First Dinosaur Dig in 100 Years Strikes Gold in Utah

A routine parking lot repair just uncovered one of the biggest paleontology finds in a century, proving that ancient wonders still hide beneath our feet.

Construction crews were removing asphalt near Dinosaur National Monument's Quarry Exhibit Hall last September when their equipment hit something hard. Embedded in sandstone sat fossilized bones from a Diplodocus, a massive long-necked dinosaur that roamed Utah 150 million years ago.

Park staff immediately stopped construction and called in scientists. What followed was a month-long dig involving paleontologists, volunteers, Utah Conservation Corps members, and even the original construction workers who made the discovery.

Together, they carefully extracted 3,000 pounds of fossil-bearing rock from what became the monument's first major excavation since 1924. For over a hundred years, this historic site had sat untouched after Carnegie Museum, Smithsonian Institution, and University of Utah teams completed groundbreaking digs that helped establish the park in 1915.

The Ripple Effect

This accidental discovery is bringing new life to century-old science. ReBecca Hunt-Foster, the monument's paleontologist, says modern analysis techniques will reveal insights about Diplodocus growth patterns and behavior that researchers a hundred years ago could never have imagined.

The fossils now sit at Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum in Vernal, where visitors can watch paleontologists clean and study them in real time through the museum's public fossil lab. Seeing science unfold firsthand helps kids and adults alike connect with the wonder of discovery.

Select specimens are already on display back at the Quarry Exhibit Hall, joining the famous "Wall of Bones" where 1,500 fossils remain embedded in rock exactly where they were found. The hall sits directly atop the original Carnegie Quarry, creating a living bridge between past and present exploration.

The find reminds us that extraordinary discoveries can happen anywhere, even under a parking lot slated for repair.