A dinosaur bone from Antarctica, the first ever discovered, has been identified after lying unnoticed in a museum drawer for decades. The fossil, a section of limb bone from a long-necked sauropod, was found by a British-led expedition that has reopened the search for prehistoric life on the frozen continent.
The bone was originally collected in the 1980s by a team from the British Antarctic Survey. It was catalogued and stored at the Natural History Museum in London, but its significance was overlooked until a recent re-examination by a team of palaeontologists led by Dr. Emma Fielding of the University of Manchester.
“This is a remarkable rediscovery,” said Dr. Fielding. “For years, scientists assumed that dinosaur fossils were virtually impossible to find in Antarctica because of the ice cover. But this bone proves they are there. It’s a game-changer for polar research.”
The specimen, a 15-centimetre-long fragment of a femur, came from the Mount Kirkpatrick formation in the Transantarctic Mountains. It is estimated to be between 180 and 200 million years old, placing it in the Early Jurassic period. The bone’s size and structure suggest it belonged to a sauropodomorph, a herbivore that grew up to 10 metres long.
The find comes at a crucial time for Antarctic research. The continent’s ice sheets are retreating due to climate change, exposing new rock surfaces that could yield more fossils. However, access is difficult and expensive, and international agreements restrict excavation in protected areas.
Dr. Fielding’s team is now planning a return to Antarctica to carry out a systematic search for further remains. “We’ve shown that the fossils are there,” she said. “Now we need to go and find them before the ice covers them again.”
The discovery has reignited interest in Antarctic palaeontology, which had been dormant for decades. The British Antarctic Survey has announced a new initiative to support fossil hunting in the region, while universities in the UK and Australia have formed a consortium to fund further expeditions.
“This bone is a reminder that there is still so much we don’t know about Antarctica,” said Professor James Harker, a geologist at the University of Cambridge who was not involved in the find. “For the North of England, where we are used to digging coal and iron, this is a different kind of frontier. But it’s no less important.”
The bone will go on public display at the Natural History Museum from next month.
