The thigh bone of a giant dinosaur has been found by paleontologists working at a site in the Charente in south west France.
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| The bone was discovered earlier in the week during excavations at the palaeontological site of Angeac-Charente near Châteauneuf-sur- Charente, southwestern France [Credit: Georges Gobet/AFP] |
The two-metre long femur, which weighs half a tonne, was found in 140 million-year-old former marshland now in the vineyards around Cognac.
The Angeac-Charente excavation site is unique in Europe and 7,500 bones belonging to 45 different dinosaur species have been found there since scientists first began excavating it in 2010.
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| The femur weighs approximately 500 kilos [Credit: Georges Gobet/AFP] |
The thigh bone is thought to have belonged to a sauropod, a herbivorous dinosaur believed to be the largest animal that ever walked the earth.
Jean-François Tournepiche, curator at the Angouleme Museum, said: «This femur is huge! And in an exceptional state of conservation. It’s very moving.»
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| The enormous bone probably belonged to a sauropod [Credit: Georges Gobet/AFP] |
Ronan Allain, paleontologist at the Natural History Museum in Paris, added: «We can see the insertions of muscles and tendons, scars.
«This is a very rare find as large pieces tend to collapse on themselves, to fragment.»
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| A large pelvis bone was also uncovered at the site [Credit: Georges Gobet/AFP] |
Over the last decade, scientists have managed to reconstitute more than 50 percent of a sauropod using several individuals discovered at Angeac.
Source: The Local [July 25, 2019]
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