A ~34-centimeter long sauropod claw was found in Early Cretaceous(~130 Ma) rocks at the site of Angeac-Charente in France. It was unearthed on July 27, 2014 before a storm arrived.
It was heavily eroded, missing the tip. It's length could likely be be closing it at around ~40 centimeters in life, give or take.
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| That claw would have been long enough to impale a human right through. |
According to the article, the sauropod could have measured ~40 meters long in life, which would make it one of the largest known dinosaurs. But, as I've stated several times in the past, estimating total size based on toe bones is unwise.
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| Another image just to give you a further idea of it's size. |
I translated the article as much as I can. There may be errors as I am not a French speaker.
Translated article:
This is actually the terminal phalanx of the finger of a large sauropod leg. It measures 0.34 meters long and it's impressive size is related with the rest of the animal, one of the largest known species in the world. It was covered with a horny sheath.
"The terminal phalanges of the four fingers were short and covered with a nail or shoe resembling those of the elephant" says Jean-François Tournepiche, the curator of the Museum of Angoulême, who oversees the excavations with Ronan Allain, a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum of Paris.
"To support a weight of several tens of tonnes, the leg bones of the animal are structured as elements of a column and feet rest on the ends of phalanges" he explains.
Researchers have had little time to savor this rare find. Afterwards, a violent storm made landfall on the site. The excavation site was almost completely flooded. Scientists tell the story of the day which played with their nerves on their blog, called "The wrath of the great sauropod".
