A 6-Foot-Long Bone of 'World's Biggest Dinosaur' Found in France
The femur of a 140-million years old dinosaur, known as Sauropod was found in Angeac -Charante, France. Yes, yes, it belongs to one of the dinosaurs we saw in the famous ‘Jurassic Park’ movie. However, it is still unclear if the remains belong to Brachiosaurus or Brontosaurus, or any other category of Sauropod.
The bone is 6.5 foot long and weighs around 1,100 pounds, and the fact that it was discovered at one of the most ancient locations of France confirms that there is a definite possibility that the bone belongs to one of these giant creatures that walked on the planet thousands of years ago.
It is a great discovery for paleontologists, who are still not done with their research on the femur. The insertion of muscles and tendons, and scars is clearly visible to the paleontologists.
“I was especially amazed by the state of preservation of that femur,” says Ronan Allain, a paleontologist at the National History of Museum of Paris. “This is rare for big pieces which tend to collapse in on themselves and fragment,” he adds.
"This femur is huge! And in an exceptional state of conservation. It's very moving,” Jean-François Tournepiche, curator at the Museum of Angouleme told a source.
None of us can go back to that ‘Land Lost in Time,’ but we sure can learn more about Sauropods.
To begin with, Sauropods are the largest herbivores dinosaurs known to mankind. They were first seen in the late Triassic era. They are also the largest creatures that walked on the planet Earth.
These dinosaurs had very long necks and tails but their heads were comparatively small. Even though, they were better equipped for living on land, these giant dinosaurs spent most of their time wallowing in the water. Some people also compare them to modern-day giraffes.
The most amazing feature of these dinosaurs was that they could grow to the length of 112 feet. Isn’t that amazing? Researches also say that they walked on Earth 150 million years ago. They were last seen during the Cretaceous Period.
Interestingly, Angeac-Charante is an excavation site where a group of paleontologists had found another femur of the same size, in 2010. Apart from that, more than 7,000 fossils have been found in this area from 40 different species of the dinosaurs.
Currently, a team of 70 paleontologists and scientists are working on the vineyards at the Charente area, near the town of Cognac. Remains of Stegosauruses and Ostrich dinosaurs have been found in the area as well.
The bones of dinosaurs have been in almost every continent of the world. Now, scientists are even working on putting together a Sauropod, along with bones, fossils and vertebrates. The team told a source that the skeleton structure is half way through, and the work will progress whenever a new bone or fossil is excavated from the site.
Well, we can’t wait to see the finished structure of the Sauropod. Here’s wishing the team all the luck they need.
