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Fossils of Poland

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Nummulites
A nummulite is a large lenticular fossil, characterised by its numerous coils, subdivided by septa into chambers. They are the shells of the fossil and present-day marine protozoan Nummulites, a type of foraminiferan. Nummulites commonly vary in diameter from and are common in Eocene to Miocene marine rocks, particularly around southwest Asia and the Mediterranean in the area that once constituted the Tethys Ocean, such as Eocene limestones from Egypt or from Pakistan. Fossils up to six inches wide are found in the Middle Eocene rocks of Turkey. They are valuable as index fossils.
Metoposaurus
Metoposaurus meaning "front lizard" is an extinct genus of stereospondyl temnospondyls, known from the Late Triassic of Germany, Italy, Poland, and Portugal. This animal was mostly aquatic, possessing small, weak limbs, sharp teeth, and a large, flat head. This highly flattened creature mainly fed on fish, which it captured with its wide jaws lined with needle-like teeth. Many Metoposaurus mass graves have been found, probably from creatures that grouped together in drying pools during drought.
Stagonolepis
Stagonolepis is an extinct genus of stagonolepidid aetosaur known from the Late Triassic (Carnian stage) Hassberge Formation of Germany, the Drawno Beds of Poland, and the Lossiemouth Sandstone of Scotland. Supposed fossils from North and South America have been placed into their own genera, Calyptosuchus and Aetosauroides, respectively.
Anchitherium
Anchitherium (meaning near beast) is a genus of extinct equid with a three-toed hoof. thumb|left|Mandibles Anchitherium was a browsing (leaf eating) horse that originated in the early Miocene of North America, being found as far south as Panama, and subsequently dispersed to Europe and Asia, where it gave rise to the larger bodied genus Sinohippus. It was around high at the shoulder, and probably represented a side-branch of horse evolution that left no modern descendants.
Smok wawelski
extinct species of large carnivorous archosaur
Lisowicia
Lisowicia is an extinct genus of giant dicynodont synapsid that lived in what is now Poland during the late Norian or earliest Rhaetian age of the Late Triassic Period, about 210–205 million years ago. Lisowicia is the largest known dicynodont, as well as the largest non-mammalian synapsid, reaching about long, standing up to tall at the hips and weighing around , comparable in size to modern elephants. It was also one of the last dicynodonts, living shortly before their extinction at the end of the Triassic period. Fossils of a giant dicynodont were known from Poland since 2008, but Lisowicia
Saurichthys
thumb|left|Saurichthys curionii fossil from the Middle Triassic of [[Monte San Giorgio, Switzerland]] thumb|left|Early Triassic and [[Middle Triassic marine predators: 3. Saurichthys]]
Atrypa
Atrypa is a genus of brachiopod with round to short egg-shaped shells covered with many fine radial ridges (or costae). Growth lines form perpendicular to the costae and are spaced approximately 2 to 3 times further apart than the costae.. The pedunculate valve is slightly convex, but oftentimes levels out or becomes slightly concave toward the anterior margin (opposite the hinge and pedicle). The brachial valve is highly convex. Neither valve contains an interarea (a flat area bordering the hinge line, approximately perpendicular with the rest of the valve). Atrypa had a large geographic rang
Czatkobatrachus
Czatkobatrachus is an extinct genus of Early Triassic (Olenekian) salientian amphibians. It was first described in 1998 based on fossils found in the 1 quarry in Poland. It is, with Triadobatrachus, one of the two oldest known lissamphibians. More precisely, it is a member of Salientia; it is related to, but outside Anura, the taxon that includes all extant frogs. It is known only from the early Triassic of Poland. Its vertebral column may have been short as in other salientians, but the exact count is unknown. It had a short tail, and an elongated ilium. Although based on isolated and disarti
Datheosaurus
Datheosaurus ("Dathe's lizard") is an extinct genus of caseasaur. It was at least in length. It lived during the Latest Carboniferous to Early Permian in Poland. It was named for Ernst Dathe (1845–1917), the German geologist who first announced the fossil find.
Protanystropheus
Protanystropheus is an extinct genus of archosauromorph from the Middle Triassic (Anisian stage) of Poland, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands. It was named by Sennikov in 2011 and the type species is Protanystropheus antiquus, first described in 1908 by German paleontologist Friedrich von Huene under the name Tanystropheus antiquus (some authors still prefer to include this species within Tanystropheus). Sennikov (2011) referred to Protanystropheus several vertebrae, including those belonging to "Thecodontosaurus" primus, but such a referral has later been questioned, because these specimen
Osmolskina
Osmolskina is a genus of archosauriform reptile which lived during the Early Triassic in what is now Poland. The type species, Osmolskina czatkowicensis, was described by Magdalena Borsuk−Białynicka and Susan Evans in 2003. The generic name honors the late female Polish paleontologist Halszka Osmólska. ==Resemblance to Euparkeria== Osmolskina closely resembles the well-known genus Euparkeria. The authors of the 2003 paper considered classifying Osmolskina within the family Euparkeriidae, noting the animal's close resemblance to Euparkeria, but concluded that "Euparkeriidae remains monotypic be
Ferganoceratodus
Ferganoceratodus (from Fergana + Ceratodus) is a genus of prehistoric freshwater lungfish known from worldwide during the Mesozoic. Based on morphological evidence, it has either been recovered as a basal member of the Ceratodontiformes or to be the sister group of the Neoceratodontidae (containing the extant Australian lungfish).
