The invaluable discovery was kept secret for two years.
In 2022, a resident of Hérault walking his dog got his hands on a 70 million year old titanosaur skeleton.
It was to protect it from looting that the information was hidden from the general public.
To discover
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While walking his dog as usual one morning before going to work, Damien Boschetto, now 25 years old, resident of Montouliers and passionate about archeology, had no idea of the incredible discovery he was going to make.
Revealed by a recent rockslide, a bone catches his eye and leads him straight to the entire skeleton of a ten-meter-long Cretaceous dinosaur.
“There, what is very rare is that it is a dinosaur in connection, that is to say without any missing piece from the back of the skull to the tail
,” explains Damien Boschetto at Le
Parisien
.
The titanosaur was a sauropod, herbivore that could weigh up to several dozen tons.
An archaeological museum for the region
If the find is extraordinary, it is not the first in this region renowned for its historical treasures.
To date, the remains of more than twenty-five species dating back 70 million years have been found on the various sites of Cruzy, Creissan, Montouliers and Villespassans, in Saint-Chinianais.
An archaeological abundance which led the municipality of Cruzy to open a museum in 1975, dedicated to local and regional finds.
The Archaeological and Paleontological Cultural Association (ACAP) works today to research and preserve this heritage.
“For it to be so connected, it means that the animal was covered quickly after its death, avoiding any dispersal by scavengers”
explains Damien Boschetto about the titanosaur.
The skeleton has since been transferred to the Cruzy museum laboratory for study.
Damien, meanwhile, left his job in the energy sector for a master's degree in paleontology.