2026年6月30日 / 美国东部时间早上7:52 / 哥伦比亚广播公司/美联社
科学家偶然发现了一块来自南极洲的罕见恐龙化石，它已在抽屉里尘封了数十年。
这块骨骼来自一种名为泰坦龙的长颈植食性恐龙的尾部，科学家目前尚未确定其具体所属物种。
该化石于1985年在南极洲詹姆斯罗斯岛的一次科考 expedition 中被发现，由地质学家迈克·汤姆森采集。当时汤姆森与英国南极调查局合作，正在绘制该区域的岩层地图，并收集海洋爬行动物化石以用于未来的年代测定工作。他将此次发现记录为大型爬行动物。
数十年后，古生物学家马克·埃文斯在英国南极调查局的藏品中发现了这块骨骼，怀疑它可能属于恐龙。
“只有当你开始思考‘这个抽屉里都有些什么’时，才会偶然发现某些东西，然后心想：‘啊，这看起来很有趣’，”埃文斯告诉BBC新闻。
他与其他研究人员分析了这块骨骼的形状，并将其与其他更完整的恐龙遗骸进行比对，证实了这一发现。研究结果于周一发表在《波兰古生物学报》期刊上。
由于冰层覆盖条件恶劣，在南极洲发现恐龙化石十分罕见。但在数千万年前这种恐龙生存的时代，该区域覆盖着茂密的森林——伦敦自然历史博物馆的研究合著者保罗·巴雷特表示，这里“与我们如今所知的南极洲截然不同，环境要宜居得多”。
“此次发现仅是南极洲已知的第二件蜥脚类动物躯体化石，尽管它是该大陆上采集到的第一块恐龙骨骼，”研究作者在文中写道。
泰坦龙在8000万年前栖息于南极洲，当时这片土地覆盖着茂密森林。安德鲁·麦卡菲 卡内基自然历史博物馆
这只恐龙身长约23英尺，在其同类中属于体型较小的个体，死亡时可能尚处幼年。科学家尚不清楚该生物的死因，但认为其尸体从海岸漂浮开来，沉入海底后在海洋岩层中形成了化石。
据BBC报道，目前全球已确定了100多种泰坦龙物种。它们均为四足植食性动物，拥有极长的颈部，便于伸到树上取食，以及用于平衡身体的长尾。体型最大的泰坦龙身长超过115英尺，体重约60吨。
自首次发现这根恐龙尾骨以来，科技已取得长足进步，研究人员如今能够透过骨骼内部，获取更多关于远古生物的详细信息。汤姆森于2020年去世，未能亲眼见证这块化石被鉴定为恐龙骨骼。
“如果他还在世，一定会很高兴得知这是什么，”研究合著者埃文斯说道。
这张由自然历史博物馆提供的图片展示了在南极洲发现的、属于泰坦龙类恐龙的化石。自然历史博物馆 美联社供图
Fossil found tucked away in a drawer turns out to be first dinosaur bone from Antarctica
June 30, 2026 / 7:52 AM EDT / CBS/AP
Scientists have stumbled on a rare dinosaur fossil from Antarctica, tucked away for decades in a drawer.
The bone comes from the tail of a long-necked, plant-eating dinosaur called a titanosaur. Scientists haven’t yet identified the species it belongs to.
It was discovered in 1985 during an expedition to Antarctica’s James Ross Island and collected by geologist Mike Thomson. Working with the British Antarctic Survey, Thomson was mapping the area’s rock layers and collected marine reptile fossils to help with future dating efforts. He recorded the find as a large reptile.
Decades later, paleontologist Mark Evans spotted the bone in the British Antarctic Survey’s collections and wondered whether it might be a dinosaur.
“It’s only when you start thinking ‘what’s in this drawer,’ that sometimes you come across something and you think, ‘Ah, this looks interesting,’” Evans told BBC News.
He and other researchers analyzed the shape of the bone and compared it to other more complete dinosaur remains, confirming their discovery. The findings were published on Monday in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica.
Dinosaur fossils are rare to find in Antarctica because of the unforgiving ice caps. But millions of years ago, when this dinosaur lived, the region was populated by lush forests — a “rather different and much more hospitable place than we think of today,” said study co-author Paul Barrett with the Natural History Museum in London.
“This discovery represents only the second sauropod body fossil known from Antarctica, although it was the first dinosaur bone to be collected from the continent,” the study’s authors wrote.
Titanosaurs inhabited Antarctica 80 million years ago when it was covered in lush forest. Andrew McAfee, Carnegie Museum of Natural History
At about 23 feet long, the dinosaur was small for its group and may have been young when it died. Scientists don’t know how the creature met its end, but they think its body floated away from the coast and sank to the sea floor, becoming fossilized in marine rock.
More than 100 species of titanosaur have now been identified around the world, according to the BBC. All of them are four-legged plant eaters, with very long necks that helped them reach up into trees and long counter-balancing tails. The biggest titanosaurs were more than 115 feet long and weighed about 60 tons.
Technology has come a long way since the dinosaur tail bone was first found, allowing researchers to peer inside bones and gain even more detailed information about ancient creatures. Thomson died in 2020 before the fossil was identified as belonging to a dinosaur.
“If he were still with us, he would be delighted to know what this was,” Evans, a study co-author, said.
This image provided by the Natural History Museum shows a fossil found in Antarctica that belongs to a group of dinosaurs called titanosaurs. Natural History Museum via AP
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