Damien Boschetto, a paleontology enthusiast from southern France, stumbled upon a remarkable discovery while walking his dog Muffin in the forests of Montouliers. Boschetto spotted bones protruding from a cliffside and upon investigation, he realized he had unearthed a nearly complete skeleton of a 70-million-year-old titanosaur, according to CBS News.
The excavation, which took two years to complete discreetly to protect the site, revealed a 70% complete, 30-foot long skeleton. Boschetto, along with members of the Archaeological and Paleontological Cultural Association, painstakingly extracted the bones over several 10-day digs, reported the news outlet.
This rare find will now be on display at the Cruzy Museum, allowing the public to come and "admire a dinosaur," according to Boschetto. Francis Fage, founder of the Cruzy Museum, credits Boschetto's keen eye for spotting the bones and believes this discovery is a testament to Boschetto's passion for paleontology.
He said for the past 28 years, researchers have found fossils of dinosaurs and other species in Cruzy, a small village in southern France. But his discovery in the neighboring town of Montouliers led researchers to a new area where bones existed.
Boschetto and the association, which is made up mostly of volunteers, decided to keep his 2022 discovery a secret for two years to protect the site and "avoid damage during the extraction of the largest parts," he said in an email to CBS news.
Over a period of two years, Boschetto and the researchers set up several 10-day excavations, during which they found dinosaur skeletons that were almost completely intact, which is rare, he said.
"This is what makes it an interesting deposit from a scientific point of view," he said. "From a museography point of view, it will make it possible to present to the general public animals almost complete in anatomical positions, which is something great."
Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world