Under the parking lot of a museum, between parked cars and unsuspecting visitors, a dinosaur was hidden. It happens to Denver, Colorado, where a group of researchers made an unexpected discovery: a fossilized vertebra of a herbivorous dinosaur, dating back to over 67 million years agowas found during technical drilling. Not an archaeological site or a programmed excavation, but a cagottage for a study on geothermal heating.
A discovery that has the flavor of a stroke of luck, but that offers new clues about how they lived – and where – these ancient giants of the past.
A small bone fragment that changes the map of dinosaurs in the city
It all started in January, when the researchers of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science They were drilling to take rock samples from the subsoil to understand if it was possible to go from natural gas to a more sustainable heating system, based on geothermal energy.
But over 230 meters deepin the midst of strata of ancient rock, something totally unexpected has appeared: a fossil vertebrajust over six centimeters wide, perfectly preserved inside the cylindrical rock champion extracted.
Second James Hagadorngeologist and curator of the museum, the vertebra belongs in all probability to a Biipede Herbivore Dinosaur of the Ornithopod Group. These dinosaurs, similar to those represented by TheScelosauruswere widespread in the upper Cretaceous. But so far, as Hagadorn explained:
We knew they lived in Colorado and Wyoming, but we had never had a direct test of their presence in the city. Now we know that 67 million years ago they grazed between ferns, palm trees and wild ginger right here.
It will not be dig: the dinosaur will remain under the asphalt
The discovery is so rare that, according to experts, It is only the third time in the world that a dinosaur fossil is found during a cagottage. And it is The first time that such a fossil ends up on displayand is already visible to the public in the rooms of the Denver Museum.
The remaining part of the skeleton could still be underground, but. And the reason is very simple, according to Hagadorn:
We cannot dismantle the entire parking lot, it serves visitors … even if they now know to park on a dinosaur!
Behind the irony is hidden a fascinating reality: There are fossils still buried under our feet, even in the most urban and unexpected contexts. And this is precisely the message that launches the discovery: prehistory does not belong only to deserts and canyons, but also to our cities.
A hidden treasure that can tell us about our future
Thanks to this discovery, scientists have decided to review All satellite and geological data linked to the fossils of the Denver areafrom specimens of Triceratop until Tyrannosaurus Rex. By crossing the data with new GIS maps and technologies, they managed to date much more precisely These ancient remains, placing them with certainty in the late Cretaceous.
Paul Olsenpaleontologist of Columbia University, commented:
This discovery reminds us that fossils are not rare at all. When we observe the rocks well, we find stories. And often, if the rock is the right age, we find dinosaurs.
And it’s not just about the past. Understand how the world was millions of years ago It also helps us to better read the changes that are happening today. The bones of a dinosaur may seem only finds, but they are A key to studying the evolution of the climate, the environment, of life on earth. They are a natural archive that reminds us how part of the same story we are.
