Not quite Jurassic Park: Gettysburg vandal tries, and fails, to nab dinosaur track fossil

An attempted theft of a Jurassic dinosaur fossil from a battlefield may sound like the plot of a Nicolas Cage movie, but one such incident has led park officials in Gettysburg to ask for the public’s help in solving the crime.

In the second act of vandalism in two weeks at the park, officials issued a release seeking the public’s help after an apparent failed attempt to steal a Jurassic-era dinosaur fossil from the park, according to a release.

The vandalism took place at the South Confederate Avenue Bridge in the park, commonly known to park visitors as the “dinosaur bridge” because of one of the capstones containing a fossilized track of an Anchisauripus, a dinosaur that lived during the Jurassic period between 201 million to 145 million years ago.

In the release, park officials said that the vandalism is believed to have occurred on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025, and was discovered around 1:30 p.m. that day by park maintenance staff.

Staff in the area at that time discovered the large bridge capstone, which contains the fossil, missing from the bridge, and then located the capstone below the bridge among Plum Run.

According to the release, evidence shows that a “heavy object” was used to strike the capstone and pry it off of the bridge, which then led to the stone falling from the bridge during the attempted removal.

The large capstone measures approximately 30 inches long, 18 inches wide, and 4 inches thick.

Despite the vandalism and fall, the Anchisauripus track fossil was unharmed, officials said, and is now safely in park custody while the investigation is ongoing.

Park officials asked that anyone with any potential information on the attempted theft or suspicious activity contact the park at Gett_Superintendent@nps.gov or through the park’s “e-mail us” contact form.

On the National Park Service’s website, a photogrammetric capture of the fossilized tracks provides visitors with an opportunity to view a 3D rendering of the fossilized track, which was discovered after the bridge was built using quarried stone during the 1930s.

In the page sharing that rendering, the park service notes that fossilized tracks are “potential targets for vandalism, including poor attempts to make molds or casts, and loss from unauthorized collection.”

Second act of vandalism in two weeks

The attempted theft of the dinosaur fossil on Sept. 25 came within two weeks of another incident of vandalism at the battlefield, where officials said a man carved letters into a bronze plaque at the 12th and 44th New York Infantry Regiments monument on Little Round Top.

A photograph of the alleged suspect, taken by a witness, was provided in that news release. As of Sept. 30, 2025, an update had not been provided on whether the suspect in that incident had been identified.

Vandalism is an ongoing problem for the battlefield, including two separate incidents that were reported in August of 2024 which followed earlier vandalism at the beginning of 2024.