Rare intact dinosaur skeleton discovered after one man kept it as his little secret for two years
Ben Thompson
Featured Image Credit: Instagram/@damienboschetto / Damien Boschetto
Dinosaurs have captured the human imagination for hundreds of years.
Their portrayal in films and cartoons has won them enthusiasts all over the world - and that's not even going into the levels of scientific research conducted about them.
One man in France may be living the dreams of many then, as he recently stumbled across the remains of an incredibly rare intact dinosaur skeleton.
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Damien Boschetto was walking his dog Muffin in the forests of Montouliers, in the South of France, when he spotted bones sticking out of a cliffside.
Boschetto, who is a Paleontology enthusiast, then spent the next two years unearthing the dinosaur.
It was eventually discovered that the bones belonged to a long-necked titanosaur.
Talking to ABC News, Boschetto said: "It happened one morning like any other, during an ordinary walk.
"The territory around Cruzy is rich in fossils of dinosaurs and other species living at the same time."
The discovery was particularly exciting for Boschetto, as he claimed that dinosaur remains were hard to come by in Europe.
Since being excavated, the dinosaur has been found to be 30 feet long and 70 percent complete.
"They were fallen bones, therefore isolated. We realized after a few days of excavations that they were connected bones," Boschetto explained.
In the two years of digging, Boschetto and members of the Archaeological and Paleontological Cultural Association kept the site a secret.
The dinosaur's skeleton, which is 70 million years old, will now be placed on display at the Cruzy Museum.
Francis Fage, the founder of Cruzy Museum, said that Boschetto was lucky to have spotted the dinosaur: "It is very rare to find this, he had to have the eye.
"There are some who have passed for 30 years and they have not seen this site."
Since his discovery, Boschetto has left his job in the energy sector and is currently working towards a Master's degree in Paleontology.
He hopes to continue his work with the Cruzy Museum.
Titanosaurs lived during the Cretaceous period, which lasted from 145 million to 66 million years ago.
The plant eating dinosaurs were noted for having long necks, and were estimated to weigh around 70 tons.
They averaged a length of around 85 feet - meaning Boschetto's 30 foot discovery was a outlier. Whether it be 30 feet or 85 feet, it certainly dwarves us humans any day of the week.