Excavating a Torosaurus in a Denver suburb

I spent a weekend excavating with researchers from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, after construction workers in Broomfield, Colorado uncovered the remains of a Torosaurus. It was smash and grab work compared with the archaeological digs I'm used to. No careful grid units, level measurements, and detailed site mapping. No total station taking depths for every artifact, or sifting through buckets of excavated dirt to be sure that nothing is missed. We just went at it with picks and shovels. Occasionally, in a gesture of concern for the bones we would switch to small ice picks, or even toothpicks, but the gesture seemed hollow after I heard one of the lead paleontologists say of breaking a bone that "it's no biggie we'll just glue it back together." 

The museum has unearthed at least 12 bones, including two horns, from the 66 million-year-old torosaurus. Construction workers first discovered the bones in Thornton on Aug. 25. A rib bone weighing 40 pounds was the first to be completely extracted, and the lead paleontologists described this specimen as the size of a rhino, smaller than the fossils found in Montana and the Dakotas that show torosaurus about the size of a medium elephant. This is a trend for specimens found along the front range. There were film crews there, recording for a documentary and for the state news. It also made headlines with websites like Nat Geo. Most of the volunteers were inexperienced, weekend warriors who had been lucky enough to grab the first few spots before the museum capped it.