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Denver's Deepest Dinosaur

Denver's Deepest Dinosaur

9 comments

·July 16, 2025

jebarker

A funny thing about this find is that the bone was in a core from beneath the parking lot of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science which is heavily dinosaur focused. It’s either a crazy coincidence or there are abundant dinosaurs under Denver.

awithrow

There are a lot in the area. There is dinosaur ridge out on i-70 that features all sorts of dino tracks and fossils. There was also another fossil discovery during while building a shopping center not too long ago: https://www.colorado.edu/coloradan/2017/10/10/dinosaur-found...

dabluecaboose

Indeed the Morrison Formation [1] covers much of the state. Dinosaur ridge is one edge of it, just a stone's throw away from Denver.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morrison_Formation

cadamsdotcom

> This phenomenon is not uncommon in the metropolitan Denver area where such discoveries have catalyzed public curiosity in subsurface geology for nearly 150 years

That sounds like it’s the latter. But actually, it’s both!

colechristensen

A museum featuring dinosaurs being built in close proximity to dinosaur archaeology sites isn't that coincidental :)

elpakal

The comment was about finding the bones below the museum not about the museum being built in an archeological hotbed.

potato3732842

Nitpick: paleontological, not archeological.

Denver is not exactly an archaeological hotbed, to put it mildly.

jebarker

Many major US cities have museums like this. It wasn’t built there because of the dinosaur archaeology as far as I know. This core was found during unrelated digging in the parking lot of the museum, so I think it is a coincidence.