Imagine stumbling upon a colossal secret buried in the depths of time, a secret so enormous that it literally belongs to an era when colossal creatures roamed the earth. This is not a plot from a sci-fi movie, but the reality of Damien Boschetto, a 25-year-old Frenchman.
Born and raised in the small town of Cruzy in southern France, Damien Boschetto was an average young man with an average job in the energy sector. Little did he know that his life was about to take a dramatic turn while on a seemingly ordinary walk with his dog.
It was May 2022. Damien was walking his dog in the forest near his hometown when a landslide unveiled a sight that would take his breath away. The landslide on the edge of the cliff had exposed what appeared to be bones of multiple skeletons. But these were not just any bones; they were enormous and clearly very, very old.
Upon closer inspection, Damien realized he had found the nearly intact skeleton of a 70-million-year-old titanosaur. But instead of sharing his extraordinary find with the world, he chose to remain silent. But why? Damien wanted to provide palaeontologists with the opportunity to excavate the entire skeleton before the site was swarmed with looters and dinosaur enthusiasts.
His decision paid off. Today, this giant fossil is on public display at the Cruzy Museum, a testament to the silent and diligent work of the palaeontologists who spent two years carefully excavating and preserving this extraordinary specimen.
Titanosaurs were one of the largest groups of dinosaurs known to have existed, characterized by their long necks. They were plant-eaters and lived during the Cretaceous period.
The Cretaceous period, which lasted from 145 million to 66 million years ago, was the last and longest segment of the Mesozoic Era. It was a time of significant geological and biological changes, and the titanosaur was one of the many remarkable creatures that thrived during this period.
The largest titanosaurs are estimated to have been about 85 feet long and weighed up to 70 tons. To put it in perspective, that’s approximately the weight of 10 African elephants, the largest land animal alive today!
Finding the titanosaur skeleton was a life-changing event for Damien. He quit his job in the energy sector and enrolled in a master’s degree program in paleontology. His personal experience and the firsthand knowledge he gained during the excavation process have undoubtedly given him a head start in his new career path.
IMG SOURCE: TMZ.COM