Construction workers working on the new public safety building in Thornton found a rare triceratops skeleton and skull Friday.

The find is one of three triceratops skulls found along the Front Range and has likely been lying there for at least 66 million years, Denver Museum of Nature and Science curator of dinosaurs Joe Sertich said in a statement.

“My heart was racing,” he said. “As soon as (we) uncovered it and realized this was a horn of a triceratops and not just another leg bone or part of a hip, it made the site really exciting.”

The crew has unearthed a horn and shoulder blade so far, according to the museum.

Triceratops had two big horns over its eyes and a smaller nose horn. The dinosaurs are iconic, often depicted as fighting a T-Rex in horror movies, Sertich said. (A friendlier triceratops was portrayed as Cera in the popular Steven Spielberg and George Lucas animated classic “Land Before Time.”)

City of Thornton According to DMNS Curator of Dinosaurs Joe Sertich, the dinosaur has been laying here for at least 66 million years.

City of Thornton According to DMNS Curator of Dinosaurs Joe Sertich, the dinosaur has been laying here for at least 66 million years.

City of Thornton Scientists from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science (DMNS) are working at the site of a fossil discovery in Thornton.



City of Thornton Scientists from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science (DMNS) are working at the site of a fossil discovery in Thornton.

City of Thornton Scientists from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science (DMNS) are working at the site of a fossil discovery in Thornton.

City of Thornton Scientists from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science (DMNS) are working at the site of a fossil discovery in Thornton.



City of Thornton Scientists from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science (DMNS) are working at the site of a fossil discovery in Thornton.

Most fossils found in Denver are from the Ice Age roughly 10,000-12,000 years ago, belonging to mammoths, camels and the like, Sertich said. “I’m over the moon right now that this is a dinosaur fossil,” he said.

Crews broke ground on the Fire and Police Substation at East 132nd Avenue and Quebec Street on July 31. With most of Denver being covered by parking lots, houses and shopping malls, it’s fairly unusual to get deep into the original rock layers, Sertich said. Crews were moving ground with a skid-steer loader when they were stopped by an object. One of the construction workers realized that it could be a fossil.

“A lot of times these will be plowed up and they won’t be recognized,” Sertich said. “And we’re really lucky in this case that it was recognized as fossils and we got the call and were out here and able to salvage the site, and actually collect these fossils.”

DMNS scientists will stabilize the area, carefully expose the fossil and look for any other bones to be safely extracted. The site is not visible from the street and city of Thornton is providing security.