2024-03-08 11:06:00
(CNN) — A discovery in southern France has revealed a rare specimen: a nearly complete dinosaur skeleton that is connected from the back skull to the tail.
The huge fossil was discovered in May 2022, after amateur paleontologist Damien Boschetto, now 25, and his dog stumbled upon something unusual while walking through a forest in Montouliers, France. Boschetto had noticed the edge of a cliff that had recently collapsed and decided to take a closer look when he saw an exposed bone sticking out of the ground, local media outlet France Bleu reported on February 13.
The Archaeological and Paleontological Cultural Association of the Cruzy Museum, in collaboration with the French National Center for Scientific Research, identified the almost 10-meter-long fossil as a titanosaur skeleton during the excavation. Boschetto, who has been a member of the association for eight years, told CNN that while unearthing dinosaur remains is “always exciting and interesting for scientific research and understanding of the ecosystems of that time,” having found the bones in his almost original anatomical position is what makes this find extraordinary.
“From a museographic point of view, it will allow almost complete animals to be presented to the general public in anatomical positions, which is a great thing,” Boschetto added by email.
The huge fossil was discovered in May 2022, when the edge of a collapsed cliff left a bone exposed. Credit: Damián Boschetto
A group of history and archeology enthusiasts created the Archaeological and Paleontological Cultural Association in 1975 to safeguard the heritage of the town of Cruzy, and several of its members became fans of paleontology thanks to the wealth of dinosaur fossils from the area, said Jean-Marc Veyssières, a member of the group and one of the fossil preparers of this discovery. Today, the association is made up of inhabitants of the region, including some scientists and students.
“The most exciting thing was realizing that we had at least one anatomically connected animal and that it was a titanosaur, a long-necked dinosaur,” Veyssières said in an email. “(Boschetto) is a brilliant and curious nature enthusiast, he spends a lot of time exploring the region in search of new areas. (…) He became an expert on the fauna of the Upper Cretaceous of our region.”
The association has been excavating the site, which Boschetto referred to as a “bed of bones,” a term used by paleontologists to describe a dense area of animal bones and other fossilized remains, for the past two years. And the newly announced find was not Boschetto’s first discovery.
During the excavation, 70% of the entire titanosaur skeleton was recovered, and it was recently revealed along with other fossils of various dinosaurs and vertebrates, including some with anatomical connection and almost complete. Other identified remains included those of a Rhabdodon (a herbivore, like titanosaur) and fragments of skeletons of carnivores such as theropods and crocodiles, according to Boschetto.
The titanosaur skeleton currently resides in the Cruzy Museum’s laboratory, where it will be studied further, Veyssières said.
Damien Boschetto (left) and Jean-Marc Veyssières (right) are members of the Archaeological and Paleontological Cultural Association of the Cruzy Museum, where the fossil is currently preserved. Credit: Damián Boschetto
Intact titanosaur
The researchers estimated the age of the newly discovered fossil to be between 70 and 72 million years old, but titanosaurs roamed on four legs from the Late Jurassic to the end of the Cretaceous period, about 163.5 to 66 million years ago. Titanosaurs belong to a larger group of dinosaurs known as sauropods, a family of long-necked herbivores that were some of the largest dinosaurs of their time, according to Britannica.
Fossil remains of titanosaurs are found widely in Europe, but few are discovered in anatomical connection, Boschetto said. Finding a skeleton in this connected state suggests that the body was buried before it completely decomposed, leaving “some tissue that connects the bones to each other,” said Matthew Carrano, research geologist and curator of Dinosauria at the National Museum of Natural History. from the Smithsonian Institution.
The integrity 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 know all the details about this new specimen, but I am sure 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 is “building one of the largest collections of Late Cretaceous dinosaurs in France,” he said. The association did not make the discovery public until excavations were completed to protect the archaeological site, he added.
The association plans to continue research on the fossils and further explore the area, and group members hope to secure funding to “create a large-scale museum that can house and present these collections,” Boschetto said.
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