These findings, by a team from the Institute of Paleobiology at the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) and the University of Warsaw, include fossils of trematosaur amphibians, which resembled modern-day crocodiles, and procolophonid reptiles, both dating back approximately 250 million years to the early Triassic period.
The fossils were first unearthed in the 1980s in an inactive quarry in Stryczowice, a small village in the Świętokrzyskie Mountains, by Marcin Machalski of the Institute of Paleobiology. Recent examinations have revealed a premaxilla (a bone from the skull) of a trematosaur and a jawbone of a procolophonid with five teeth intact.
Tomasz Sulej, a senior researcher from the Department of Evolutionary Paleobiology of the Institute, explained the significance of these fossils.
"These findings help us understand the diversity of life forms during the early Trias," he said. "They show a gradual evolution in the skull and snout of trematosaurs, similar to what we see in modern gharials."
"These are small finds, but of great scientific significance," said Sulej in an interview for the science portal Nauka w Polsce.
He added: "Previously, we suspected that trematosaurs might have inhabited areas of what is now Poland—for example, at the paleontological site in Wiory in Świętokrzyskie province, we found a few teeth that could have belonged to them—but only this bone provides us with evidence that this was indeed the case."
Procolophonids, small lizard-like reptiles, were already known in Poland from sites near the southern city of Kraków, but their discovery in the Świętokrzyskie Mountains indicates they thrived in various environments.
"This suggests that procolophonids were widespread and diverse," Sulej added.
Procolophonids lived across the ancient supercontinent of Pangea and their fossils are found in today's Europe, North and South America, China, South Africa, Antarctica and Australia.
Support from local authorities has been instrumental in facilitating further excavation efforts in the area, which had not been active for over 40 years. The team has extracted several kilograms of sandstone, which will be further analyzed for additional early Triassic vertebrate fossils.
The early Triassic period, a time of hot climate and semi-desert landscapes dotted with rivers, was critical in the evolution of various amphibians and reptiles in what is now central Europe.
The latest findings, described in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, add to our understanding of the geographic distribution of these ancient creatures and hint at the possible ancestors of the first Polish dinosaur, the Silesaurus, the fossils of a herd of which were found two decades ago in Krasiejów near Opole in southwestern Poland.
(rt/gs)
Source: naukawpolsce.pl