A parking lot construction project at Dinosaur National Monument turned into an unexpected fossil discovery — the first at the site in more than a century.
Construction crews paused asphalt removal on Sept. 16 after they uncovered a piece of sandstone containing dinosaur fossils.
Excavation was an all-hands-on-deck effort that included park staff, a Utah Conservation Corps crew, volunteers and on-site construction crews, the National Park Service said.
Between mid-September and mid-October, crews worked to remove around 3,000 pounds of fossils and rock during the excavation, the park service reported. After that, the fossils didn’t have to travel far from home — they’re now being kept at the Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum in Vernal, Utah, more specifically in the museum’s fossil preparation lab for visitors to view.
According to a statement released by the National Park Service, experts believe the fossils belonged to a long-necked dinosaur, likely a diplodocus, a species that is commonly found in the area’s bonebeds.
Where are the fossils now?
Fossils unearthed during the excavation can also be seen at the Quarry Exhibit Hall, known as the “Wall of Bones,” which is one of the most popular attractions at Dinosaur National Monument. The exhibit can be found in a section of the Carnegie dinosaur fossil quarry, where roughly 1,500 dinosaur fossils remain embedded in rock can be viewed, the National Park Service said in a statement.
Species that can be seen in this exhibit include a number of species from the late Jurassic period like the allosaurus, apatosaurus, camarasaurus, diplodocus and stegosaurus. Visitors also have the unique opportunity to touch the fossils, some 150 million years old, according to the Quarry Exhibit Hall website.
About Dinosaur National Monument
Dinosaur National Monument was established in 1915, during ongoing excavations by the Carnegie Museum. The Carnegie Museum led digs from 1909 to 1922, followed by the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in 1923 and the University of Utah in 1924, marking the site’s final major excavation, according to the National Park Service.
The previous parking lot and road improvement project at the park have since been completed after being put on hold during the excavation, where upgrades were made for accessibility around the park’s Quarry Exhibit Hall.
Another unexpected fossil discovery
This is not the only fossil parking lot construction crews have discovered in the past year. A 70-million-year-old dinosaur fossil was found during a parking lot project at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science in January 2025, as previously reported by the Deseret News.
The fossil was found in a narrow drill core, though odds of that happening were very slim, according to experts. “It’s basically like winning the lottery and getting struck by lightning on the same day,” James Hagadorn, curator of geology at the museum said, as the Deseret News previously reported. The fossil is the oldest ever found within Denver’s city limits.
“This fossil comes from an era just before the mass extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs, and it offers a rare window into the ecosystem that once existed right beneath modern-day Denver,” Hagadorn said in a museum press release at the time.