Antarctic dinosaur tail bone identified after decades in storage

Scientists have confirmed that a bone stored for decades in a British Antarctic Survey drawer belongs to a titanosaur, a long-necked, plant-eating dinosaur. The vertebra, measuring about 23 feet (7 meters) in length, was originally collected in 1985 by geologist Mike Thomson during a mapping expedition on James Ross Island. Thomson recorded the specimen as a large reptile, but it was not re-examined until paleontologist Mark Evans noticed it in the collection and suggested it might be dinosaur material. Subsequent analysis by Evans and other researchers compared the bone’s shape with known dinosaur fossils, leading to its identification. The discovery was published in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica.

Titanosaur fossils are exceptionally scarce in Antarctica because the continent is now covered by thick ice. However, during the Cretaceous period the region supported forested environments, according to study co-author Paul Barrett of the Natural History Museum in London. The bone likely belonged to a juvenile individual; researchers speculate the animal’s carcass may have drifted offshore and become buried in marine sediment.

Thomson, who died in 2020, never learned of the fossil’s true nature. Evans said that Thomson would have been pleased to know the bone’s significance.