Two large dinosaur fossils unveiled at Royal Gorge Regional Museum
It's the type of reveal you seldom see.
Pulling off a cover and snipping the plaster, the Royal Gorge Regional Museum and History Center unveiled two large dinosaur fossils to the public on Saturday, a few months after a hiker discovered them while hiking near Canyon City. Over 300 people showed up for the event.
"It's like Christmas, let's open the gifts," said a researcher at the event. "So as you can see, this is a sauropod tibia. This is what they look like in jackets when we open them in the museums. Now from here we slowly work around the matrix and we pick out the matrix because sometimes there are small bones in the matrix, so we have to be careful that we don't throw away something that could be part of this animal or even part of another animal."
The hiker who made the discovery reported it to the Bureau of Land Management. The fossils are said to be a tibia and fibula of a long-necked sauropod dinosaur.
"We want to thank him so much for doing what was the right thing to do in finding them," said Lisa Studts, the Royal Gorge Regional Museum's Director.
Studts told CBS News Colorado that finding dinosaur fossils in the state isn't a rarity.
"Colorado is known for fossils," Studts said. "This is the last really significant find of this area.. probably since 1992."
The time period of this dinosaur is still unknown, but researchers say it may be from 170 to 150 million years old. Officials hope this discovery brings a new appreciation for the paleontology of colorado.
"It really helps us understand the history of our planet in a way that sometimes these discoveries change what we know about evolution to climate change," said Levi Spellman, a spokesperson with the BLM-Royal Gorge Recreation. "There's so many different areas where this information is so valuable that it's really important that we preserve these things."
The fossils will stay in Canon City. Studts said it will take months to complete the analysis of the fossils. If you think you've found a fossil while outdoors, contact the Bureau of Land Management