A Frenchman found a dinosaur fossil while walking his dog | Top Vip News

World News

By Alyssa Guzman

A Frenchman was out for a daily walk with his dog Muffin when they stumbled upon a 70 million-year-old dinosaur fossil that took two years to unearth.

Damien Boschetto and Muffin were walking in the forests of Montouliers, in the south of France, near their home, when the paleontology enthusiast discovered bones protruding from the cliff in 2022. according to CBS news.

The bones belonged to an almost complete skeleton of a long-necked titanosaur, told ABC News.

“It happened one morning like any other, during a random walk,” he told the outlet. “The territory around Cruzy is rich in fossils of dinosaurs and other species that lived at the same time.”

He said it was “rare” to discover skeletons in France and Europe and that their discovery took two years to unearth.

The excavation found the skeleton was 70% complete and approximately 30 feet long, ABC News reported.

“They were fallen bones, therefore isolated. After a few days of digging we realized they were connected bones,” she said.

While the two-year project was underway, Boschetto and members of the Archaeological and Paleontological Cultural Association kept their discovery a secret to protect the site from curious onlookers and those who wanted to loot it.

They removed the bones over several 10-day periods, according to CBS News.

The skeleton will now be visible at the Cruzy Museum and Boschetto hopes the public will come to “admire a dinosaur.”

Francis Fage, founder of the Cruzy Museum, told local media that Boschetto was lucky to have seen the bones to begin with and that he had an “eye” for dinosaur research, according to ABC News.

“It’s very rare to find this, you had to be careful,” Fage said. “There are some who have passed by 30 years ago and have not seen this place.”

Since the fateful discovery, Boschetto quit his job in the energy sector and now hopes to earn a master’s degree in paleontology to continue his work at the museum, according to ABC News.

Titanosaurs roamed the Earth between 145 and 163 million years ago during the Cretaceous period. It is the largest known land animal and some grew to the size of modern whales. according to the British.

Titanosaur fossils have been found on every continent except Antarctica.