The gigantic Titanosaur fossil was discovered in southern France in May 2022 by 25 year old paleontologist Damien Boschetto while walking his dog in a forest in the city of Montouliers. Boschetto noticed a recently collapsed cliff edge and decided to take a closer look, local media outlet France Bleu reported. He noticed a bone sticking out of the ground.
The Archaeological and Paleontological Cultural Association at the Cruzy Museum, in collaboration with the French National Center for Scientific Research, excavated the nearly 10 meter long (32.8 feet long) fossil and identified it as a Titanosaur skeleton. Boschetto, who has been a member of the association for eight years, said that unearthing dinosaur remains is always exciting and interesting in terms of scientific research and understanding the ecosystems of that time, with the advantage of finding the bones almost in their original anatomical position. This is what makes the find extraordinary.
“From a museum point of view, the discovery will make it possible to present to the public the anatomy of the animals almost complete, which is fantastic,” Boschetto said.
Topographer Jean-Marc Veyssières said a group of history and archaeology enthusiasts founded the Cultural Association for Archaeology and Paleontology in 1975 to preserve the heritage around the village of Cruzy, many of whose members became enlightened amateurs in paleontology because of the wealth of dinosaur fossils in the area. Today, the association is made up of local residents, including several scientists and students.
“The most exciting thing was to realize that we had at least one anatomically connected animal, and that was a titanosaur, a long necked dinosaur,” Veyssières said.
For the past two years, the association has been excavating what Boschetto and paleontologists have described as a “bone bed” with a concentration of animal bones and other fossilized remains.
In addition to the recently unearthed 70% complete Titanosaurus fossil, fossils of various dinosaurs and other vertebrates have also been found in the area. Other remains found included the remains of a herbivore, or a plant eating Rhabdodon like the Titanosaur, and skeletal fragments of carnivores such as Theropods and crocodiles.
Titanosaur skeleton is currently in the Cruzy Museum laboratory and will be studied further.
The age of the Titanosaur fossil was estimated to be around 70 to 72 million years old, but Titanosaurs roamed on all fours from the Late Jurassic Period to the end of the Cretaceous Period (about 163.5 million to 66 million years ago). Titanosaurs belong to a larger group of dinosaurs known as Sauropods, a family of long necked herbivores that were among the largest dinosaurs of their time.
Titanosaur fossil remains have been widely unearthed in Europe, but few have been discovered in their entirety, Boschetto said. “The discovery of this complete skeleton suggests that the body was buried before complete decomposition, leaving some tissue connecting the bones,” said Matthew Carrano, a research geologist at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History. “It will take time to learn all the details about this new specimen, but I am sure it will provide important new information about this group of dinosaurs.”
Boschetto said the society plans to continue research on the fossils and conduct further research in the area, and group members hope to obtain funding to create a large-scale museum that can house and present these collections.