Dinosaur fossils unearthed during parking lot construction at national park

A routine parking lot project at Dinosaur National Monument has unearthed dinosaur fossils at the site for the first time in more than a century.

Workers uncovered the fossils near the Quarry Exhibit Hall after removing asphalt in mid-September, exposing dinosaur-bearing sandstone, the National Park Service said. Park staff identified the remains on Sept. 16 and immediately halted construction to allow paleontologists to assess the find.

The fossils are believed to belong to a large, long-necked dinosaur called the Diplodocus. The species is commonly found in the area’s historic bonebed.

Park officials said staff members, a Utah Conservation Corps crew, volunteers and construction workers helped excavate the remains.

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Between mid-September and mid-October, crews removed roughly 3,000 pounds of fossils and surrounding rock. The material is now being cleaned and studied at the Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum in Vernal, where visitors can watch the preparation process in the museum’s fossil lab.

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The site had not been excavated since 1924, when fossil removal efforts ended after a series of early 20th-century digs led by the Carnegie Museum, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and the University of Utah. Dinosaur National Monument was established in 1915.

Some of the newly uncovered fossils are already on display at the Quarry Exhibit Hall, often called the "Wall of Bones," as well as at the Utah Field House museum. The exhibit hall is the park’s most popular attraction and sits atop the original Carnegie quarry, where visitors can view about 1,500 dinosaur fossils still embedded in rock.

Following the excavation, crews completed the parking lot and road improvement project, which included new concrete and asphalt work and accessibility upgrades around the exhibit hall.