Written by: Keya Gambhir

Have you ever found something amazing in a place you least expected, like a toy behind a bookshelf or a snack at the bottom of your backpack? Well, the scientists at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science found something way cooler right under their own parking lot.

They weren’t even digging for dinosaurs. They were drilling to see if they could use geothermal energy, which is heat from deep inside the Earth, to warm and cool the museum. But guess what they found 763 feet underground?

A real dinosaur bone!

Digging Deep, Finding History

In January 2025, museum workers were drilling test holes almost 1,000 feet deep when something caught a scientist’s eye. Bob Raynolds, one of the researchers, noticed a small, pale, and spongy rock that didn’t look like the others. It was about the size of a soup can. He called his coworker James Hagadorn right away and said, “I think we found a dinosaur!”

Hagadorn, the museum’s curator of geology, couldn’t believe it. “My jaw fell on the floor,” he said. “My eyes were about as big as saucers!”

After careful study, scientists confirmed they had found several pieces of fossilized vertebrae, which are parts of a dinosaur’s backbone.

What Kind of Dinosaur Was It?

The fossil likely came from a type of small, plant-eating dinosaur called an ornithopod. Scientists think it may have been a Thescelosaurus or Edmontosaurus, which roamed Colorado during the Late Cretaceous period, about 67.5 to 68 million years ago, just before the big asteroid that made the dinosaurs go extinct.

Back then, the land under Denver was a lush tropical forest filled with giant plants and wet swamps. Fossilized leaves were found near the dinosaur bone, which may have been part of the plants it ate or even its final snack.

Its possible predators? None other than the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex, who lived during the same time.

Why Is This Such a Big Deal?

This is now the oldest and deepest dinosaur fossil ever found in the city of Denver. Most fossils are found just a few feet under the ground, not hundreds of feet down. And the hole they drilled was only about 2.5 inches wide, about the size of a marker. Finding a fossil through a hole that small is like throwing a dart and hitting a bullseye from space.

Even though it’s not the first fossil found in Denver (one was discovered under Coors Field, where the Colorado Rockies play baseball), it’s the first time the museum found one under its own building. As Hagadorn joked, “It’s like finding gold under a bank or treasure under a museum!”

Now on Display!

The fossil has now been cleaned, studied, and put on display at the museum. It’s part of their “Discovering Teen Rex” exhibit, which also features a T. rex found by a North Dakota family in 2022.

The museum hopes this discovery teaches visitors that science is happening all around, and even beneath our feet. Hagadorn says we should imagine what's under our own houses. Who knows what ancient stories the Earth is still hiding?

The best part? The museum is offering free admission days so more people can come and see the bone up close.

What’s Next?

Scientists would love to dig even deeper to see if more of the dinosaur is still buried down there. But drilling that far would take up the entire parking lot and maybe even part of the museum building. So for now, they’re sticking to the fossils they have.

Still, the team says it’s possible that other drilling projects in the city might have passed through fossils too, but most people don’t check the rocks they dig up.

So the next time you’re walking in a parking lot or digging in the backyard, just remember, you might be standing right on top of a dinosaur!