Antarctica’s first dinosaur fossil found after 40 years in UK museum drawer

The tail vertebra, unearthed in 1985 and misidentified as a marine reptile, has been confirmed as belonging to a titanosaur.

A fossil that lay forgotten in a drawer for nearly 40 years has been identified as the first dinosaur bone ever discovered in Antarctica, BBC reported. 

Unearthed on James Ross Island in December 1985, the specimen was stored in the British Antarctic Survey’s geology collection in Cambridge after researchers were unable to identify it. It was recently re-examined by palaeontologists, who confirmed it is a tail vertebra from a titanosaur, a group that included the largest dinosaurs to walk the Earth. Collections manager Dr Mark Evans recognised the fossil's distinctive features and sought confirmation from Professor Paul Barrett of the Natural History Museum.

Scientists estimate the dinosaur measured about seven metres long and lived around 82 million years ago, when Antarctica was covered in lush forests during the Late Cretaceous Period. Researchers say the discovery offers rare insight into Antarctica's prehistoric ecosystems. The findings have been published in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica.