Montana dinosaur fossils arrive in Cincy after summer dig

A flatbed trailer carrying hundreds of plaster-coated dinosaur bones recently rolled into Cincinnati Museum Center, delivering the results of a seven-week dig in Big Sky Country to one of the nation’s largest vertebrate paleontology collections.

Volunteers and staff from Elevation Science Institute, CMC’s partner since 2023, uncovered the fossils in “south central Montana,” a remote region of the state the museum chose to keep general to protect the site’s integrity, Glenn Storrs, paleontology curator at the museum, said. More than 150 citizen scientists, some as young as 12, joined professional paleontologists in the sun-scorched hills this summer – digging, drilling and brushing fossils that had lain underground for millions of years.

“This summer’s haul includes massive theropod bones and at least a partial, possibly complete, diplodocoid skull and neck,” Storrs said. “These finds could help us better understand Jurassic carnivores and add to our already extraordinary sauropod skull collection.”

A partnership in history

CMCMC first partnered with Elevation Science Institute two years ago to expand its world-class vertebrate paleontology collection and continue Montana fieldwork.

Elevation has led public fossil digs in the state since 2017, often at sites CMC paleontologists excavated between 2000 and 2012. Those earlier digs produced a Diplodocus bonebed and Jurassic skeletons, including the 50-foot Galeamopus now on display in Dinosaur Hall at the Museum Center.

CMC’s vertebrate paleontology collection dates to 1818 and now totals more than 30,000 fossils. The collection spans everything from dinosaurs to Ice Age mammals from Big Bone Lick State Park in Boone County, Kentucky – often considered the birthplace of American vertebrate paleontology. Highlights on display include the only fully articulated Torvosaurus in the world and a mastodon in the museum’s Ice Age Gallery.

Under its partnership with Elevation, the institute manages the digs and sites while CMC serves as the federal repository for fossils collected.

“The partnership lets us continue offering citizen scientists hands-on opportunities while expanding our nationally important Jurassic collection,” Storrs said. “It also allows us to continue excavating at long-studied sites while focusing on new research questions and explorations.”

Excavating the past

CMC’s vertebrate paleontology collection is among the largest in the country, and the recent finds add exciting new chapters to its story. The research team unearthed multiple large sauropod femurs, Allosaurus toes and claws, palm-sized microfossils, and bones from exceptionally large theropods.

Teams wrapped these delicate fossils in toilet paper and tin foil before encasing them in a “field jacket” made of burlap and plaster. Workers then carried heavy field jacket-clad fossils, sometimes weighing hundreds of pounds, by hand from the dig site to trailers that would later make the cross-country trek to Cincinnati.

Now that the fossils have arrived in Southwest Ohio, staff and volunteers in CMC’s Paleo Lab in the Museum of Natural History & Science will soon start work to remove them from rock and prepare them for public viewing.

Fossils that don’t require particular conditioning, such as those in field jackets, are being stored in the museum’s new, but not-yet-finished collections and research facility near its Union Terminal home in Queensgate. “They’ve survived dust, heat and the elements for millions of years,” Storrs said. 

The bulk of CMC’s vertebrate paleontology collection, however, remains at its Geier Research and Collections Center on West Fifth Street.

This most recent Montana fossil haul will soon be visible in the Paleo Lab, where visitors can watch as staff carefully remove the rock from around the specimens. This offers a close-up view of the excavation process and the discoveries themselves, Storrs said.

“These discoveries show how long-term fieldwork, public engagement and partnerships can expand science and give people a front-row seat to history,” he added.

Dinosaur Hall