EUROPE, FRANCE, WORLD

The Largest Insect Ever Existed Was A Giant ‘dragonfly’ Fossil Of A Meganeuridae

The Largest Insect Ever Existed Was A Giant ‘dragonfly’  Fossil Of A Meganeuridae

Meganeura the largest Flying Insect Ever Existed, Had a Wingspan of Up to 65 Cm, from the Carboniferous period.

Its name is Meganeuropsis, and it ruled the skies before pterosaurs, birds, and bats had even evolved.

The largest known insect of all time was a predator resembling a dragonfly but was only distantly related to them. Its name is Meganeuropsis, and it ruled the skies before pterosaurs, birds, and bats had even evolved.

The Dragonfly-like Meganeuropsis was a giant insect that plied the skies from the Late Carboniferous to the Late Permian, some 317 to 247 million years ago. It had a wingspan of some 28″ with a body length of around 17.”

Most popular textbooks make mention of “giant dragonflies” that lived during the days before the dinosaurs. This is only partly true, for real dragonflies had still not evolved back then. Rather than being true dragonflies, they were the more primitive ‘griffin flies’ or Meganisopterans. Their fossil record is quite short.

They lasted from the Late Carboniferous to the Late Permian, roughly 317 to 247 million years ago.

The fossils of Meganeura were first discovered in France in the year 1880. Then, in 1885, the fossil was described and assigned its name by Charles Brongniart who was a French Paleontologist. Later in 1979, another fine fossil specimen was discovered at Bolsover in Derbyshire.

Meganisoptera is an extinct family of insects, all large and predatory and superficially like today’s odonatans, the dragonflies and damselflies. And the very largest of these was Meganeuropsis.

It is known from two species, with the type species being the immense M.permiana. Meganeuropsis permiana, as its name suggests is from the Early Permian.

There has been some controversy as to how insects of the Carboniferous period were able to grow so large.

•Oxygen levels and atmospheric density.

The way oxygen is diffused through the insect’s body via its tracheal breathing system puts an upper limit on body size, which prehistoric insects seem to have well exceeded. It was originally proposed hat Meganeura was able to fly only because the atmosphere at that time contained more oxygen than the present 20%.

•Lack of predators. 

Other explanations for the large size of meganeurids compared to living relatives are warranted. Bechly suggested that the lack of aerial vertebrate predators allowed pterygote insects to evolve to maximum sizes during the Carboniferous and Permian periods, perhaps accelerated by an evolutionary “arms race” for an increase in body size between plant-feeding Palaeodictyoptera and Meganisoptera as their predators.

•Aquatic larvae stadium. 

Another theory suggests that insects that developed in water before becoming terrestrial as adults grew bigger as a way to protect themselves against the high levels of oxygen.

ASIA, INDONESIA, WORLD

Fossilized Insect Discovered Not in Amber, But in Opal

Fossilized Insect Discovered Not in Amber, But in Opal

A piece of opal from Java Island, Indonesia,  holds some remarkable cargo: a stunningly preserved insect that may be at least four to seven million years old.

Amber has long been prized for not only its lush, fiery hues but its elaborate contributions to Earth’s fossil record. As Vasika Udurawane writes for Earth Archives, the petrified tree resin starts out as a viscous liquid, slowly hardening over millions of years and preserving the entrapped remains of creatures that find themselves caught up in the process.

Up to now, scientists have collected amber fossils featuring such lively scenes as a spider attacking a wasp, an ant beleaguered by a parasitic mite and even a lizard seemingly suspended in mid-air—or rather mid-amber.

To date, most scientists believe that such high-quality fossil specimens are unique to amber, Gizmodo’s Ryan F. Mandelbaum reports. But an intriguing find by gemologist Brian Berger could upend this notion, proving that the slow-forming gemstone opal is also capable of preserving the remains of ancient animals.

A precious opal discovered on the island of Java in Indonesia includes what appears to be a complete insect encased inside. While insects encased in amber are well-known, a second, much rarer, the process of opalization can also occur while still preserving the insect inclusion, which is believed to be the provenance of this specimen.

Writing in a blog post for Entomology Today, Berger explains that he recently purchased an opal originating from the Indonesian island of Java.

Dotted with a rainbow of colors—from amber-Esque shades of yellow and red to neon green and dark blue—the gemstone is impressive in and of itself. Add in the insect seemingly entombed within, however, and the opal transforms from a precious stone into a significant scientific discovery.

