Denver museum known for dinosaur displays finds fossil under its parking lot | Denver

Published

15 hours ago

July 11, 2025

A Denver museum known for its dinosaur displays has made a fossil bone discovery closer to home than anyone ever expected: under its own parking lot.

It came from a hole drilled more than 750 ft (230 meters) deep to study geothermal heating potential for the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

The museum is popular with dinosaur enthusiasts of all ages. Full-size dinosaur skeletons amaze children barely knee-high to a parent.

This latest find is not so visually impressive. Even so, the odds of finding the hockey-puck-shaped fossil sample were impressively small.

With a bore only a couple of inches (5cm) wide, museum officials struggled to describe just how unlikely it was to hit a dinosaur, even in a region with a fair number of such fossils.

“Finding a dinosaur bone in a core is like hitting a hole in one from the moon. It’s like winning the Willy Wonka factory. It’s incredible, it’s super rare,” said James Hagadorn, the museum’s curator of geology.

Only two similar finds have been noted in bore hole samples anywhere in the world, not to mention on the grounds of a dinosaur museum, according to museum officials.

A vertebra of a smallish, plant-eating dinosaur is believed to be the source. It lived in the late Cretaceous period around 67.5m years ago. An asteroid impact brought the long era of dinosaurs to an end around 66m years ago, according to scientists.

Fossilized vegetation also was found in the bore hole near the bone.

“This animal was living in what was probably a swampy environment that would have been heavily vegetated at the time,” said Patrick O’Connor, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the museum.

Dinosaur discoveries in the area over the years include portions of Tyrannosaurus rex and triceratops-type fossils. This one is Denver’s deepest and oldest yet, O’Connor said.

Other experts in the field vouched for the find’s legitimacy but with mixed reactions.

“It’s a surprise, I guess. Scientifically, it’s not that exciting,” said Thomas Williamson, curator of paleontology at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science in Albuquerque.

There was no way to tell exactly what species of dinosaur it was, Williamson noted.

The find is “absolutely legit and VERY COOL!” Erin LaCount, director of education programs at the Dinosaur Ridge track site just west of Denver, said by email.

The fossil’s shape suggests it was a duck-billed dinosaur or thescelosaurus, a smaller but somewhat similar species, LaCount noted.

The bore-hole fossil is now on display in the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, of course, but there are no plans to look for more under the parking lot.

“I would love to dig a 763ft (233-meter) hole in the parking lot to excavate that dinosaur, the rest of it. But I don’t think that’s going to fly because we really need parking,” Hagadorn said.

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5 Takeaways From Justin Bieber’s New Album SWAG

Published

2 hours ago

July 11, 2025

Jude Noel

It’s 2025, and the buzziest underground rap stars are rocking #BEENTRILL snapbacks while unironically penning Tumblr love stories. A Playboi Carti song built around a sample of Rich Kidz’s “Bend Over” spent two weeks on the Billboard Hot 100. And, on Thursday afternoon, Justin Bieber announced that his 7th studio album, succinctly titled SWAG, would be released at midnight. Is it safe to declare it a kushandlyrikz summer?

Bieber seems to have been preparing for one, spending the past few months hitting the studio with Lil B, sparking up to classic Clams Casino beats, and hopping on Instagram Live to preview raw, improvisational snippets over minimalist beats that wouldn’t be out of place on a MySpace-era Soulja Boy mixtape. Though recording sessions for SWAG reportedly concluded in April, it’s not unlikely that its sudden release was influenced by the cultural ubiquity of his awkward and appropriative, yet admittedly iconic catchphrase, “It’s not clocking to you that I’m standing on business,” levied at paparazzi in mid-June. Best to unlock the swag while the iron’s hot.

Despite its title, however, SWAG is free of any sounds even vaguely reminiscent of the ringtone era. Instead, he’s enlisted producers Eddie Benjamin and Carter Lang to provide much of the record’s ’80s-inspired, reverb-laden backing, tapping Mk.gee and Dijon to lend some experimental edge. Compared to Bieber’s previous outings, there’s a distinct emphasis on organic textures and acoustic guitar, aiming for raw intimacy and stadium, or maybe megachurch-sized hooks at the same time. Here are five takeaways from the album.

