-science-dinosaur-fossil-parking-lot/

Only two similar finds have been noted in bore hole samples anywhere in the world, not to mention on the grounds of a dinosaur museum, according to museum officials

"Denver museum known for its dinosaur displays has made a fossil bone discovery closer to home than anyone ever expected, under its own parking lot.

It came from a hole drilled more than 750 feet deep to study geothermal heating potential for the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

The museum is popular with dinosaur enthusiasts of all ages. Full-size dinosaur skeletons amaze kiddos barely knee-high to a parent, much less to a Tyrannosaurus.

This latest find is not so visually impressive. Even so, the odds of finding the hockey-puck-shaped fossil sample were impressively small."

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. Article says it was "deep", but not how deep. Probably somewhere in the middle of the bore hole. . . . nt

[CloudWatcher]

5. 763 feet

It's in the last paragraph. Looks like they're not going to try and recover the rest of it

“I would love to dig a 763-foot hole in the parking lot to excavate that dinosaur, the rest of it. But I don’t think that’s going to fly because we really need parking,” Hagadorn said.

[FirstLight]

2. That's so cool!

I love archaeology/anthropology... we don't really realize how much history is literally under our own feet!

Did you see that they are having a helluva time making a subway line under Rome, cuz they keep running into artifacts and entire sites of stuff?

[Bristlecone]

3. So, a little topic adjacent:

The Denver Botanical Gardens is effectively an extension of what is now Cheeseman Park. Cheeseman Park was once a large cemetery, and when they “moved” that cemetery, the person that did it, did a very poor job. Scandalously poor. To this day, bones will unearth themselves in both the park and the gardens.

So bones everywhere in that area.

There is a “Haunted Mansions” guided walking tour down there around Halloween that is pretty good if anyone lives in the area. They talk about it a bit as the tour starts in Cheeseman.

[El Supremo]

4. They should name it Richard III.

After the king whose remains were found under a "car park" in Leicester, England.

https://storyofleicester.info/city-stories/richard-iii/