“You can see what appears to be a complete insect encased beautifully inside,” Berger notes. “… The insect appears to have an open mouth and to be very well preserved, with even fibrous structures extending from the appendages.”

According to Gizmodo’s Mandelbaum, it’s possible the bug was trapped in amber that then underwent a process known as opalization. Much like fossilization turns bone into stone, opalization can render organic specimens opals’ hapless prisoners.

Michelle Starr of Science Alert points out that researchers currently have a limited understanding of opal formation. Right now, the dominant theory involves silica-laden water, which flows across sediment and fills cracks and cavities in its path. As the water evaporates, it leaves behind silica deposits, starting a process that repeats until an opal finally forms.

In Indonesia, home of Berger’s specimen, opalization takes on an added twist. Volcanic fluid, rather than simply water, races over the Earth and fills faults. As the fluid cools down, water contained within leaves behind silica deposits, launching the lengthy journey of opal formation.

It’s worth noting, according to Starr, that opalization appears to require a hollow cavity. Amber, however, does not fit these parameters, leaving scientists puzzled over how the opal in question if it indeed started out as amber, came to be.

Ben McHenry, senior collection manager of Earth sciences at the South Australian Museum, tells Starr that the specimen could share similarities with opalized wood, which is a common occurrence in Indonesia.

In an interview with Gizmodo’s Mandelbaum, Ryan McKellar, curator of invertebrate paleontology at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Canada, adds that Berger’s opal reminds him of a specimen featuring wood partially embedded in resin.

The section of the wood covered in amber was preserved much like a fossilized insect, but the other side, exposed to the natural environment, transformed into petrified wood.

Moving forward, Berger hopes to recruit an entomologist or paleontologist better equipped to study the unusual opal and its insect resident.

As Science Alert’s Starr notes, the gemologist has already submitted the stone to the Gemological Institute of America, which issued a report authenticating the specimen as “unaltered, untampered precious opal, with a genuine insect inclusion.”

Reflecting on the find’s potential significance in an interview with Starr, Berger concludes, “If the process of formation is correct, from tree sap with an insect through a sedimentary process, to copal, to amber, to opal it could mean the insect has the possibility to be one of the oldest ever discovered.”

EUROPE, POLAND, WORLD

Study Analyzes Warriors’ Remains in Medieval Tombs in Poland

Four Warriors Buried in 11th Century Tombs in Pomerania Came From Scandinavia say, Scientists

The skeleton of 4 Scandinavian warriors hundreds of miles from their homeland was stunned by Archeologists in Poland.

The remains of the 11th century were discovered in a peculiar burial site dubbed by the archaeologists at a death house. A chemical and genetic analysis of the remains found the four men were from Scandinavia, most likely from Denmark.

The warriors were buried alongside a plethora of trinkets and armaments. According to Dr. Sławomir Wadyl of the Gdańsk Architectural Museum.

The archaeologist told the Polish Press Agency (PAP): “In the central part of the cemetery, there were four very well-equipped chamber graves.

“Men, probably warriors, were buried in them as evidenced by weapons and equestrian equipment laid together with them.”

The four warriors were unearthed in the village of Ciepłe in Eastern Pomerania or Pomorze Wschodnie, northern Poland. The Danish warriors would have been buried during the Piast dynasty – the first Polish dynasty to rule from the 10th century to the end of the 14th century.

The warriors were buried in ‘death house’ burial chambers

Dr. Wadyl said: “It turned out that all of the dead buried in the central part of the cemetery was not from the Piast State, but from Scandinavia, most likely from Denmark.”

The warriors were buried within a larger necropolis, dating back to the Polish King Bolesław Chrobry of Bolesław the Brave I. Alongside them, the archaeologists uncovered a treasure-trove of weapons such as decorative swords and spears. Evidence suggests the four men were skilled horse riders, due to the buckles, stirrups and spurs found next to their bodies.

The archaeologists also uncovered old coins, metal trinkets, combs, pots and even the remains of animals. The burial site itself is interesting because it is more typical of Eastern Europe and Scandinavia. The warriors were laid to rest in wooden chambers measuring about 11.5ft by 6.5ft (3.5m by 2m).

