Man Found 70 Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Skeleton While Walking His Dog — and Kept It a Secret for 2 Years
Damien Boschetto found pieces of the massive fossil in May 2022 while walking with his dog Muffin in the forests of southern France
Damien Boschetto/MAXPPP/Alamy
A man in France waited two years to announce that he found a nearly intact skeleton of a 70-million-year-old titanosaur
Damien Boschetto was walking with his dog Muffin near his home in Cruzy, a village in the southern part of France, in May 2022 when he made the rare discovery
Now, the approximately 30-foot-long skeleton is on view to the public at the Cruzy Museum
A man in France went to walk his dog and found a nearly intact skeleton of a 70-million-year-old titanosaur!
Damien Boschetto found pieces of the massive fossil in May 2022, while walking with his dog Muffin in the forests of Montouliers, near his home in Cruzy, a village in the southern part of France, according to ABC News and the Washington Post.
Local media outlet France Bleu was first to report the discovery last month.
"It happened one morning like any other, during an ordinary walk," Boschetto told the outlet. "While walking the dog, a landslide on the edge of the cliff exposed the bones of various skeletons."
The amateur paleontologist waited until now to announce his major finding so that the site where officials excavated the skeleton would remain protected from pillagers and other onlookers, he told ABC News.
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Boschetto, 25, and members of the Archaeological and Paleontological Cultural Association (ACAP) at the Cruzy Museum worked to unearth the skeleton over a two-year period, the Post reported.
The type of plant-eating dinosaur that Boschetto found were known for their very long necks. They lived during the Cretaceous period, which lasted from 145 million to 66 million years ago, per the Post.
The Frenchman, who has since left his job in the energy sector to pursue a master’s degree in paleontology, told CNN that finding the 30-foot-long fossil in its original anatomical position is “always exciting and interesting for scientific research.”
Now, the fossil is on view to the public at the Cruzy Museum.
“These discoveries are interesting from a scientific point of view because they contribute to the understanding of the species and ecosystems of the late Cretaceous of France and Europe,” museum director Francis Fages told the Post.
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