Latest news with #DenverMuseumofNature&Science
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists Drilled for Geothermal Energy. They Hit a 67-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Instead.
Here's what you'll learn when you read this story: The Denver Museum of Nature & Science discovered a dinosaur fossil buried in its own parking lot. The partial bone of a plant-eating dinosaur is the oldest and deepest dinosaur fossil ever found in Denver. The museum is a well-known dinosaur buff destination, and has multiple full-size dinosaur skeletons on display. When a museum popular with dinosaur enthusiasts went digging in its own parking lot, the dinosaur fossil their team found didn't have far to travel to make it into an exhibit. The Denver Museum of Nature & Science located a roughly 67.5-million-year-old partial dinosaur bone 763 feet below its own parking lot—the oldest and deepest ever found in Denver. 'This partial vertebra from a plant-eating dinosaur offers an extraordinary glimpse into prehistoric Denver and the animals that inhabited this area,' the museum wrote in a statement. Museum staff weren't looking for dinosaur bones to add to an exhibit when they started digging. Instead, crews were conducting geothermal test drilling to assess the viability of switching from natural gas to geothermal energy. While the equipment was out, they added some scientific coring to their process in the hopes of 'better understand[ing] the geology of the Denver Basin.' That led to the unexpected fossil. The coring hole, just two inches wide, was only supposed to help experts study the soil. There was no expectation of locating something as wild as a dinosaur fossil. 'Finding a dinosaur bone in a core is like hitting a hole in one from the Moon,' James Hagadorn, the museum's curator of geology, told the Associated Press. 'It's like winning the Willy Wonka factory. It's incredible, it's super rare.' The museum said that only two other similar coring samples in the entire world have produced fossils. Neither of those, however, were at the site of a dinosaur museum. The discovery has been dated to the late Cretaceous period, roughly 1.5 million years before the extinction of dinosaurs, and the bone was found alongside fossilized vegetation. 'This animal was living in what was probably a swampy environment that would have been heavily vegetated at the time,' Patrick O'Connor, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the museum, told the AP. The dinosaur experts believe—as Erin LaCount, director of education programs at the Dinosaur Ridge track site near Denver, told the AP—that the fossil was from a small dinosaur, possibly a duck-billed dinosaur, a thescelosaurus, or another similar-sized dinosaur. Still, there's not enough evidence to distinguish with certainty what type of dinosaur was located. Not everyone was as excited about the find as the folks in Denver. When the AP contacted Thomas Williamson, curator of paleontology at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science in Albuquerque, he agreed it was an unexpected discovery, but said it was one without much value because there's no real way to determine what species of dinosaur was found. 'It's a surprise, I guess,' he said. 'Scientifically, it's not that exciting.' Folks in Denver, though, may oppose that view. With the fossil now on display in the museum's Discovering Teen Rex exhibit, Hagadorn said he'd love to excavate the entire parking lot to find the rest of the dinosaur. 'But I don't think that's going to fly,' he said, 'because we really need parking.' You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life? Solve the daily Crossword
11-07-2025
- Science
Jurassic Park-ing lot: Dino fossil turns Denver museum into dig site
Like finding mountains of gold bars below a bank or happening upon a rare piece of art hidden beneath a gallery, a Denver museum that's full of fossils serendipitously discovered -- wait for it -- a dinosaur bone, right under its parking lot. "Wow, what are the chances?" James Hagadorn, a geology curator at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, told ABC News. Back in January, the museum found a fossil of a plant-eating dinosaur, believed to be nearly 68 million years old, lying about 800 feet below the parking lot, the museum announced this week. At the time of the discovery, scientists were conducting a "geothermal test drilling project" to determine whether the museum could use the heat of the Earth underneath the parking lot in City Park, Colorado, the museum said in a press release. This dino-mite find, which Hagadorn described as "quite the cherry" on top of the project's intended mission, was discovered 763 feet below the surface and was identified as the "deepest and oldest dinosaur fossil ever found within the city's limits," the museum said in a press release. Museum scientists believe the fossil the vertebra of an herbivorous dinosaur -- possibly a Thescelosaurus or Edmontosaurus -- that roamed the region 67.5 million years ago, which is "just days before the mass extinction that wiped our the dinosaurs," the museum noted. Hagadorn said his "head just exploded" when he heard the news of the discovery, which has been on display among the museum's collection of more than 300,000 fossils since Wednesday. "It was absolutely incredible. The first thing you say is, 'Are you sure? Is this real? Are you playing a joke on me?'" he said. "That's like finding a diamond deposit under the world's largest gem store or an archeological site buried underneath the parking lot of an archeological museum." Hagadorn noted that this isn't the first time Colorado has seen a discovery like this. Previously, a horn of a Triceratops was found underneath Coors Field's home plate and "tons of cool fossils" have been located underneath Denver International Airport, he said. "The exciting thing to me is that there's the potential to find more, and that's both thrilling in the sense of discovery, but it's also interesting because these things are good for science, they tell us about our place, they tell us about our ecosystems [and] they tell us how the plane has changed. So it's a win, win, win," Hagadorn told ABC News. Even though Hagadorn said he would "love to go 750 feet down" again and see if there are more potential fossils underneath the museum's parking lot, he said that would be unlikely due to the scope of such a project. "In order to go that deep, you've got to dig a very big hole and then hold that hole open either by lining it or making it tapered. If we think about a tapered hole that goes down that deep, that would probably consume all our parking lot and maybe part of the museum too. So boy, it's fun to think about, but I think it's unlikely," he said. Hagadorn expressed his hope that the fossil -- which is within the museum's "Discovering Teen Rex" exhibition -- reminds people that "there's lots of geology underfoot." "The layers of Earth underneath us tell us stuff that's useful, whether that information is from a fossil or a mineral or some water that's flowing underfoot," he said. "Imagine what's underneath your house or mine. Who knows?" Hagadorn said the museum will have "tons" of free admission days for "everyone to access" the fossil and anything else within the facility.
