UPDATE: In December 2017, officials with the Denver Museum of Nature and Science announced that the fossils actually were that of a rare torosaurus, not a triceratops as originally believed.
It started out as just an ordinary Friday for construction inspector Dan Wagner, who was working on the City of Thornton鈥檚 new public safety building.
鈥淚 just started kicking around the dirt underneath my feet, and I found another couple fragments of it,鈥� Wagner said. 鈥淎nd then I dusted off the area, and found a -- kind of a plate bone -- ended up being what was the horn.鈥�
That horn led to a skull, and that skull led to a frill. That frill belonged to a triceratops 66 million years ago. Joe Sertich, curator of dinosaurs at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, is leading the dig to unearth the dinosaur.
鈥淭he biggest bones so far are part of the frill -- so the big shield behind the head -- and those are almost four feet long,鈥� Sertich said.
The triceratops looks to have been about 20 feet long and seven feet tall, he said. He (or she -- they鈥檙e not sure yet) could be the most complete triceratops skeleton they鈥檝e found in this region. It鈥檚 an exciting find for Sertich, who has spent most of his life digging in the dirt.
鈥淚 was just one of those kids who never grew up,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 always loved dinosaurs and I still do.鈥�
Part of that love comes from growing up in Colorado, where dinosaurs played a big role.
鈥淲hat鈥檚 really neat about this area is it captures that last moment of dinosaurs,鈥� Sertich said. 鈥淪o it has what we call the K-T boundary (the point between the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods). That鈥檚 when an asteroid hit off the coast of Mexico and basically wiped out all the dinosaurs -- except, of course, birds -- and the whole front range of Colorado sits right on that layer. It鈥檚 one of the best places in the world to study it.鈥�
But Coloradans don鈥檛 necessarily have to be a scientist to search for dinosaurs.
鈥淭he whole front range of Colorado is what鈥檚 known as the Denver Basin, and this was a pile of rocks that was basically deposited when the Rockies were first starting their uplift,鈥� Sertich said. 鈥淪o you have the beginning of the Rockies, you have erosion sending mud and other debris down the east flank and that was a time when you were basically burying dinosaur ecosystems from Wyoming all the way to Colorado Springs.鈥�
There鈥檚 a lot of new construction happening at sites like this along the Front Range and with it, new opportunities to find some very old bones. This isn鈥檛 the first time a construction site has suddenly turned into a dinosaur dig.
In 1992, a partial skeleton for a T-rex was found on a new home development site in Littleton. In 1994, a dinosaur egg was found at the site of the then-under-construction Coors Field. That led to the Rockies mascot -- a triceratops named Dinger.
鈥淭here鈥檚 so much construction going on along the Colorado Front Range, it鈥檚 really neat to think that dinosaurs are being found really continuously,鈥� Sertich said.
He hopes people will keep an eye out for dinosaur bones and call the museum if they think they鈥檝e found something.
鈥淲e鈥檙e waiting for these finds all the time and we鈥檙e willing to come out and dig,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t really is a big deal, and it really fleshes out the story of Colorado.鈥�
So how do you know if you鈥檝e found an actual dinosaur bone?
Size, for one. That initial bone that Dan Wagner found was 4-and-a-half inches wide.
鈥淵ou know, I鈥檓 thinking to myself, 鈥榃ell, this is either a dinosaur or a really big cow, and I鈥檓 pretty sure cows don鈥檛 get that big,鈥欌€� Wagner said.
This experience has changed how he sees his job.
鈥淓very time I go on one of these job sites now, I鈥檓 going to be thinking of that,鈥� Wagner said. 鈥淓very time I see them digging or excavating, I鈥檓 going to wonder, you know, is there any bones in there?鈥�
