The Denver Museum of Nature and Science announced last week that it had discovered 67.5 million-year-old dinosaur fossils in a parking lot.
Some bone fossils were found 763 feet below the surface and are an upper Cretaceous (Maastrich) bird bone bone. It is the oldest and deepest hybrid found in the city of Denver.
According to a January press release, the fossil was found during a “geothermal test drilling project” at the museum to determine whether it could transition from natural gas to geothermal energy. The team conducted a simultaneous scientific start-up study to “better understand the geology of the Denver Basin.”
“This is probably the most unusual dinosaur discovery I’ve been involved in,” Patrick O’Connor, director of Earth and Space Sciences at the agency, said in a statement.
“It is not only rare to find any fossil as part of the drilling project, but this discovery provides an outstanding collaboration opportunity for the Earth Museum to produce articles led by Dr. Holger Petermann, a postdoctoral scholar at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.”
Articles about the findings are published in Rocky Mountain Geology In June.
Geothermal drilling is funded by a $250,000 grant that the museum is awarded in 2024 through a state program to facilitate the transition to clean energy.
Bob Reynolds, a research assistant at the museum’s geosciences, called the fossil discovery “magic.” “In my 35 years of working at the museum, we have never had an opportunity like this – to study the deep geological layers in such a precise way.”
Now, the fossils are now part of the museum’s “Discover Youth” exhibition.
