Story By: Ana Lacasa, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
Video Credit: CEN/@prensa.uncotres
This is the moment university students find the fossilised remains of a crocodile from over 85 million years ago on their campus.
The Geology students from the National University of Comahue (UNCo) found the fossilised remains of a crocodile on the campus of the university in the western Argentine of Neuquen.
Juan Porfiri, a palaeontologist from the Natural Science Museum at UNCo, told local media: “We are working on some material that could belong to the remains of a crocodile that was located on sediments of a geological formation called Bajo de la Carpa belonging to the Cretaceous period and is around 85 million years old.”
He said: “The university has a very good fossil register, with the remains of fossilised birds, fossilised eggs of crocodiles etc. Three species of crocodiles are known on the campus.
“What we are seeing shows us that we could be facing another crocodile and we will evaluate if it is a known species or if it is a new one.”
Porfiri also said that the discovery was made by Geology students, especially Cecilia Balderrama who “was the one who found the first fragments of material doing professional practices for her degree.”
He added: “When we started to check the rest of the area, more fragments were found, such as bones, vertebrae and other bones”.
He said that they are working on the first phase to get the material ready to be taken to the museum laboratory at the university to continue the investigation.
Local media report that this is the second time fossil remains have been found on the campus in Comahue, located in the neighbourhood of Rincon Club de Campo in Neuquen province.
In June 2018, the remains of a dinosaur were found also by students walking around the campus.
The ViralTab page is created by and dedicated to professional, independent freelance journalists. It is a place for us to showcase our work. When our news is sold to our media partners, we will include the link here.