Eastmanosteus
Eastmanosteus ("Eastman's bone") is a fossil genus of dunkleosteid placoderms. It was closely related to the giant Dunkleosteus, but differed from that genus in size, in possessing a distinctive tuberculated bone ornament, a differently shaped nuchal plate and a more zig-zagging course of the sutures of the skull roof.
Birgeria
Birgeria is a genus of carnivorous marine ray-finned fish from the Triassic period. Birgeria had a global distribution, with fossil known from Madagascar, Spitsbergen, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, China, Russia, Canada and Nevada, United States. The oldest fossils are from Griesbachian aged beds of the Wordie Creek Formation of East Greenland. Birgeria existed throughout the entire Triassic period, from the very beginning just after the Permian-Triassic mass extinction, up to the very end with its extinction during the Triassic-Jurassic mass extinction.
Leptaena
Leptaena is an extinct genus of mid-sized brachiopod that existed from the Dariwilian epoch to the Emsian epoch, though some specimens have been found in strata as late in age as the Tournasian epoch. Like some other Strophomenids, Lepteana were epifaunal, meaning they lived on top of the seafloor, not buried within it, and were suspension feeders.
Eurotrochilus
Eurotrochilus is an extinct genus of stem group hummingbirds (Trochilidae) and are the closest known relatives of the crown group Trochilidae. Despite Eurotrochilus being morphologically very similar to modern hummingbirds, they still retained several primitive features and are not closely related to any specific extant hummingbird in the crown group. There are currently two described species of Eurotrochilus: E. inexpectatus and E. noniewiczi.
Trimerocephalus
Trimerocephalus is a genus of eyeless trilobites from the order Phacopida, family Phacopidae. It lived during the final stage of the Devonian, the Famennian, and became extinct at the end of this stage, together with all other trilobites with the exception of some Proetida. It can be found in Australia, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Iran, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Poland, the Russian Federation (Urals), Spain, and the United Kingdom (England).
Ozimek volans
gliding Triassic reptile
Berriasella
Berriasella is a discoidal evolute perisphinctacean ammonite, and type genus for the neocomitid subfamily Berriasellinae. Its ribbing is distinct, consisting of both simple and bifurcated ribs that extend from the umbilical seam across the venter; its whorl section generally compressed, the venter more or less narrowly rounded. The species Berriasella jacobi traditionally has been regarded an index fossil defining the base of the Cretaceous, however since 2016 this had been replaced by the first occurrence of Calpionella alpina. Some authors regard B. jacobi as instead belonging to the genus S
Gyrolepis
Gyrolepis is an extinct genus of prehistoric ray-finned fish from the Middle-Late Triassic epochs in what is now Europe. It is known both from complete specimens and isolated skeletal elements, such as scales or teeth. thumb|left|Isolated teeth and scales ascribed to Gyrolepis
Arganodus
Arganodus is an extinct genus of freshwater lungfish that had a wide global distribution throughout much of the Triassic period, with a single species surviving across Gondwana into the Cretaceous. It is the only member of the family Arganodontidae, although it is sometimes placed in the Ceratodontidae or synonymized with the genus Asiatoceratodus.
Soliclymenia
Soliclymenia is a genus of ammonites from the Late Devonian. S. paradoxa has an unusual, triangularly-coiled shell. Additional genera of ammonites with triangular shells are Kamptoclymenia, Trigonoshumardites, and Trigonogastrioceras. Soliclymenia semiparadoxa, which is known only from the holotype, is semi-triangular, the innermost whorls being circular. Other species of this genus, including S. solarioides and S. recticostata, have a circularly-coiled shell.
Resoviaornis
Resoviaornis is an extinct genus of passerine bird from the Early Oligocene (28.5–29 Ma) of southern Poland. Only one species is recorded for the genus, Resoviaornis jamrozi. A 2024 study affirmed it as being an early songbird (suborder Passeri), with potential affinities to either the Passerides or Corvides.
Hallautherium
Hallautherium is an extinct genus of morganucodont mammaliaforms from the Late Triassic of Europe. The type species H. schalchi is known from the Klettgau Formation of Switzerland. In addition, a molariform tooth referable to the genus has been found in Poland.
Polonodon
Polonodon is an extinct genus of dromatheriid cynodonts that lived in what is now Poland during the Carnian stage of the Late Triassic. It includes one species, Polonodon woznikiensis, which is known only from isolated teeth.
Owadowia
Owadowia is a genus of extinct thalassochelydian turtle from the Late Jurassic of Poland. The type and only species is Owadowia borsukbialynickae, named by Szczygielski and colleagues in 2017 for a partial lower jaw, coracoid, ilium and femur from the early Tithonian Kcynia Formation. The limited material means that it is difficult to compare Owadowia to its relatives, and it may not be a unique taxon. The genus lacks the features diagnostic to its parent clade Thalassochelydia, has similarities to Solnhofia and Portlandemys as well as being a Late Jurassic marine turtle like the remainder of