Scientists have discovered a rare dinosaur fossil from Antarctica, a titanosaur. The bone comes from the tail of a long-necked, plant-eating dinosaur.

Dinosaur Fossil Discovery

The fossil was discovered in 1985 during an expedition to Antarctica’s James Ross Island and collected by geologist Mike Thomson. Decades later, paleontologist Mark Evans spotted the bone in the British Antarctic Survey’s collections and wondered whether it might be a dinosaur.

Evans and other researchers analyzed the shape of the bone and compared it to other more complete dinosaur remains, confirming their discovery. The findings were published in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica.

Dinosaur fossils are rare to find in Antarctica because of the unforgiving ice caps. But millions of years ago, when this dinosaur lived, the region was populated by lush forests — a ‘rather different and much more hospitable place than we think of today,’ said study co-author Paul Barrett with the Natural History Museum in London.

Original reporting: Texarkana Gazette — read the source article.