- A man in France waited two years to announce that he had found a nearly intact 70-million-year-old titanosaur skeleton
- Damien Boschetto was walking his dog Muffin near his home in Cruzy, a village in the south of France, in May 2022 when he made a rare discovery
- Now the approximately 30-foot-long skeleton is on public display at the Cruzy Museum
A man in France went for a walk with his dog and found a nearly intact 70 million year old titanosaur skeleton!
Damien Boschetto found parts of the massive fossil in May 2022, while walking his dog Muffin in the woods of Montouliers, near his home in Cruzy, a village in southern France, according to ABC News and The Washington Post.
Local media outlet France Bleu first reported the discovery last month.
“It happened one morning like any other, during an ordinary walk,” Boschetto told the paper. While I was walking the dog, a landslide at the edge of the cliff revealed the bones of various skeletons.
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The amateur paleontologist waited until now to announce his big discovery so the site where officials unearthed the skeleton would remain safe from looters and other onlookers, he told ABC News.
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Boschetto, 25, and members of the Archaeological and Paleontological Cultural Association (ACAP) at the Cruzy Museum worked to unearth the skeleton over a two-year period, Fast reported.
The type of herbivorous dinosaur that Boschetto found was known for having very long necks. They lived during the Cretaceous period, which lasted from 145 million to 66 million years ago Fast.
French, who has since left his job in the energy sector to pursue a master’s degree in paleontology, told CNN that finding the 30-foot-long fossil in its original anatomical position is “always exciting and interesting for scientific research.”
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Now the fossil is on public display at the Cruzy Museum.
“These discoveries are interesting from a scientific point of view because they contribute to the understanding of Late Cretaceous species and ecosystems in France and Europe,” museum director Francis Fages told Fast.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education