A 10-meter-long bone belonging to a titanosaurus found in a French forest

An incredible discovery fell into the hands of 25-year-old amateur paleontologist Damien Boschetto during a routine walk with his dog in the woods in southern France. Among the natural scenery, he accidentally came across a giant bone peeking out of the ground near the edge of a cliff.

Further research revealed that this 10-meter-long fossil was part of the skeleton of a titanosaurus, a member of a genus of long-necked sauropods that flourished at the end of the Cretaceous period about 66 million years ago. Boschetto says that everything happened like a normal dog walk, until an earthquake exposed the giant bones of various skeletons. This is reported by Futurism.

The amateur reported the discovery to a local cultural association specializing in archaeology and paleontology. Experts were amazed by the uniqueness of the discovery - thanks to the almost original anatomical arrangement of the bones, they will be able to present the anatomical features of these prehistoric animals to the general public.

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According to Jean-Marc Weissier, a member of the association, the most exciting thing is that scientists have obtained an anatomically complete skeleton of a titanosaurus, a long-necked sauropod animal. The area where the fossils were found is now called the "bone bed" because of the numerous bones and other paleontological finds. In addition to Titanosaurus, the remains of a herbivorous rhabdodon and carnivorous theropods were found here.

Researchers estimate the preservation of the Titanosaurus skeleton at 70%. Interestingly, these sauropods were one of the largest dinosaurs of the Cretaceous period, with a length of up to 25 meters from head to tail. Although the remains of titanosaurs have been found in other parts of Europe before, this fossil is remarkable for its almost intact condition - scientists even managed to find some connective tissue.

As a reminder, the "living magic carpet" turned out to be a deep-sea worm.

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