Intact skeleton of unique giant dinosaur found

A chance find in the south of France has revealed a rare specimen – a nearly complete skeleton of a 70-million-year-old dinosaur found connected from the back of the skull to the tail.

The massive fossil was discovered in May 2022 after 25-year-old amateur paleontologist Damien Bochetto and his dog stumbled upon something unusual while walking through the woods in Montulier, France. Boschetto noticed the edge of a rock that had recently collapsed and decided to take a closer look when he noticed an exposed bone sticking out of the ground, CNN reported.

The Archaeological and Paleontological Cultural Association of the Crusy Museum, in collaboration with the French National Center for Scientific Research, identified the nearly 10-meter-long fossil as a titanosaur skeleton during excavations. Damien Boschetto, who has been a member of the association for eight years, told CNN that while excavating dinosaur remains is “always exciting and interesting for scientific research and understanding the ecosystems of the time,” finding the bones in their near-original anatomical position is what makes this find extraordinary.

“From a museographic point of view, this will allow the animals to be presented to the general public almost completely in anatomical position, which is something wonderful,” Boschetto added.

A group of history and archeology enthusiasts created the Archaeological and Paleontological Cultural Association in 1975 to preserve the heritage around the village of Crusy, and several of its members have become enlightened paleontology buffs because of the area’s richness in dinosaur fossils, said Jean-Marc Veissier, a member of the group and one of the fossil researchers. Today the association consists of residents of the region, including several scientists, as well as students.

“The most exciting thing was the realization that we had at least one anatomically related animal and that it was a titanosaur, a long-necked dinosaur,” Veissier said in an email. “Boschetto is an enlightened enthusiast and inquisitive man who spends a lot of time exploring the region in search of new territories… He has become an expert on the Late Cretaceous fauna of our region.”

The association has been excavating the site, which Boschetto called a bone bed – a term used by paleontologists to describe a dense accumulation of animal bones and other fossilized remains – for the past two years. And the recently announced find was not Boschetto’s first.

The newly discovered 70% complete titanosaur skeleton was recovered during the excavation along with several fossils of various dinosaurs and other vertebrates, including some that are anatomically related and nearly complete. Other remains identified included those of Rhabdodon, a herbivore or herbivore similar to a titanosaur, and skeletal fragments of carnivores such as theropods and crocodiles, Boschetto said.

According to Veissières, the skeleton of the titanosaur is currently in the laboratory of the Crusy Museum, where it will be subjected to further study.

Researchers estimated the age of the newly discovered fossil to be about 70-72 million years old, but titanosaurs walked on four legs from the late Jurassic era to the end of the Cretaceous period, approximately 163.5 to 66 million years ago. Titanosaurs belong to a larger group of dinosaurs known as sauropods, a family of long-necked plant-eaters that were among the largest dinosaurs of their time, Britannica reports.

Titanosaur fossils have been widely discovered in Europe, but few are related to anatomy, Boschetto said. Finding the skeleton in such a bound state suggests the body was buried before it was completely decomposed, leaving behind “some tissue connecting the bones to each other,” said Matthew Carrano, a research geologist and curator of dinosaurs at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. Institute.

The completeness of the specimen “will make it easier to determine whether it is a new species or a new specimen of a species that is already known,” Carrano said in an email. “It will take time to learn all the details about this new specimen, but I am confident that it will provide important new information about this group of dinosaurs.”

The region where Boschetto discovered the specimen is known to be rich in fossils of dinosaurs and other species that lived at the same time, and “creates one of the largest collections of Upper Cretaceous dinosaurs in France,” he said. The association did not make the discovery public until the excavation was completed to protect the archaeological site, he added.

The association plans to continue fossil research and exploration in the area, and group members hope to obtain funds to “create a large-scale museum that can house and display these collections,” Boschetto said.