Antarctica's First Dino Fossil!

Ice, snow, and white as far as the eye can see — this is Antarctica today. The southern continent is freezing. Millions of years ago, however, the land looked a lot different. Antarctica had rainforests. It was even home to prehistoric animals, including dinosaurs.

It's difficult to find fossils in Antarctica. They are buried under hard ice. Still, some fossils have been discovered. They tell a story of ancient reptiles. There were also dinos like the armored Antarctopelta and the carnivorous Cryolophosaurus.

These weren't the first dinosaurs discovered on the icy continent, though. It turns out that the first dino bone found in Antarctica was sitting in a drawer for 40 years! Now, scientists have studied the fossil. They are sharing its story with the world!

The bone was found in 1985. A team from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) traveled to James Ross Island. Their goal was to map rock layers in Antarctica. This would help scientists know the ages of fossils. The BAS experts came across fossils of their own. Mike Thomson found a piece of backbone. He recorded it as belonging to a large reptile.

The bone was in the BAS collection for 40 years. Then, paleontologist Mark Evans took another look. "I suspected it was a dinosaur," he said.

Paul Barrett helped confirm Evans's idea. He is a researcher from the Natural History Museum in London, England. "Believe it or not, this is the first bit of dinosaur ever discovered on Antarctica," he said. "It was overlooked, but it is a sauropod. And it's only the second sauropod bone from the continent."

The bone isn't enough for experts to know the species of dinosaur. But the dino was part of a group called titanosaurs. Titanosaurs were huge plant-eating dinosaurs. They had long tails, long necks, and small heads. The bone came from a dino close to 23 feet (7 m) long. It is from about 82 million years ago.

This fossil teaches about dinosaur history not just in Antarctica, but in other southern landmasses too. Titanosaurs have never been found in Australia. But Antarctica and Australia used to be connected. So if the dinos were in Antarctica, they may have traveled across Australia too!

Experts will stay hot on the trail of dinos in cold Antarctica. And as the world gets warmer, ice is melting. More finds may come. Barrett said, "There are likely many more dinosaurs to be discovered on the continent."