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Titanosaur tail bone identified as first dinosaur fossil found in Antarctica
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Titanosaur tail bone identified as first dinosaur fossil found in Antarctica
A fossil collected in 1985 and stored for decades has been confirmed as the first dinosaur bone ever discovered on the Antarctic continent.
- The fossil, a tail vertebra from a Titanosaur, was unearthed on James Ross Island in 1985 and kept in the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) collection.
- BAS collections manager Dr Mark Evans recently spotted the bone and identified it as dinosaur-like, then called in Natural History Museum paleontologist Prof Paul Barrett for confirmation.
- Prof Paul Barrett stated the vertebra's ball-and-socket joint shape is unique to Titanosaurs and that the animal lived about 82 million years ago when Antarctica was forested.
- The identification has been published in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica.
Topicsantarctic researchnatural historyPaleontologydinosaursBiologyzoologygeologyevolutionanatomyScienceantarcticafossil discoveries
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