70 million-year-old dinosaur fossil found beneath Denver museum’s parking lot

***Video above: Prehistoric discovery made in Lorain County.***

DENVER (WJW) — Researchers with the Denver Museum of Nature and Science were thrilled after a dinosaur fossil from nearly 70 million years ago was discovered right under their feet.

Back in January, while crews were conducting a geothermal drilling project outside the museum, they found a partial bone fossil that was 763 feet beneath the parking lot, officials announced in a Thursday press release.

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Ornithopod vertebra from the Denver Formation, from 763′ of depth in the City Park core drilling in the parking lot at Denver Museum of Nature and Science (Courtesy of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science).

Investigators said the bone, identified as the vertebra of a herbivorous dinosaur, “occurs in Late Cretaceous rocks dated to approximately 67.5 million years ago.”

Scientists have described the discovery as the deepest and oldest dinosaur fossil ever found in Denver city limits.

“This is a scientifically and historically thrilling find for both the museum and the larger Denver community,” James Hagadorn, the museum’s geology curator, is quoted in the release. “This fossil comes from an era just before the mass extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs, and it offers a rare window into the ecosystem that once existed right beneath modern-day Denver.”

The findings, published in the scientific journal “Rocky Mountain Geology” on June 1, determined that the bone belonged to a dinosaur similar to the Edmontosaurus or the Thescelosaurus, as depicted in the photo below.

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Thescelosaurus (Courtesy of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science)

“The specimen deepens our understanding of dinosaurs in the Denver Basin and encourages us to imagine all the fossils hidden right beneath our feet — a world still waiting to be discovered and explored!” the release continued.

The fossil is now on display in the museum’s “Discovering Teen Rex” exhibit, officials said.

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