More Dinosaur Fossils Found At Big Dig In Highlands Ranch
HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. (CBS4)- The big dig in Highlands Ranch keeps uncovering more dinosaur fossils. Construction crews found bones at the site in May and this week, found more.
"Initially, you know, I think we'd thought maybe a couple weeks, maybe three weeks at the maximum, but I think just because the way the dinosaur's skeleton has been scattered and really, just how big is the dinosaur itself, it's taken us a little more time," said Natalie Toth, Chief Fossil Preparator for the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
The original set of fossils was discovered at a construction site near Wind Crest at Santa Fe Drive and C-470.
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Several of the bones are likely 66 million years old. They likely came from the same dinosaur, a very large triceratops.
"It's a full grown adult triceratops and we started working on some of the fossils back in the lab and the fossils are prepping and they're pretty big so pretty exciting."
Brinkman Constructors along with property owners, Wind Crest, have been working alongside the museum to accommodate the dig and plan to help as long as the museum needs.
Toth says despite all the bones recovered, they only have about 30 percent of the triceratops complete.
"As we're digging I'm hoping that we'll find more and more of the animal and that this continues to be really productive. If we're going to be up here I'd love to find some more of the skeleton -- some big substantial pieces of the skeleton," exclaimed Toth.
A large aquifer under the dig site has made everything a little soggy. Some of the most recently found fossils are in fragments and will be pieced together at the lab at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
Crews will return to the dig site on Friday to see if they can unearth more fossils. It's unclear whether these bones belong to the first dinosaur discovered or if they belong to a different dinosaur.