Sofia, Aug 16 (BTA/GNA) – The fifth paleontological expedition of the National Museum of Natural History at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences came to an end, wrote the National History Museum on its Facebook page. The expedition explored a site of dinosaur and other Late Cretaceous vertebrate fauna near the town of Trun, Western Bulgaria.
The Facebook post explains that this year’s expedition met the researchers’ expectations and was extremely successful. New fossil remains of vertebrate fauna more than 83 million years old were discovered, among them several well-preserved large teeth of crocodylomorphs, bones and bone fragments of various micro vertebrates – fish, amphibians, etc., pieces of turtle shells, as well as fossils from larger animals. One of the finds discovered by Dr. Latinka Hristova, the head of the expedition, also attracted the attention of American scientist Steve Brusatte, who joined the expedition on August 11.
Brusatte, a world-renowned dinosaur expert and professor at the University of Edinburgh, was able to join his Bulgarian colleagues and participate in their field work for the first time this year. He was impressed by the fossils collected so far and highly rated the site’s potential as one of the most important sites of Late Cretaceous vertebrate fauna in Europe. Dr. Latinka Hristova and Vladimir Nikolov used Prof. Brusati’s expertise to prioritize the most scientifically significant fossils and outline plans for their further study, which will necessarily involve long-term collaboration between the native scientists and the Edinburgh paleontologist, the statement said.
The paleontologists have returned back to Sofia and now have months of work ahead to clean, preserve and inventory the collected fossil material in the collections of the National History Museum.
The Museum expressed special thanks to the student geologists from Sofia University, who for the second year in a row helped in the field work. As a result of their efforts, many new fossils have been discovered, with some of the finds proving to be some of the most interesting this year.
During periods of rainfall, the participants of the expedition visited the Tourist Centre next to the gorge of the Erma River, where an information board dedicated to the fossil deposit was installed. The board was prepared on the initiative of the Trun Tourist Association in 2019, in cooperation with Latinka Hristovaand Vladimir Nikolov.
BTA/GNA