{"id":4428,"date":"2026-06-30T15:06:54","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T15:06:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=4428"},"modified":"2026-06-30T15:06:54","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T15:06:54","slug":"fossil-kept-in-drawer-for-decades-turns-out-to-be-first-ever-antarctica-dinosaur-bone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=4428","title":{"rendered":"Fossil kept in drawer for decades turns out to be first ever Antarctica dinosaur bone"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n 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.\n <\/p>

Read more Supreme Court lifts Watergate-era caps on campaign spending<\/a><\/p>\n

\n 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, according to a statement from London\u2019s Natural History Museum on Monday.\n <\/p>\n

\n After multiple decades in storage, it was spotted by Mark Evans, a palaeontologist and manager of the geological collections at the BAS.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt looks unusual, I just needed to make sure it was what I thought it was,\u201d Evans told CNN on Tuesday.\n <\/p>\n

\n The fossil belonged to a Titanosaur, a group of long-necked herbivorous sauropods that includes the largest dinosaurs that ever lived.\n <\/p>\n

\n They had a standard weight of 15 metric tons (16.5 US tons), according to the Natural History Museum. The largest known specimen was estimated to be 37 meters (about 121 feet) long and weighed about 63.5 metric tons (70 US tons).\n <\/p>\n

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\nThe fossil is a vertebra belonging to a Titanosaur.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Lucie Goodayle\/The Natural History Museum<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n However, this particular vertebra, which measures around 10 centimeters (four inches) in diameter, belongs to a juvenile or small adult that would have been around six to seven meters (20-23 feet) long, according to the statement.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThis 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,\u201d said study coauthor Matthew C. Lamanna, Mary R. Dawson curator in vertebrate paleontology at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, in the statement.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cAt 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,\u201d said Paul Barrett, merit researcher at the Natural History Museum, in the statement.\n <\/p>\n

\n The dinosaur it belonged to lived around 82 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous period.\n <\/p>\n

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\nThe fossil had been in a drawer for decades.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Lucie Goodayle\/The Natural History Museum<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n \u201cAt the time this animal lived, we know Antarctica would have (been) covered in lush temperate forest providing ample food for large herbivores,\u201d said Barrett.\n <\/p>\n

\n The ice that currently covers most of the continent means that it has a sparse fossil record, but that may change in the future, he said.\n <\/p>

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\n \u201cThere are likely many more dinosaurs to be discovered on the continent. As climate change causes ice to retreat we may indeed find further evidence of this past biodiversity,\u201d Barrett added.\n <\/p>\n

\n The research also advances our understanding of how dinosaurs moved around the southern continents, according to study coauthor Samantha Beeston, a palaeontology doctoral student at University College London.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cDuring 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,\u201d Beeston said in the statement.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u2018Outsized importance\u2019\n<\/h2>\n

\n Roy Smith, a lecturer in vertebrate palaeontology at the University of Portsmouth, England, who was not involved in the research, said that the find is a \u201cwonderful reminder\u201d about the importance of scientific collections.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cAlthough this fossil is only a single vertebra, its significance is immense,\u201d he told CNN in an email Tuesday.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cAs the first dinosaur fossil discovered in Antarctica, it provides crucial evidence for understanding how dinosaurs dispersed across the southern continents and demonstrates that these remarkable animals inhabited every continent on Earth,\u201d said Smith.\n <\/p>\n

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\nThe skeleton of the ‘Trinity’ Tyrannosaurus Rex pictured during a visit to the Sauriermuseum Aathal dinosaur museum in Seegraben, canton of Zurich, Switzerland on Monday 22 January 2024. Belgian businessman Huts and his companies Katoen Natie and Indaver bought the skeleton of the ‘Trinity’ Tyrannosaurus Rex for 5.6 million euros, to display it at the Boerentoren tower in the near future. BELGA PHOTO ERIC LALMAND (Photo by ERIC LALMAND \/ BELGA MAG \/ Belga via AFP) (Photo by ERIC LALMAND\/BELGA MAG\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Eric Lalmand\/Belga Mag\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\nWhy did T. rex have tiny arms? A new study may finally have the answer<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

6 min read<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

\n \u201cIt also highlights the enduring scientific value of carefully curated museum collections, which continue to yield extraordinary discoveries decades after specimens are first collected,\u201d he added.\n <\/p>\n

\n Steve Brusatte, a professor of paleontology and evolution at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, who was not involved in the research, told CNN that this is a \u201ccool discovery.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe know very very little about the dinosaurs that once lived on Antarctica,\u201d he said Tuesday. \u201cThis is just a single incomplete bone, but it has outsized importance.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n A paper on the fossil has been published in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica.\n<\/p>

Read more The next test of the democratic socialist movement and other key races to watch in Colorado\u2019s primaries<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4423,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-paleontology","category-science","category-unearthed"],"yoast_head":"\nFossil kept in drawer for decades turns out to be first ever Antarctica dinosaur bone - Relocation Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=4428\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fossil kept in drawer for decades turns out to be first ever Antarctica dinosaur bone - 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