The chambers were built much like a log cabin, with intersecting planks or logs of wood stacked on top of one another. Dr. Wadyl said: “It was one of the more popular house building methods at the time, so you could say they were a ‘death house’.”

Trinkets and weapons were found alongside the warriors
The Scandinavian warriors were most likely from Denmark
The Scandinavian warriors were most likely from Denmark

In another part of the cemetery, the archaeologists found another different but equally intriguing burial method. The archaeologists unearthed two large coffins laid to rest inside of a chamber built from vertical, sharpened poles forced into the ground.

Dr. Wadyl said: “These are the biggest chests of their kind that we know of in Poland’s territories at this time.”

The collection of burial sites was likely surrounded by some form of fencing or a wooden palisade. Dr. Wadyl believes the Danish warriors were likely part of the local elite due to their elaborate and flashy burials.

He said: “Those buried in the central part of the cement ray represented the social elite of the time, as evidenced by the monumental character of their graves and rich furnishings.

“They probably belonged to a group of elite riders but their role was probably was not limited to the function of warriors.” The archaeologist also thinks the men collected taxes from the local populace due to a set of weights found next to two of the dead.

But these are not the first mysterious burial sites uncovered by archaeologists in Poland. Researchers in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian region have found pyramid-like structures predating the famous Egyptian pyramids.

WORLD

These 259 tiny fish were buried alive 50 million years ago, and survive now only as prehistoric ‘photo’

A 50-million-year-old school of fish is etched forever in this rare fossil

It’s not clear what overtook this school of fish, but the remnant—an untimely demise etched in a limestone slab for all eternity—is a breathtaking glimpse of ancient fish shoaling.

A social behavior still common in today’s oceans, shoaling involves small marine animals moving collectively to guard against predators.

Fish swim in oblong formations, huddling together to avoid being swallowed. “Shoaling is one of the most impressive behavior patterns found in nature,” says Nobuaki Mizumoto, a behavioral scientist at Arizona State University who authored a new study on the fossil.

Until now, scientists could only guess that this extinct freshwater species, Erismatopterus levatus, moved in unison. But the 50-million-year-old fossil, hoisted from the Green River Formation in Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah, captured 259 of the fish in a forward-facing school.

The fossil became the centerpiece of a study published Wednesday in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Researchers used the fish impressions to build a digital map of the school, measuring each fish along with its proximity to its neighbors. To bring the fossilized image to life, they ran 1,000 simulations using that map to infer each fish’s next, slight movement.

To confirm the ancient fish were shoaling, researchers measured ran a simulation based on the animals’ proximity to one another, and the way they were facing.

To confirm the ancient fish were shoaling, researchers measured ran a simulation based on the animals’ proximity to one another, and the way they were facing.

Based on that simulation, the researchers concluded that the fish were not moving at random, but collectively. They repelled their closest neighbors to keep from colliding and attracted their more distant neighbors to maintain the formation.

While there are definitely limitations in extracting 3D scenes from a 2D image if the theory holds true, it would mean fish have been swimming in shoals for at least 50 million years, Mizumoto says.

And it’s a trait that evolved independently in this ancient Eocene species from the lineages of fish we see shoaling today. That could be a tribute to its success as a preservation tactic against predators

The fossil is a rare and useful find, as its photographic-like quality allows researchers to explore ancient social behavior. The authors note in the paper that the social interaction of extinct animals has been previously “thought to leave no fossil record.”

For a group of swimming fish to be caught and imprinted into limestone in this way, fossilization would have had to happen extremely quickly.

The authors posit that a sand dune could have collapsed onto the shoal in shallow waters, catching the moment in time and preserving the fish in formation. But save for future research, their true demise will remain a mystery

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Officials Recover Limestone Sculpture Looted from Afghanistan

Officials Recover Limestone Sculpture Looted from Afghanistan

LONDON, ENGLAND—BBC reports that a sculpture stolen from the National Museum of Afghanistan some 30 years ago has been identified at a London auction house and will go on display at the British Museum before it is returned to Kabul. Members of the Art Loss Register spotted the limestone statue, known as the Surkh Kotal Bull while reviewing items offered for sale. 

After being posted on the website of a Uk auctioneer and examined by the Metropolitan Police a sculpture that was removed from the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul nearly 30 years ago will be restored to its country of origin.

