--- title: "A Dinosaur Appears to Have Died on the Exact Spot They Later Built a Dinosaur Museum, Burying Its Fossil Underneath It" description: "In Denver, scientists uncovered a 67.5-million-year-old dinosaur fossil deep underneath a natural science museum's parking lot." date: "2025-07-12" modified: "2025-07-12" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/dinosaur-fossil-denver-museum" categories: - "Science & Energy" tags: - "bones" - "dinosaurs" - "fossils" - "geothermal energy" --- # A Dinosaur Appears to Have Died on the Exact Spot They Later Built a Dinosaur Museum, Burying Its Fossil Underneath It ![In Denver, scientists uncovered a 67.5-million-year-old dinosaur fossil deep underneath a natural science museum's parking lot.]() *\Image: Hyoung Chang / The Denver Post via Getty / Futurism\* In Denver, scientists uncovered a 67.5-million-year-old dinosaur fossil deep underground — and by chance, it just so happened to be buried underneath the parking lot of a museum that [houses similar specimens](). As the Denver Museum of Nature and Science [explained in *Catalyst*](), its online magazine, the ancient bone fragment was buried some 763 feet below the institution's parking lot, making it the oldest and deepest such fossil to be discovered within city limits. Beyond the coincidence of finding a dino bone underneath a museum of natural history, however, the way the bone was found also defies belief. Back in January of this year, researchers began drilling underneath the museum's parking lot to see if Earth's subsurface temperatures could heat and cool it sustainably. This "[geothermal heating]()," as it's called, uses the same principle as hot springs, making this now-experimental form of renewable energy [one of the oldest in the world](). Once the two drill rigs got going, the scientists behind the project — which was carried out with a [$250,000 grant]() from Colorado's governor, Jared Polis — decided to see what else they could find when digging deep into the Earth's crust. As a paper about the incredible find in the [*Rocky Mountain Geology* journal explains](), the scientists not only discovered interesting geological samples within the 2.5-inch sample core, but also, by pure chance, the nearly 70-million-year-old partial dinosaur bone. "It’s basically like winning the lottery and getting struck by lightning on the same day," explained museum geology curator James Hagadorn in an interview with *Catalyst*. "No one could have predicted that this little square foot of land where we started drilling would actually contain a dinosaur bone beneath it!" https://www.twitter.com/IntEngineering/status/1943547047837061622 Naturally, it took some fine-tuned research to determine that the bone was, in fact, from a dinosaur — and even still, the researchers behind the find can't say for sure what exact species it was or how it died. Ultimately, as explained in the *Rocky Mountain Geology* paper, the bone was determined to be a vertebral fragment from an ornithopod, a [broad paleontological classification]() for bipedal, herbivorous dinosaurs from the Cretaceous period. As the museum [detailed in a press release](), the find wasn't just incredible because of the sheer chance of it all. "This fossil comes from an era just before the mass extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs," Hagadorn, the museum's geology curator, explained. "This is a scientifically and historically thrilling find." As *Rocky Mountain Geology* notes, these sorts of "urban paleontological discoveries" are indeed rare — but when they do happen, they "ignite public interest in science and deepen our connection to nature." **More on dinosaurs:** [*Paleontologists Find Skeleton That Weirdly Looks Exactly Like Barney the Purple Dinosaur*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()