Dinosaur fossils unearthed during parking lot construction at national park

A regular parking batch task astatine Dinosaur National Monument has unearthed dinosaur fossils astatine the tract for the archetypal clip successful much than a century.

Workers uncovered the fossils adjacent the Quarry Exhibit Hall aft removing asphalt successful mid-September, exposing dinosaur-bearing sandstone, the National Park Service said. Park unit identified the remains connected Sept. 16 and instantly halted operation to let paleontologists to measure the find.

The fossils are believed to beryllium to a large, long-necked dinosaur called the Diplodocus. The taxon is commonly recovered successful the area’s historical bonebed.

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

MUSEUM DISCOVERS RARE 67-MILLION-YEAR-OLD DINOSAUR BONE UNDER ITS OWN PARKING LOT

Dinosaur Monument unit enactment connected excavated dinosaur fossils successful the Quarry Exhibit Hall parking batch betwixt September and October. (NPS/ReBecca Hunt-Foster)

Between mid-September and mid-October, crews removed astir 3,000 pounds of fossils and surrounding rock. The worldly is present being cleaned and studied astatine the Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum successful Vernal, wherever visitors tin ticker the mentation process successful the museum’s fossil lab.

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The tract had not been excavated since 1924, erstwhile fossil removal efforts ended aft a bid of aboriginal 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 successful 1915.

In this undated photo, a full-size exemplary of a Diplodocus is seen successful the Dinosaur Garden astatine the Utah Field House of Natural History Museum successful Vernal, Utah. (Jon G. Fuller/VWPics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Some of the recently uncovered fossils are already connected show astatine the Quarry Exhibit Hall, often called the "Wall of Bones," arsenic good arsenic astatine the Utah Field House museum. The grounds hallway is the park’s astir fashionable attraction and sits atop the archetypal Carnegie quarry, wherever visitors tin presumption astir 1,500 dinosaur fossils inactive embedded successful rock.

A Diplodocus skeleton, similar the taxon unearthed astatine Dinosaur Monument, looms implicit the recently renovated fossil hallway astatine the National Museum of Natural History successful Washington, D.C. connected June 08, 2019. The taxon lived 152 cardinal years ago. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

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Following the excavation, crews completed the parking batch and roadworthy betterment project, which included caller factual and asphalt enactment and accessibility upgrades astir the grounds hall.