Argentinian farmer discovers a huge preserved dinosaur shell

towjam (59)in #science • 5 years ago

It seems that an egg shell of a dinosaur called a Glyptodont was found buried in mud about 40km (25mi) south of Buenos Aires at their farm in Carlos Spegazzini, Argentina.

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I must admit when I read the article I didn't believe that this was an actual find, but perhaps a publicity stunt or internet trolls sharing a silly story that was untrue.
However it seems that there was in fact a finding and here are the facts.

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Jose Antonio Nievas found the shell beside a stream at the farm while on a Christmas day stroll in 2015. he went and told his wife about it, but she just thought the man was joking with her.

They cleared and cleaned the egg some more and found that it could in fact be a relic of some sort.

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After getting the TV station Todo Noticias involved some experts got involved and said it looks like the shell of a glyptodont.

Paleontologist Alejandro Kramarz of the Bernadino Rivadavia Natural Sciences Museum said the following about the discovery---- "There is no doubt that it looks like a glyptodont, the animal became extinct thousands of years ago and it is very common to find their fossils in this region"

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After work to get the fossil removed and moved to do more testing on it, the consensus is that the shell is a valid fossil.
The whole thing weighed in at a hefty 2 tons!!

There was a hole in the side that had come through wear and tear....and the shell was only around 10000 years old. this is not that long ago in terms of the earth's age.
They also believe the shell, even though large, was in fact that of a juvenile, since the a full grown shell would not be 3ft, but more like 11ft in size!!
Can you imagine that kind of size?

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