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A man walking his dog found a bone, which turned out to be a 70-million-year-old dinosaur bone from a nearly complete dinosaur fossil.
Damien Boschetto, a 25-year-old French man, came across a bone two years ago while walking in a forest near Montouliers. He reported his discovery to local researchers from the Cultural, Archaeological and Paleontological Association (ACAP) of Cruzy. They discovered that the bone was part of a 30-foot-long fossilized titanosaur. This dinosaur walked the earth more than 70 million years ago.
“It happened one morning like any other, during a normal walk,” Boschetto told local newspaper FranceBleu. “While I was walking the dog, a landslide on the edge of the cliff revealed the bones of several skeletons. They were fallen bones, therefore isolated. After a few days of excavations we realized that they were connected bones,” he added .
The researchers found that the fossils were about 70 percent complete. It belonged to the titanosaur family of dinosaurs that roamed the Earth during the Cretaceous period. It took a few million years before dinosaurs became extinct from Earth.
Titanosaurs included the dinosaurs brachiosaurus and diplodocus. They were huge creatures with long necked dinosaurs that were believed to be the largest land animals that ever lived.
Additionally, they were herbivores that could reach up to 100 feet or more with their elongated necks and tails. “They probably all died at the same time, in a flash flood,” Boschetto said. “We see traces of bites from crocodiles or carnivores.”
These dinosaurs had robust vertebrae. It allowed them to reach towering heights while grazing on vegetation.
Paleontologists kept this discovery secret for two years. They were worried that people would come to the site and damage the bones. ACAP volunteers slowly extracted the titanosaur fossil, which was recently brought to the Cruzy museum.
“In France, in the Upper Cretaceous, it is very rare, to find this, he (Boschetto) had to have the ‘eye’. Some have passed for 30 years and have not seen this place,” said museum founder Francis Fage.
“It is an emblematic piece for the general public to be able to admire a dinosaur in automatic connection like that,” he said.
Since the discovery, Boschetto left his job in the energy sector and intends to pursue a master’s degree in paleontology.
(With contributions from agencies)