Sculpture of two bulls cut out of a yellowish limestone from 2nd century AD. It was excavated in the 1950s in northern Afghanistan only to be looted during the civil war in the early 1990s, following the withdrawal of Soviet troops. Where the bulls have been since then is unknown, but they were spotted by the Art Loss Register (ALR), which has an international database of stolen artworks, on the website of Timeline Auctions, and reported to the police.

Officials Recover Limestone Sculpture Looted from Afghanistan
The Surkh Kotal bull was looted from the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul almost 30 years ago during the civil war. The British Museum helped to recover the sculpture, carved with bulls in the 2nd century AD.

The seller immediately relinquished ownership and its status was confirmed by the British Museum, where Dr. St John Simpson, a senior curator, recognized the sculpture immediately. “It’s a very well-known, unique piece,” he told the Observer.

Further confirmation came from the Kabul museum, which has allowed the sculpture’s first public display outside Afghanistan before it is returned.

The British Museum will show it on Monday for about three months. James Ratcliffe of the ALR said: “We are delighted that our identification of this piece … led to its seizure … We would like to thank the Metropolitan Police for their swift action in seizing it … and the British Museum for their subsequent assistance.”

Christopher Wren of Timeline said the auction house employed the ALR “to check all Western Asiatic items submitted to us for possible sale, so it was directly at our instigation that the piece was identified.” He added: “We also liaise closely with the Art Squad of the London Metropolitan Police and with other authorities in our constant endeavors to ensure that stolen or looted pieces are not offered and can be returned to their proper home.

We have been instrumental in the recovery of several other items over the last few years as a direct result of our policies. The vendor in this case innocently came into possession of the piece many years ago and, on being informed of the origin… immediately relinquished any claim to ownership and agreed that it must be returned to the Museum at Kabul.”

Depicting a reclining humped bull with its face turned to the viewer and the front of a second bull on the left, the sculpture was excavated from one of Afghanistan’s most significant ancient sites, Surkh Kotal, where monumental buildings were constructed during the rule of the Kushan kings, whose empire once stretched across modern-day Afghanistan, Pakistan and northern India – an area known as Bactria.

Originally discovered by a French archaeological expedition, it was among carved limestone blocks that once formed part of a ceremonial frieze showing human figures and bulls. It had adorned the inner sanctuary of Surkh Kotal’s temple, which was built in the 2nd century AD.

Also found within that temple site was an important sculpture of the great Kushan king, Kanishka I, famed for his tolerance of faiths and under whose reign Buddhism began to spread widely in Afghanistan.

Simpson said: “That sculpture is an icon of discovery, destruction, and restoration because it was on open display in the National Museum and was sled-hammered by the Taliban minister of culture when they began the wave of iconoclastic destruction in 2001. And yet that piece has now been restored and is back on display in that museum…

“This piece that we’re dealing with now is another symbol of recovery from that same temple. It is the only one to be recovered. All of the other limestone blocks – more than a dozen – are still missing.”

Hartwig Fischer, director of the British Museum, described the rediscovery of the sculpture as “another very important step in the reconstruction of the rich cultural heritage of Afghanistan after decades of conflict, destruction, and loss”. About 75% of Kabul Museum’s antiquities have been destroyed or looted. Although Afghanistan continues to suffer deadly violence, the museum has been restored and is open to the public.

Working closely with the police, the UK Border Force and other agencies, the British Museum has helped to recover thousands of looted antiquities from Afghanistan since 2003.

Simpson said Surkh Kotal was excavated in the 1950s and early 1960s and partially restored, “but then totally ransacked and looted and pitted during the civil war period. So it’s in a complete mess now.

“Archaeological sites are even more vulnerable than the built museum environment at times of loss of central control. There’s not an archaeological site in Afghanistan that’s been untouched by this wave of looting.”

It makes the recovery of such sculptures all the more important, he said, “but it’s tinged with inevitable sadness that at times of conflict, museums and places of culture are deliberately targeted.”

SOUTH AMERICA, SPAIN, WORLD

The Mystery of the Giant Crystals: How the 36-foot Geode of Pulpí Formed

The Mystery of the Giant Crystals: How the 36-foot Geode of Pulpí Formed

In an abandoned mine in southern Spain, there is a room of pure crystal. 

