Францын баруун өмнөд хэсгийн эртний малтлагын талбайгаас олдсон аварга том үлэг гүрвэлийн яснууд эрдэмтдийн анхаарлыг татаж, тус бүс нутгийн палеонтологийн түүхэнд шинэ нээлтүүдийг авчирлаа.
Францын Байгалийн түүхийн үндэсний музейн докторант Максим Лассерон 2019 оны долдугаар сард шаварлаг давхаргаас хоёр метр урттай, насанд хүрсэн хүний өндрөөс илүү үлэг гүрвэлийн гуяны ясыг илрүүлжээ. Энэхүү олдвор нь дэлхий дээр амьдарч байсан хамгийн том хуурай газрын амьтан болох урт хүзүүт, өвсөн тэжээлт «sauropod» төрлийн үлэг гүрвэлийнх болохыг тогтоосон байна. Анжеак-Шарант дахь хуучин чулууны карьераас 2010 оноос хойш 10,000 гаруй олдвор бүртгэгдээд байгаа бөгөөд энэ нь Европ дахь хамгийн том үлэг гүрвэлийн олдворын цэгүүдийн нэгд тооцогддог.
Малтлагыг удирдаж буй палеонтологич Ронан Аллен уг олдворыг онцгой сайн хадгалагдаж үлдсэнийг дурдаад, энэ нь шинжлэх ухааны судалгаанд чухал ач холбогдолтой болохыг онцолжээ. 140 сая жилийн тэртээх доод цэрдийн галавын үед энэ бүс нутаг нь субтропик намгархаг газар байсан нь яснууд эвдрэлгүй хадгалагдан үлдэх нөхцөлийг бүрдүүлсэн байна. Тус газарт яст мэлхий, матар болон шувуу төст «ornithomimosaurs» зэрэг 45 орчим зүйлийн сээр нуруутан амьтдын үлдэгдэл олдсон нь тухайн үеийн экосистемийн олон талт байдлыг илтгэдэг.
2024 онд судлаачид Баруун Европоос огт олдоно гэж төсөөлөөгүй байсан «Camarasaurus» үлэг гүрвэлийн араг ясыг илрүүлсэн нь шинжлэх ухааны томоохон нээлт боллоо. 20 метр урт, 30 тонн жинтэй байх магадлалтай энэхүү өвсөн тэжээлт амьтан нь өмнө нь зөвхөн Хойд Америкаас олддог байсан тул аварга үлэг гүрвэлүүд тив хооронд хэрхэн нүүдэллэж байсан талаарх шинэ асуултуудыг хөндөж байна. Эрдэмтэд малтлагын ажлыг дахин арван жилийн турш үргэлжлүүлэхээр төлөвлөж байгаа бөгөөд одоогоор махчин үлэг гүрвэлийн яс хараахан олдоогүй байгаа аж.
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“We were wondering how big it was. We kept saying, ‘Oh, there’s more!’” That is how Maxime Lasseron, a doctoral student at France’s National Museum of Natural History, described the moment the bone simply would not end. When the clay was finally cleared in July 2019, he was looking at a fossil femur about two meters (6.5 feet) long, taller than most adults.
The thigh bone came from a sauropod, one of the giant long-necked, plant-eating dinosaurs that were the largest animals ever to walk on land. Reports put its weight at 400 to 500 kilograms (880 to 1,100 pounds). It turned up at Angeac-Charente, a quiet village in southwestern France best known today for its cognac vineyards.
That femur was only one chapter in a much bigger story. Since excavations began in 2010, the old quarry at Angeac has yielded more than 10,000 inventoried fossils and has become one of the largest dinosaur sites in Europe. Its treasures are now on display in Paris, and in 2024 the site produced a giant that scientists had never expected to find in Western Europe.
A Thigh Bone Worth a Bottle of Champagne
The 2019 find was remarkable for its condition as much as its size. Ronan Allain, the paleontologist who leads the excavations, called its preservation and fossilization exceptional, which makes it far more useful for science than the broken fragments that usually survive. The bone lay nestled in a thick layer of clay, and removing it intact took careful work.
The discovery came during the site’s 10th annual dig, and it cost at least one person some money. Jean-François Tournepiche, who coordinated the excavations, admitted he had promised to bring champagne if the bone turned out to be complete. It was.
Angeac had already made its name with a similar fossil. In 2010, during the very first season, excavators found another sauropod femur of about the same length. A later account from AFP identified that earlier bone as belonging to a turiasaur, a group of sauropods. According to the Charente department, the animal probably stretched close to 30 meters (about 100 feet) long.
A Swamp Frozen 140 Million Years Ago
The bones at Angeac date to the Early Cretaceous, about 140 million years ago. At that time, the area was a humid, subtropical swamp. Allain has described a landscape with a river and large conifer trees, where amphibians, crocodiles and fish lived in the water while dinosaurs large and small roamed the dry ground.
That environment is why the fossils survived so well. Animals that died there were buried quickly in the clay of the marsh, which protected their bones from scavengers and the weather. Today the site has revealed nearly 45 species of vertebrates, including turtles, crocodiles and ostrich-like dinosaurs called ornithomimosaurs, along with ferns and tropical plants.
Getting the fossils out is slow work. The bones are well preserved but fragile, so volunteers and scientists wrap them in plastic film and newspaper, fill gaps with clay, and seal them inside reinforced plaster shells before lifting them. Some of these blocks weigh close to two tonnes, and each three-week season produces more than a year of cleaning and repair in the lab.
A Giant Nobody Expected in Europe
In 2024, the site delivered a surprise. Excavators began uncovering the skeleton of a Camarasaurus, a 20-meter (65-foot) sauropod and a cousin of the better-known Diplodocus, estimated to have weighed around 30 tonnes. About ten more of its bones emerged during the 2025 season, including a shoulder blade more than a meter long.
Until then, this herbivore was known only from North America and from an earlier period. Tournepiche told AFP it had been unknown in Western Europe at that time, and Allain described it as “a huge scientific discovery.” The find raises new questions about how giant dinosaurs moved between continents.
The team believes the animal died naturally on the spot. After its body decomposed, the bones were shifted slightly by the Charente River about 100,000 years ago, which helps explain why parts of the skeleton keep appearing in unexpected places.
Despite all the giants, one thing is still missing. Allain says his dream find would be a bone from a meat-eating dinosaur, which has yet to turn up at Angeac. The scientists estimate there are at least ten more years of digging ahead.
Some of what they have already found has traveled far from Charente. Bones and skeletons from Angeac are the focus of Sur les traces des dinosaures, an exhibition at the Grande Galerie de l’Évolution in Paris, open until January 4, 2028. The collections themselves belong to the Angoulême museum, which holds more than 10,000 bones, 70,000 bone fragments and 80,000 micro-remains from the site.
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