First Antarctic dinosaur bone identified from decades-old specimen

A vertebra recovered by a British Antarctic Survey expedition in 1985 has been re-identified as the first dinosaur bone found on Antarctica. The fossil, long held in the Natural History Museum’s collection, was re-examined by BAS palaeontologist Mark Evans, who noted its unusual features and confirmed it as a sauropod vertebra.

The bone belongs to a titanosaur, a group of long-necked herbivorous dinosaurs, and measures about 10 cm in diameter. Researchers estimate it came from a juvenile or small adult that would have been roughly six to seven metres long and lived around 82 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous.

"This bone sat in a collection drawer for decades until new research revealed it for what it was: rare evidence that long-necked sauropod dinosaurs once lived in Antarctica," said Matthew C. Lamanna, curator at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

"At first glance this appears to be an unremarkable fossil, but it holds an important place in the history of Antarctic exploration as the first dinosaur fossil found on the continent," added Paul Barrett, researcher at the Natural History Museum.

Barrett noted that Antarctica at the time was covered by temperate forests, providing ample food for large herbivores. He suggested that continued ice melt could expose further fossils, expanding knowledge of the continent’s prehistoric biodiversity.

The find also supports theories of dinosaur dispersal across the southern continents when Antarctica was part of the supercontinent Gondwana, allowing relatives to move between South America and Australia, according to Samantha Beeston, a doctoral student at University College London.

External experts highlighted the discovery’s significance for understanding dinosaur distribution and underscored the value of well-maintained museum collections.