<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/usa" rel="" target="" title="US"><span>US</span></a><span> museum known for its dinosaur displays has made a fossil bone discovery closer to home than anyone ever expected, under its own car park.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>It came from a hole drilled more than 230 metres deep to study geothermal heating potential for the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The museum is popular with dinosaur enthusiasts of all ages.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/donald-trump-tariffs-us-threatens-35-per-cent-canada-increase-to-20-per-cent-baseline/909fc795-cb0e-4aa5-a6ce-dbf1bee2618f"><strong><span>Trump threatens to double tariffs on Australia</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Full-size dinosaur skeletons amaze kiddos barely knee-high to a parent, much less to a Tyrannosaurus.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>This latest find is not so visually impressive. Even so, the odds of finding the hockey-puck-shaped fossil sample were impressively small.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>With a bore only five centimetres 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.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/denver-museum-of-nature-and-science-makes-a-find-deep-under-own-car-park-usa/0ee03c43-1f7c-470b-b7e6-8c822a1dd7b0" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/kevin-rudd-details-emerge-around-rudd-and-trumps-secret-meeting/73e14c48-a47c-4d34-9e78-304122c56dc3"><strong><span>Details emerge around Rudd and Trump's 'secret' meeting</span></strong></a><span></span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“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,” the museum’s curator of geology James Hagadorn said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>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.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>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.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/ally-of-iranian-supreme-leader-jokes-iran-could-assassinate-sunbathing-us-president-donald-trump/2303a187-6582-49d3-b51e-2b1e473c8048"><strong><span>Top Iranian official makes death threat against Trump</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>An asteroid impact brought the long era of dinosaurs to an end around 66 million years ago, according to scientists.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Fossilised vegetation also was found in the bore hole near the bone.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“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 and Science.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Dinosaur discoveries in the area over the years include portions of Tyrannosaurus rex and triceratops-type fossils. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>This one is Denver's deepest and oldest yet, O'Connor said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Other experts in the field vouched for the find's legitimacy but with mixed reactions.</span></div></div><div class="styles__Wrapper-sc-2o34ro-0 cmwkBV"><div class="styles__Column-sc-2o34ro-3 jJDKrX"><a href="/content/2025/07/10/09/27/today-in-history-july-11-what-happened-on-this-day"><img alt="" sizes="(min-width: 1024px) 636px, (min-width: 768px) 396px, 100vw" src="https://imageresizer.static9.net.au/5r2VqBX1VTVT7vfHotP5UJ4Zf_A=/396x223/https%3A%2F%2Fprod.static9.net.au%2Ffs%2F282bb1e7-ffc1-4f2a-ba46-aa3ac3368543" srcset="https://imageresizer.static9.net.au/5r2VqBX1VTVT7vfHotP5UJ4Zf_A=/396x223/https%3A%2F%2Fprod.static9.net.au%2Ffs%2F282bb1e7-ffc1-4f2a-ba46-aa3ac3368543 396w, https://imageresizer.static9.net.au/_ph3NnheA527CjobU3jgr7V5tfM=/636x358/https%3A%2F%2Fprod.static9.net.au%2Ffs%2F282bb1e7-ffc1-4f2a-ba46-aa3ac3368543 636w"/></a></div><div class="styles__Column-sc-2o34ro-3 jJDKrX"><div class="styles__Headline-sc-2o34ro-4 hpbOlz">The infuriating passenger decision that killed 123 people</div><div class="styles__Button-sc-2o34ro-1 eBjlmW"><a class="styles__ButtonLink-sc-2o34ro-2 hqpklJ" href="/content/2025/07/10/09/27/today-in-history-july-11-what-happened-on-this-day">View Gallery</a></div></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“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 &amp; Science in Albuquerque.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>There was no way to tell exactly what species of dinosaur it was, Williamson noted.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>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.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The fossil's shape suggests it was a duck-billed dinosaur or thescelosaurus, a smaller but somewhat similar species, LaCount noted.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>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.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“I would love to dig a 233-metre 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.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/how-to-follow-9news-digital/29855bb1-ad3d-4c38-bc25-3cb52af1216f" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP</span></em></strong></a><strong><em><span>: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. 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