‘Very popular dinosaur fossil’ removed from Montana park. But there’s ‘good news’
While some visitors have become accustomed to encountering a prehistoric fixture along a hiking route at a Montana state park, it is no longer there, wildlife officials say.
But there is “good news,” Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks - Region 7 said in an Aug. 9 Facebook post.
The “very popular dinosaur fossil that was a fixture alongside one of Makoshika State Park’s hiking trails has not been stolen, vandalized or damaged,” officials said.
Instead, the hadrosaur, or duck-billed dinosaur, vertebrae that sat along Diane Gabriel Trail has been excavated, officials said.
“I was contacted by the park with the concern that, because it was positioned over a sinkhole - kind of precariously - if erosion continues it might be lost down into the sinkhole,” John Scannella with the Museum of the Rockies said in the post.
The fossil, which was nestled “in a sandstone concretion,” includes several vertebrae in a line, officials said.
Scannella believes this particular dinosaur was just under 3 feet wide and weighed about 300 pounds, officials said.
Using burlap and plaster, Scannella and his team wrapped the fossil for its trip to the museum, officials said.
In doing so, “they unearthed a surprise,” officials said.
“Part of the hipbone was behind it, which had never been seen before because it was in the rock,” Scannella said.
The fossil dates back to the late Cretaceous period, officials said.
Though its removal from the park may come as “a bit of a shock,” officials said “its connection to the park will live on.”
Once conservation work is complete, a cast of the fossil will return to the park and be on display at the visitor’s center, officials said.
About Makoshika State Park
Makoshika State Park, Montana’s largest state park, is about a 220-mile drive northeast from Billingsand “features badland formations and the fossil remains of Tyrannosaurus Rex, Triceratops, and other prehistoric life,” according to the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
“Makoshika is one of the places where you can walk through the Hell Creek Formation, the time of the T. Rex, triceratops, probably Edmontosaurus,” Scannella said.
To date, 10 different dinosaur species have been found in the park, including “a complete triceratops skull” and “a nearly complete skeleton of the rare Thescelosaur,” officials said.
“The park is also one of few places in the world where you can see a rock layer called the K-Pg boundary, which marks the mass extinction of the dinosaurs,” officials said.
Scannella urged there are still “many, many more discoveries to be made in the hills of Makoshika.”
“You never know what you might find,” Scannella said.
This story was originally published August 14, 2024 at 4:22 PM with the headline "‘Very popular dinosaur fossil’ removed from Montana park. But there’s ‘good news’."
