Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2014 12:17:25 GMT 5
Here: link
EDIT: I've translated the article. Here's my best translation of it. There may be some mistakes as I am not a French speaker.
The phenomenal discoveries continue on the paleontological site Angeac-Charente, one of the largest in Europe. The first three weeks of excavation have already collected 800 determinable bones and several thousand fragments. With a stegosaurus vertebra and a fossil turtle, a 34-centimeter sauropod claw was unearthed on Saturday. The large herbivore that lived there 130 million years ago could measure 40 meters in length.
This is actually the terminal phalanx of the finger of a large sauropod leg. It measures 0.34 meters long and it's impressive size is related with the rest of the animal, one of the largest known species in the world. It was covered with a horny sheath.
"The terminal phalanges of the four fingers were short and covered with a nail or shoe resembling those of the elephant" says Jean-François Tournepiche, the curator of the Museum of Angoulême, who oversees the excavations with Ronan Allain, a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum of Paris.
"To support a weight of several tens of tonnes, the leg bones of the animal are structured as elements of a column and feet rest on the ends of phalanges" he explains.
Researchers have had little time to savor this rare find. Afterwards, a violent storm made landfall on the site. The excavation site was almost completely flooded. Scientists tell the story of the day which played with their nerves on their blog, called "The wrath of the great sauropod".
EDIT: I've translated the article. Here's my best translation of it. There may be some mistakes as I am not a French speaker.
The phenomenal discoveries continue on the paleontological site Angeac-Charente, one of the largest in Europe. The first three weeks of excavation have already collected 800 determinable bones and several thousand fragments. With a stegosaurus vertebra and a fossil turtle, a 34-centimeter sauropod claw was unearthed on Saturday. The large herbivore that lived there 130 million years ago could measure 40 meters in length.
This is actually the terminal phalanx of the finger of a large sauropod leg. It measures 0.34 meters long and it's impressive size is related with the rest of the animal, one of the largest known species in the world. It was covered with a horny sheath.
"The terminal phalanges of the four fingers were short and covered with a nail or shoe resembling those of the elephant" says Jean-François Tournepiche, the curator of the Museum of Angoulême, who oversees the excavations with Ronan Allain, a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum of Paris.
"To support a weight of several tens of tonnes, the leg bones of the animal are structured as elements of a column and feet rest on the ends of phalanges" he explains.
Researchers have had little time to savor this rare find. Afterwards, a violent storm made landfall on the site. The excavation site was almost completely flooded. Scientists tell the story of the day which played with their nerves on their blog, called "The wrath of the great sauropod".