This is the geode of Pulpí

You have to go to a deep tunnel, get into a ladder in the rocks, and squeeze across a jagged gypsum crystal tube that is barely wide enough for a person. If you make it that far, you’ll be standing inside the world’s largest geode: the Pulpí Geode, a 390-cubic-foot (11 cubic meters) cavity about the size of a cement mixer drum, studded with crystals as clear as ice and sharp as spears on every surface.

While you may have never stood inside a geode, you’ve probably held, or at least seen, one before.

A researcher stands inside the crystal-filled cave known as the Pulpí Geode

“Many people have little geodes in their home,” Juan Manuel García-Ruiz, a geologist at the Spanish National Research Council and co-author of a new paper on the history of the Pulpí Geode, told BBC. “It’s normally defined as an egg-shaped cavity inside a rock, lined with crystals.”

Those crystals can form after water seeps through tiny pores in a rock’s surface, ferrying even tinier minerals into the hollow interior. Depending on the size of the rock cavity, crystals can continue growing for thousands or millions of years, creating caches of amethyst, quartz and many other shiny minerals. 

The crystal columns at Pulpí are made of gypsum — the product of water, calcium sulfate, and lots and lots of time — but not much else has been revealed about them since the geode’s unexpected discovery in 2000.

In a study published in the journal Geology, García-Ruiz and his colleagues attempted to shed some new light on the mysterious cave by narrowing down how and when the geode formed.

García-Ruiz is no stranger to giant crystals. In 2007, he published a study on Mexico’s fantastical Cave of Crystals, a basketball-court-size cavern of gypsum beams as big as telephone poles buried 1,000 feet (300 m) below the town of Naica. Uncovering the history of that “Sistine Chapel of crystals,” as García-Ruiz called it, was made easier by the fact that the crystals were still growing in the mine’s humid bowels. 

At Pulpí, however, the mine was completely dry, and the geode’s crystals had not grown in tens of thousands of years. On top of that, the geode’s gypsum spikes are incredibly pure — so translucent that “you can see your hand through them,” García-Ruiz said.

This means they do not contain enough uranium isotopes to perform radiometric dating, a standard method of analyzing how different versions of elements radioactively decay to date very old rocks. 

“We had no idea what happened,” García-Ruiz said. “So, we were required to make a cartography of the entire mine to understand its very complicated geology.”

The researchers analyzed and radiometrically dated rock samples around the mine for seven years to figure out how the area had changed since its formation hundreds of millions of years ago. The team’s driving question: Where did the calcium sulfate in the Pulpí Geode come from?

Ultimately, the researchers narrowed down the geode’s formation to a window of about 2 million years (not bad for the 4.5-billion-year-old calendar of geologic time). The crystals must be at least 60,000 years old, the team found because that was the youngest age of a bit of carbonate crust growing on one of the largest crystals in the geode. Since the crust is on the outside of a crystal, the crystal below must be even older, García-Ruiz explained.

Meanwhile, the composition of other minerals in the mine suggests that calcium sulfate was not introduced to the area until after an event called the Messinian Salinity Crisis — the near-total emptying of the Mediterranean Sea that is believed to have occurred about 5.5 million years ago. 

Based on the size of the gypsum crystals, it’s likely they started forming less than 2 million years ago, through a very slow-growing process called Ostwald ripening, in which large crystals form through the dissolution of smaller ones, García-Ruiz said. For an everyday example of this process, peer into your freezer.

When ice cream ages past its prime, small ice crystals begin to break away from the rest of the treat. As more time passes, those small crystals lose their shape and recombine into larger crystals, giving the old ice cream a distinctly gritty texture. 

The Pulpí Geode may not be as tasty as ice cream, but merely knowing that magical places like this exist comes with its own sweet satisfaction.

Thanks in part to the research team’s mapping efforts, tourists are now allowed to visit the Pulpí Geode, and García-Ruiz certainly wouldn’t blame you for doing so. Squeezing past the jagged gypsum gateway and into the geode’s cavity for the first time several years ago, García-Ruiz recalled one feeling: “euphoria.”

EUROPE, GERMANY, WORLD

This Fantastical Dragon Bench Was Carved Using A Chainsaw

This Fantastical Dragon Bench Was Carved Using A Chainsaw

Who would have thought that chainsaw can be used as an artist’s tool?  Estonian artist Igor Loskutow is an award-winning master of chainsaw art.

