GOLDEN, Colo. — A 66 million-year-old dinosaur track is fresh out of the plaster and taking center stage at the Golden History Museum and Historic Park.
Colton Snyder, History Colorado's paleontology resource specialist, says more research needs to be done for confirmation, but the fossil is likely from a triceratops.
"We found out it was going to fall off the wall and rather than risk it doing that this winter, we decided to bring it in here and put it on display so it could serve as an educational and inspirational piece," Snyder said.
The fossil came off a rock wall on Triceratops Trail along Fossil Trace Golf Course. There's another well-defined triceratops footprint still there, alongside prehistoric plant impressions and the tracks of ancient birds and mammals.
The track fossil at the museum is what's left over from sediment filling in the dinosaur's footprint, followed by millions of years of erosion.
"What we're left with is the reverse of that impression, so it's the opposite way you'd think to look at a track," Snyder said.
He said the fossil just wouldn't have survived another winter in the elements— ice in the cracks, thawing and freezing between the fossil and the rock, would've caused it to fall off and shatter.
"The erosion has just taken too much of a toll on it," said Snyder.
Fossils at Golden History Museum
The Golden History Museum and Park's director, Nathan Richie, says the likely-triceratops track is the museum's biggest fossil, but not its first.
"The first T-Rex tooth ever known was discovered right here in Golden," Richie said. "It was discovered in 1874, and when they first found it, they knew it was a dinosaur tooth. It was the beginning of understanding what a dinosaur was, but they had never actually discovered the full body before."
The original cast of the tooth is on display at the museum, while the tooth itself belongs to the Peabody Museum at Yale.
Richie says the triceratops footprint will remain on display right when guests walk through the doors. "It's a really great way to get people excited about a visit here," he said.
Golden is a town known for history, and now pre-history is taking center stage.
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