For a town literally named Dinosaur, Colorado, it’s been over a century since actual fossils turned up beneath its streets. Construction crews paused work on a new parking lot near Dinosaur National Monument after striking an unexpected patch of sandstone. Paleontologists quickly identified the find as sauropod bones, most likely belonging to Diplodocus —a massive, long-necked dinosaur from the Late Jurassic period.
A Century-Long Gap in Local Discoveries
The discovery breaks a 101-year dry spell for the town, which wasn’t always called Dinosaur. Originally named Baxter Springs, it briefly became Artesia during a mid-20th century oil boom before settling on its current moniker in 1966. The irony of the name has now been dramatically confirmed.
Why This Matters: A World-Class Fossil Site
The region is part of Dinosaur National Monument, established in 1915 along the Colorado-Utah border where the Green and Yampa rivers meet. This area is exceptionally rich in dinosaur fossils because, over 150 million years ago, it was a major riverbed. Dinosaur remains floated downstream, becoming buried in sandstone and conglomerate rock, resulting in one of the best-preserved and most diverse collections of ancient megafauna on the continent.
The monument’s Quarry Exhibit Hall—nicknamed the Wall of Bones—already showcases roughly 1,500 fossils still embedded in rock from the original Carnegie quarry digs (1909–1922). The Smithsonian and University of Utah later conducted excavations in the 1920s.
Recovery and Display of the New Finds
Between September and October 2025, paleontologists, park staff, the Utah Conservation Corps, and volunteers excavated approximately 3,000 pounds of rocks and fossils. The bones are now at the Natural History State Park Museum in Vernal, Utah, where they will be cleaned and prepared for public display. Additional specimens are already available for viewing at the Dinosaur National Monument itself.
This latest discovery highlights the continued potential for new paleontological finds even in well-studied areas, reminding us that the ground beneath our feet holds clues to a lost world.