Based in Germany, he’s part of the Husqvarna chainsaw sculpture team, which travels to events across Europe in order to show off their cutting skills.

One of Luskutow’s newest pieces, an incredible dragon bench, is a masterpiece of the art form.

Unlike chisels, knives, and gouges, chainsaws are more difficult to handle and operate (not to mention more dangerous too).

But you’ll be surprised to see what chainsaw sculpture can do. Take a look at this beautiful dragon bench. It’s fairly hard to believe but this elaborate sculpture is actually carved with a chainsaw.

Estonian artist Igor Loskutow is an award winning master of chainsaw art and is part of the Husqvarna chainsaw sculpture team, which travels to events across Europe in order to show off their cutting skills
Estonian artist Igor Loskutow is an award-winning master of chainsaw art and is part of the Husqvarna chainsaw sculpture team, which travels to events across Europe in order to show off their cutting skills

Igor is a member of the Husqvarna chainsaw sculpture team that promotes the brand while showcasing their cutting skills.

Through their impressive wood sculptures, the team aims to advocate the use of chainsaw in the worlds of arts.

A chainsaw is no longer just a mere tool for cutting trees for construction. But it can also be used for creative crafts.

The team has various creations to show off but Igor’s dragon bench is undoubtedly the best among the collection.

You can see the artist’s incredible imagination and skills through his creation. With the sculpture’s realistic pair of wings, highly detailed facial features, and clear-cut tails, it’s certainly not just a bench. It’s a magnificent work of art.

Igor Loskutow uses a chainsaw to carve wooden sculptures such as this incredible dragon bench

Igor made this incredible dragon bench for a local butcher shop. But actually this is not his first dragon bench creation.

In 2017, he created a red-headed dragon bench by utilizing the same technique of using a chainsaw. Amazingly, the natural color of the red-tinged wood gave the dragon’s head a fiery hue.

It looks as if the dragon is about to breathe fire at any moment. Igor’s masterpiece is quickly earning fame right now. But he has been a prominent sculptor way back 2015 when he won the Huskycup World Title.

These behind the scenes images help us understand how the master carver uses the chainsaw to create a dragon bench.

EUROPE, FRANCE, WORLD

Massive, 1,100-Pound Dinosaur Bone Unearthed in France

Massive, 1,100-Pound Dinosaur Bone Unearthed in France

The enormous prehistoric treasures Mother Nature continues to produce, this time in the form of a gigantic thigh bone, once belonging to a massive plant-munching sauropod that roamed the primeval swamps of what is now southwestern France.

A team of paleontologists of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris discovered the huge 6-1/2-foot-long 1,100-pound femur fossil.

Experts consider this 140 million-year-old beefy bone to be a major discovery, and it was found at the fertile paleontological dig site of Angeac-Charente in France. During intense excavation activities.

Uncovered resting in a thick layer of clay, scientists discovered bones from the mammoth creature’s pelvis as well. 

Sauropods were plant-eating dinosaurs with small heads, long slender necks, stump-like feet, and elongated tails that are considered some of the biggest land animals to ever stride upon the Earth.

These quadrupedal herbivores flourished during the Late Jurassic period and were the true kings of the prehistoric age, sometimes growing to a length of up to 130-feet long from nose to tail.

The expert team’s awesome French specimen was particularly well-preserved for a fossil of its size and long ago helped support the 50-60 ton weight of this gentle giant.

“We can see the insertions of muscles and tendons, and scars,” Ronan Allain, a paleontologist at the National History Museum of Paris, told Le Parisien newspaper. “This is rare for big pieces which tend to collapse in on themselves and fragment.”

The bone was discovered nestled in a thick layer of clay. Other bones from the animal’s pelvis were also unearthed.

“This femur is huge! And in an exceptional state of conservation. It’s very moving,” says Jean-François Tournepiche, curator at the Museum of Angouleme (Charente).

“This sauropod bone, 2 m high, was found at Angeac-Charente in a 140-million-year-old marsh lost in the Cognac vineyards and now considered one of the largest dinosaur sites in the world.”

Since 2010, more than 70 scientists from around the world gather each summer to search the soil for dino remains in this productive hunting ground.

So far over 7,500 vertebrate bones representing 45 different species have been unburied and identified, including the first sauropodium femur, plants, footprints, stegosaurs, and even a herd of ostrich dinosaurs.

All In One Magazine