SilesianTriassic

Sauropterygia ?Pachypleurosauridae indet.

Disarticulated elements (tooth, neural arch, vertebral centrum)

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

Here, you can see three specimens in one. The rock fragment contains disarticulated parts of the skeleton of a small Sauropterygian – a tooth, a vertebra centrum, and a neural arch. Given their age and size, the bones likely belong to a Pachypleurosaurus (although they could also have been a juvenile of larger reptiles – I can’t say).

Pachypleurosaurs were small (20 cm to 1 m) “marine lizards.” The genus Dactylosaurus is most common in the Lower Muschelkalk/Gogolin beds of Upper Silesia.

Such small bones, often in clusters of two or three, are quite common but require a trained eye.