Paleontological excavations in Krasiejów
The first excavation work at the documentary position “TRIAS” in Krasiejów, near Opole, has been completed. The Department of Ecology and Vertebrate Paleontology led the excavation.
Within an area of several square meters, the University of Environmental and Life Sciences students discovered the remains of over two hundred Triassic vertebrates. Mainly herbivorous fossil, armored reptile Stagonolepis olenkae.
Krasiejów became famous for being the location of the first Polish discovery of dinosaur remains from the Silesaurus opolensis, which lived more than 230 million years ago, and is one of the oldest dinosaurs discovered at the location. The area covered by the excavations is one of the largest accumulations of Mesozoic vertebrate skeletal elements in Europe. Several thousand fossils have been discovered within the explored area, which includes mainly water and fishing-eating Metoposaurus diagnosticus krasiejowensis, reaching a height of up to two meters. In the research area, paleontologists have also discovered the remains of the formers’ relative which belongs to the largest amphibian in the earth history Cyclotosaurus intermedius.
Apart from amphibians and the previously mentioned Stagonolepis olenkae, the remains of two large reptiles have also been found: one resembling a gavial, fish-eating Paleorhinus cf. arenaceus land predators Polonosuchus silesiacus and the remains of smaller animals, invertebrates, mainly centers around footprints of the genus Unio molluscs, and vertebrates, including both ganoid fish and lungfish and lizards that have not yet been fully examined.
