BIG DINOSAUR, “TINY” MONIKER

The triceratops recently unearthed in Thornton officially has a name: Tiny.

Students at Brantner Elementary School in Thornton selected the name, which was announced by the Denver Museum of Nature & Science in celebration of National Fossil Day, which was Wednesday.

The school is located across a field from where the dinosaur was discovered Aug. 25 by construction workers working on the city of Thornton’s new Public Safety building.

About 80 percent of Tiny’s skull and at least 15 percent of its skeleton were recovered, making it the most complete Cretaceous Period fossil discovered in Colorado. A tooth from a scavenging T. rex was also found among the fossils.

Museum visitors can watch workers clean Tiny’s fossils in the museum’s paleo lab. — Danika Worthington,