Brisbane, AustraliaWhen an inferno razed the former palace that housed Brazil’s Museu Nacional in 2018, it damaged millions of valuable artifacts, including many globally significant fossils. But now, a 70-million-year-old bone retrieved from the rubble is offering scientists a ray of hope.

Together with a second bone that was in a building unaffected by the fire, this fossil represents the first evidence that pterosaurs ruled the skies above Antarctica as the age of dinosaurs drew to a close.

“It's terrific to hear that at least some of the pterosaur collection is not only being salvaged, but is in good enough condition, and with sufficient records, that it can continue to inform science,” says Mark Witton, a pterosaur expert at the