Sophisti-pop SWAG

SWAG’s production is often cavernous, though not quite in the polished, neon-lit vein of a Weeknd album. Instead, there’s a focus on dusty timbres, blown-out drums, and live instrumentation, all echoing into infinity. Mk.gee’s fingerprints are felt throughout, even when he’s not explicitly credited as a track’s producer, with technically intricate guitar lines weaving through the mix. “First Place” pairs compressed, distorted drum programming with synth leads that would sound at home in an abandoned shopping mall food court, while “Daisies” leans fully into guitar-heavy blue-eyed soul. “Go Baby” occasionally resembles contemporary Bon Iver records with its watery keys and dreamy vocal stacks, which isn’t a huge surprise given their shared collaborator in Dijon.

Cinematic Collabs

Even SWAG’s marquee collaborations with rappers are subject to the moody, spacious sound palette, to strange and inventive effect. On “Way It Is,” Gunna waxes romantic about designer shopping sprees over Vangelis-esque pads, and there’s a definite charm to hearing Sexyy Red’s freaked-out verse echo into an expanse of cinematic synth work. A late-album team-up with Cash Cobain borders on chillwave with its clattering snare rolls and washed-out arpeggios. And is Eddie Benjamin doing a baby-voiced Carti impression on that same track?

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‘Scrubs’ is coming back – with its original stars

Published

2 hours ago

July 11, 2025

Issy Ronald

CNN
—

The hit medical sitcom “Scrubs” is getting a reboot, and its original stars are on board.

ABC, the network that aired the show’s final two seasons, has ordered another season of the show, it confirmed to CNN on Friday. The new series will be broadcast in 2025-2026, outlets including The Hollywood Reporter and Variety reported on Thursday.

Over on Instagram, the show’s leading trio – Zach Braff, Sarah Chalke and Donald Faison – all posted about the show’s revival, and ABC confirmed their involvement as both actors and executive producers.

Braff – who played daydream-prone protagonist J.D. Dorian – posted his own rendition of the “Scrubs” theme song, tweaking the lyrics to: “I can’t do this all on my own. I need Sarah Chalke and Donald Faison.”

Faison and Chalke both posted throwback photos of the trio with the caption “Hello again,” and “YAY!!!!,” respectively.

“Scrubs” ran for nine seasons between 2001-2010 and told the story of Dorian, a young doctor working at the fictional Sacred Heart Hospital.

His best friend from college, Christopher Duncan Turk, played by Faison, and his on-off love interest Elliot Reid, portrayed by Chalke, are fellow doctors at the hospital.

In the revival, “JD and Turk scrub together for the first time in a long time,” according to a synopsis shared with CNN.

“Medicine has changed, interns have changed, but their bromance has stood the test of time. Characters new and old navigate the waters of Sacred Heart with laughter, heart and some surprises along the way.”

The show’s creator, Bill Lawrence, who later went on to co-create “Ted Lasso” and “Shrinking,” has been teasing the idea of a reboot for years.

“We’re definitely going to do it, just because we’ve all been enjoying hanging out,” he told LadBible in August last year.

“I think we’ll figure it out in the next six months or so what we want to do,” he added.

In a statement sent to CNN on Friday, Lawrence said: “‘Scrubs’ means so very much to me. So excited for the chance to get the band back together.”

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Wimbledon men’s semifinals: Live updates, highlights as Jannik Sinner, Novak Djokovic seek bid to the final

Published

3 hours ago

July 11, 2025

Yahoo Sports Staff

World No. 1 Jannik Sinner and No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz are each one win away from meeting in the Wimbledon final, just over a month after their legendary duel at Roland-Garros crown in June. However, they have No. 6 Novak Djokovic and No. 5 Taylor Fritz, respectively, standing in their way in the semifinals on Friday.

Sinner and Djokovic will face each other in the semifinals again after the top-seeded Italian eliminated the 24-time Grand Slam winner in three sets at the French Open. Sinner has yet to drop a set at Wimbledon as he looks to avenge his championship loss to Alcaraz last month. Djokovic, 38, continues to age like fine wine as he scraped his way to the semifinal over the last week and a half.

Djokovic has won six of the last 10 Wimbledon men’s singles titles, while Alcaraz emerged victorious each of the past two years, beating the Serbian veteran both times.

Alcaraz will face a familiar foe either way should he reach the final, but he first has to get past Fritz. The American has been on a fiery path at Wimbledon, with each match seeing a fourth set, minus a walkover against Jordan Thompson in the round of 16.

Fritz will look to play spoiler for the rest of the semifinalists and get his second straight title after winning the Lexus Westbourne Open in June.