SilesianTriassic

Sauropterygia ?Pachypleurosauridae indet. complete vertebra

Middle Triassic, Lower Muschelkalk (Anisian), Gogolin Beds, Upper Silesia, Poland

The vast majority of fossil vertebrate specimens in the Silesian Muschelkalk are single, isolated bones. As for the vertebrae themselves, I most often encounter vertebral centra, sometimes neural arches. Complete vertebrae, however, are truly rare – almost always separated into two parts.

The photo above shows one of the few complete vertebrae in my collection. This animal most likely belonged to the Pachypleurosauridae, perhaps Dactylosaurus, the most abundant representative of this family in the Polish Middle Triassic.