Colossal dinosaur bone find in France thrills scientists

Scientists have unearthed a huge two-metre (6.5-foot) dinosaur bone in a winegrowing village in southwestern France dubbed a “national treasure” for its prehistoric gems. The 140-million-year-old thigh bone, which weighs 400 kilogrammes (880 pounds), is the latest discovery at the vast Angeac-Charente palaeontological site near Bordeaux, where experts and volunteers have dug up thousands of bones over the past decade. But thanks to its remarkably good condition, the femur — which scientists say probably belonged to a gigantic sauropod — could help piece together an incomplete set of bones which the latest find resembles. “We were wondering how big it was. We kept saying, ‘Oh, there’s more!'” said Maxime Lasseron, the doctoral student who made the gigantic discovery. The largest land animals ever to roam the Earth, sauropods were massive plant-eating dinosaurs with a long neck and tail, towering up to 18 metres (59 feet) tall. “It cost me a bit of money, because