10-07-2025
- Science
Dino museum makes find deep under own parking lot
DENVER -- A Denver museum known for its dinosaur displays has made a fossil bone find closer to home than anyone ever expected, under its own parking lot. It came from a hole drilled more than 750 feet (230 meters) deep to study geothermal heating potential for the Denver Museum of Nature & 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 piece of rock were impressively small. With a bore only a couple of inches (5 centimeters) wide, museum officials struggled to describe just how unlikely it was to hit a dinosaur, even in a region with a fair number of such fossils. 'Finding a dinosaur bone in a core is like hitting a hole in one from the moon. It's like winning the Willy Wonka factory. It's incredible, it's super rare,' said James Hagadorn, the museum's curator of geology. 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. A vertebra of a smallish, plant-eating dinosaur is believed to be the source. It lived in the late Cretaceous period around 67.5 million years ago. An asteroid impact brought the long era of dinosaurs to an end around 66 million years ago, according to scientists. Fossilized vegetation also was found in the bore hole near the bone. 'This animal was living in what was probably a swampy environment that would have been heavily vegetated at the time,' said Patrick O'Connor, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. Dinosaur discoveries in the area over the years include portions of Tyrannosaurus rex and triceratops-type fossils. This one is Denver's deepest and oldest yet, O'Connor said. Other experts in the field vouched for the find's legitimacy but with mixed reactions. 'It's a surprise, I guess. Scientifically it's not that exciting,' said Thomas Williamson, curator of paleontology at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science in Albuquerque. There was no way to tell exactly what species of dinosaur it was, Williamson noted. The find is "absolutely legit and VERY COOL!' Erin LaCount, director of education programs at the Dinosaur Ridge track site just west of Denver, said by email. The fossil's shape suggests it was a duck-billed dinosaur or thescelosaurus, a smaller but somewhat similar species, LaCount noted. The bore-hole fossil is now on display in the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, of course, but there are no plans to look for more under the parking lot. 'I would love to dig a 763-foot (233-meter) 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.
Axios
09-07-2025
- Science
- Axios
Dinosaurs once roamed Denver's City Park
Back in the Late Cretaceous era, 67.5 million years ago, dinosaurs roamed Denver's modern-day City Park. The intrigue: The Denver Museum of Nature & Science, on the eastern edge of the park, announced Wednesday it unexpectedly discovered a partial-bone fossil 763 feet below the surface of its parking lot. What they did: The discovery occurred when the museum conducted a drilling test this January to see if it could tap geothermal energy and took core samples down 1,000 feet into the ground. What they found: Museum scientists later identified the fossil as part of a vertebra from a plant-eating dinosaur, similar to a Thescelosaurus or Edmontosaurus. What they're saying: "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," Earth sciences research associate Bob Raynolds said in a statement. "That this fossil turned up here, in City Park, is nothing short of magical."
Axios
17-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Axios
Denver Museum of Nature & Science lands record $20M makeover
The Denver Museum of Nature & Science is getting a $20 million facelift. Why it matters: The gift from the Denver-based Sturm Family Foundation is the largest private donation in DMNS history and will revamp the museum's theater, lobby and plaza. What they're saying: The upgrades will usher in "a new era of possibilities" and "seamlessly blend indoor and outdoor spaces, revolutionizing the way [visitors] engage with the museum and City Park," DMNS said in a statement. The big picture: DMNS is the latest Denver museum to get a makeover. In 2021, the Denver Art Museum unveiled a $175 million renovation funded by private donors and city voters, who in 2017 approved the Elevate Denver Bonds to provide millions in upgrades. What's next: Construction at DMNS will roll out in phases, starting in April. The first phase will temporarily close the Infinity Theater from April 8 to late July, the museum said, but the rest of the facility will remain open.
