A dinosaur bone that was kept in the Natural History Museum in London since the early 1890s, when it was discovered. This bone was found in Sussex, London by Philip Rufford. But at this time, the bone was completely unknown, with nothing to compare it to. So it was stored away until now.

Something Old

This bone is thought to be 140 million years old. And it is part of a back bone. Mike Taylor, a graduate student of University of Portsmouth, stumbled across it while looking through the museum’s collection. Since he was an expert on the long necks known as sauropods, it caught his attention.

Taylor researched this bone for five years, unable to figure out what vertebrae it came from on a typical sauropod.

Something New

After years of comparison, with nothing to match it to, he concluded that it probably came from near the hip bone of the animal. But as far as being a sauropod, he concluded that it wasn’t.

This bone showed to be so different, it is now thought that it is a new species, and possibly a new family of dinosaur that had not yet been known until now.

They have named this new ancient beast Xenoposeidon, which translates to mean “alien sauropod”. A very appropriate title for such a creature as this.

What brings more mystery to this creature is the fact that they do not know where to go to begin looking for the rest of this dinosaur, since it happened so long ago and no record was made as to where it was found. But Sussex is known for finding great specimens of bones and fossils in its grounds, so perhaps one day they will discover the rest of this new dinosaur.