A fossil that was sitting in a collection drawer for decades has been found to belong to the first dinosaur remains ever discovered in Antarctica. The vertebra or backbone was found in 1985 by a British Antarctic Survey (BAS) expedition, but was initially assessed as belonging to a large reptile.
Discovery and Significance
The fossil belonged to a Titanosaur, a group of long-necked herbivorous sauropods that includes the largest dinosaurs that ever lived. This particular vertebra, which measures around 10 centimeters in diameter, belongs to a juvenile or small adult that would have been around six to seven meters long.
The dinosaur it belonged to lived around 82 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous period. At the time this animal lived, Antarctica would have been covered in lush temperate forest providing ample food for large herbivores.
The research also advances our understanding of how dinosaurs moved around the southern continents. During the Cretaceous when this animal lived, Antarctica formed part of the supercontinent of Gondwana, and this new find shows that its close relatives travelled between South America and Australia via Antarctica.
Original reporting: KEYT (Ventura/Santa Barbara) — read the source article.
