Scientists stumbled upon the first dinosaur bone ever found in Antarctica, decades after it had been unassumingly tucked away in a drawer.
The bone, which comes from the tail of a titanosaur, was discovered in 1985 during an expedition to Antarctica’s James Ross Island led by geologist Mike Thomson — who logged it as belonging to a large reptile.
The bone was then shoved into a drawer in the geology collection of the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, the BBC reported.
Decades later, paleontologist Mark Evans rediscovered the bone and, with a team of researchers, decided to compare it with more complete dinosaur remains.
Evans’ suspicions about the bone proved correct, with scientists confirming that it belongs to a long-necked, plant-eating titanosaur.
The findings were published on Monday in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica.
Dino fossils are a rare find in Antarctica due to unforgiving ice caps, though the frigid continent was once home to lush forests.
The titanosaur whose bone was unearthed from the drawer was believed to be about 23 feet long, which is small for its group.
Scientists believe the prehistoric creature could have died young and may have floated from the coast before sinking to the seafloor and becoming fossilized in marine rock.
Thomson, who initially stumbled upon the bone, died in 2020 before it could be identified as dinosaur remains through new, innovative technology.
“If he were still with us, he would be delighted to know what this was,” Evans, the study’s co-author, told the Associated Press.
With Post wires
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