JAKARTA - Hundreds of dinosaur footprints, well-preserved, even scaly skin can be seen, have been found in Poland, providing insight into a complex ecosystem some 200 million years ago, according to geologists.
Described by the Polish National Research Institute-Institute of Geology as a treasure trove, petrified tracks and bones were found in an open-pit clay quarry in Borkowice, 130 km (80 miles) south of Warsaw.
"In the tracks left by the dinosaurs, you can read their behavior and habits. We have traces of dinosaurs that ran, swam, rested and sat," said geologist Grzegorz Niedzwiedzki quoting Reuters Dec. 14.
The footprints of the largest carnivorous dinosaurs were 40 cm long and in most cases the skin could be seen in detail.
"For such a state of preservation to be possible, a very particular sequence of events had to occur over a short period of time," geologist Grzegorz Pienkowski said in a statement.
While citing The First News, so far the research team has found about 60 large rock blocks containing several hundred fossils of carnivorous dinosaurs and birds, as well as sauropodomorphs, the family that includes Brontosaurus.
Scientists believe that there may be thousands more fossils waiting to be discovered in Borkowice.
"I have never seen such a treasure before," said Professor Pieńkowski.
In the next few months, they plan to excavate more than 200 rock blocks with dinosaur fossils.
The fossils date back to 199 million years, which places them in the early Jurassic period called the Hettangian Age between 201.3 million and 199.3 million years ago.
This discovery is especially remarkable because not many dinosaur fossils have been found in Poland. This is because 65 million years ago and before, most of Poland was underwater.
There was some land-exposed area in the Jurassic period, and the site at Borkowice was a coastal area at that time.
To note, this is not the first time Dr Niedźwiedzki made a similar discovery. In 2002 he found the oldest four-legged footprints dating back 390 million years in the więtokrzyskie Mountains. He also recently discovered the oldest mammal remains from 215 million years ago in Greenland.
The scientists are currently working on a paper to be published internationally.
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