(CNN) -

Goddard Space Flight Center scientists trying to unlock secrets of the universe have had clues to the prehistoric past resting literally beneath their feet.

Dinosaur tracker Ray Stanford this summer discovered on the center's campus the apparent footprint of a nodosaur, a plant-eater that roamed suburban Washington, D.C., about 110 million years ago.

The track, almost 14 inches wide, is near a sidewalk at the Goddard complex in Greenbelt, Maryland, home to 7,000 employees engaged in astrophysics, heliophysics and planetary science.

"It is sheer poetry," Stanford told CNN on Tuesday. "It is because of the juxtaposition that evokes so much interest."

Stanford late last week gave NASA officials a firsthand look at the print, which was hiding in plain sight all these years.

"It's something that if you knew what you were looking for you would have seen," said Alan Binstock, in charge of cultural and archaeological matters at the facility. "That's what's so amazing."

A paleontologist will do a survey to confirm the find, Binstock said, and will help determine what areas on the fenced campus may need further protection.

"I said this is not the only one," Stanford said. "There has to be many here."

Officials are staying mum on the footprint's exact location.

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Apparent dinosaur track found at space flight center