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Construction Workers Find Dinosaur Fossils In Highlands Ranch

Torosaurus
N. Tamura
/
CC BY-SA 3.0
Illustration of Torosaurus latus, a ceratopsian from the Late Cretaceous era of North America.

Construction workers have unearthed fossils in a Denver suburb that experts say could be from a rare horned dinosaur.

The Denver Museum of Nature and Science said Monday that it is exploring the construction site near a retirement community in Highlands Ranch where a dinosaur's lower leg bone and several ribs were found.

Fossil expert Natalie Toth told KDVR-TV the fossils could be from a torosaurus — a dinosaur similar to the triceratops but differentiated by three bones.

Toth says the fossils seem to be intact, so crews are hoping to uncover the entire dinosaur.

The fossils are embedded in a 66- to 68-million-year-old rock layer.

Toth says fossils in the Denver formation are from dinosaurs that were among the last "walking around before the big extinction."

Copyright 2019 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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