A construction worker installing pipeline in Alberta, Canada never thought he’d find this —

“A huge dinosaur fossil. Come and take a look, it’s believed to be the tail of a 35-foot dinosaur.” (Via HLN)

CBC reports a backhoe operator was working on a pipeline when the shovel broke off a piece of what he thought was a rock.

He laid the piece aside and got back inside the backhoe to keep working. That’s when he saw he’d actually chipped the end of a massive fossil. (Via WRAL)

The construction company immediately stopped work on the site, and the tale of the tail soon reached a group of paleontologists who went out to take a look. (Via WTOL)

One of the men who inspected the find told CNN, “The last time I've seen something like that was in a museum. I’ve never found something like this before.”

They believe the rest of the dino may be deeper underground, but they’ll have to do some more careful excavation to find out for sure.

From what they’ve seen, paleontologists believe the animal was at least 35 feet long. (Via WTOL)

Paleontologists say if the construction worker had kept digging, the fragile fossil might have been destroyed. Workers are racing to remove the tail from the ground before the weather gets colder, but the process could still reportedly take weeks at the very least.

- See more at Newsy.com