Overview
- The bone was collected on James Ross Island in 1985 and recorded by geologist Dr Mike Thomson but sat in the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) collections until it was re-examined in 2026.
- BAS collections manager Dr Mark Evans flagged the specimen and Natural History Museum palaeontologist Professor Paul Barrett identified it as a titanosaur tail vertebra based on its distinctive ball-and-socket shape.
- Researchers reported on Monday that the vertebra dates to the Late Cretaceous, about 80–82 million years ago, a time when Antarctica supported forests rather than ice sheets.
- The bone’s size suggests an animal roughly seven metres long, which likely represents a juvenile or a smaller species of titanosaur rather than the giant adults known elsewhere.
- Scientists say the find highlights the scientific value of re-examining archival collections and that detailed contextual analysis and formal publication will follow to place the specimen in a broader palaeobiological and biogeographic framework.