Dr Mark Evans, palaeontologist and manager of the geological collections and labs at BAS, said: “This fossil was found by Dr Mike Thomson, one of the true pioneers of Antarctic geology. His work helps us date all fossil finds across the Antarctic Peninsula today. When I first spotted this bone in our collections a few years ago, I suspected it was a dinosaur. After looking at it properly, I thought it was probably a titanosaur tail vertebra. Looking back at Mike’s notebooks, he knew it was a large reptile so it’s very special to confirm his find 40 years later.”