The Atlas Obscura Podcast Time Travel with a Parking Lot Dinosaur
Aug 18, 2025
James Hagedorn, a geology curator at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, unpacks a thrilling discovery of dinosaur bones found during parking lot renovations. He likens geologists to detectives, piecing together ancient histories. Dive into the lush, tropical Colorado of the Cretaceous period and contrast it with today. Hagedorn also shares insights about the asteroid impact responsible for the dinosaurs' extinction and emphasizes the excitement of scientific curiosity that drives these remarkable findings.
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Unexpected Parking Lot Discovery
- James Hagedorn got a call during parent-teacher conferences about fossils found in the museum parking lot.
- Bob Reynolds told him bluntly, "we found dinosaur bone," which launched the investigation.
Geology As Deep-Time Detective Work
- James describes geology as detective work using rocks, fossils, and chemistry to reconstruct past events.
- He compares gathering geological clues to reconstructing an event you did not witness.
What The Bone Looked Like
- The discovered bone looked like a segmented cylinder roughly three inches long and two and a half inches wide.
- James compares its broken pieces to a sleeve of crackers that must be reassembled by preparators.