Massive Dinosaur bone (Photo Credit: Twitter)
Dinosaurs existed on the Earth existed during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago. Although, the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is the subject of active research. Recently, Paleontologists have unearthed a 140-million-year-old Dinosaur bone, 6.5 feet in length, weighing 1,100 pounds in southwestern France. The thigh bone of the largest animal was discovered in Charente.
Soon after the discovery, Scientists hailed it as a "major discovery". In an interview with Reuters, Ronan Allain, a paleontologist at the National History Museum of Paris said that this is a major discovery. “I was especially amazed by the state of preservation of that femur,” he added.
"These are animals that probably weighed 40 to 50 tonnes." Allain told France's Le Parisien newspaper that, as well as the bone's size, its state of preservation was also impressive. "We can see the insertions of muscles and tendons and scars. This is rare for big pieces which tend to collapse in on themselves and fragment," he added.
Coming back to the two-metre-long femur, it was found by French palaeontologists at an excavation site in the southwest of the country where remains of some of the largest animals that ever lived on land have been dug up in recent years.
The massive bone was found in a thick layer of clay. According to the experts, the bone belongs to sauropod, a plant-eating dinosaur with a long neck and tail, which was widespread in the late Jurassic era - more than 140 million years ago. Interestingly, a large pelvic bone was also found nearby.
It is worth mentioning here that over 7,500 fossils of more than 40 different species has been discovered since 2010 in Charente.