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Dr Mark Evans, the collections manager at BAS, recently spotted the fossil amongst thousands of specimens brought back from expeditions to Antarctica over the decades.<\/p>\n
“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’,” he said.<\/p>\n
The specimen was originally collected on James Ross Island and its discovery was recorded in a field notebook kept by geologist Dr Mike Thomson.<\/p>\n
Alongside a tiny, neat sketch of the fossil dated 9 December 1985 he has written “vertebra of large reptile”, noting it was about 10cm wide.<\/p>\n
Evans says the team that found it probably thought the fossil belonged to a marine reptile.<\/p>\n
But as soon as he saw it, Evans realised the vertebra looked very dinosaur-like. And the date of its discovery meant it would have been the first dinosaur fossil found on the continent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n