The Denver Museum of Nature & Science recently received a large donation of dinosaur fossils -- over 6,000 bones of an Edmontosaurus!
2017 has been quite for the year for dinosaurs in Colorado! Between "DINOS! Live at Denver Zoo" and the Triceratops found in Thornton, and now, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science has landed a huge influx of dinosaur bones from the Hankla family of Danville, Kentucky. How many fossils exactly? More than 6,000! The newly acquired bones are of an Edomontosaurus, which lived in western North America at the tail end of the Cretaceous Period (about 67 million years ago). These dinosaurs were herbivores and grew more than 40 feet in length. The donation came from a massive bone bed, according to a statement by the museum, and "were likely buried by a sudden flood event in eastern Wyoming nearly 67 million years ago." [gallery columns="2" size="large" ids="28233,28234"] Joe Sertich, curator of dinosaurs at the Museum of Nature & Science, said that the donation is "one of the largest collections of dinosaur bones from a single bone bed." With the latest additions (including fossils from Montana, North and South Dakota, New Mexico, Utah, and metro Denver), the museum claims that it has one of the best Cretaceous dinosaur fossil collections in the United States.
I wouldn't set your hopes on seeing the fossils in person any time soon, though. Like other acquisitions, the Edmontosaurus fossils will need to undergo the appropriate preparation and tests in the museum's labs before they can be displayed in future exhibits.
However, you can visit the Museum of Nature & Science between now and January 15, 2018, to see the traveling exhibition Ultimate Dinosaurs. At this exhibit, guests can try out fossil preparation techniques in the Fossil Prep Lab, use Augmented reality (AR) viewers to examine a dinosaur skeleton, and much more!
What are your thoughts on the new fossils? Have you been to the Ultimate Dinosaurs exhibit? Or are you planning on going soon? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.