Paleontological museum in Lisowice

[Jergi]

First of all, I apologize for my poor English.
Hi. In July of this year, I was at the museum in Lisowice.



This museum is located in southern Poland, near Lubliniec. It houses fossils of animals that lived in the area surrounding what is now Lisowice approximately 210 million years ago. I heard from the guide that the ice sheet that moved through this area during the Ice Age cut the upper layers of the terrain in this place and exposed the Triassic ones. These sediments are the most valuable for Polish paleontologists, as Poland was underwater during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. To find the bones of land creatures in Poland, one must look only in Triassic sediments. In front of the museum there is a statue of what appears to be a Plateosaurus, although it does not fit here, as no bones or tracks of prosauropods have been found in the vicinity of Lisowice.
This place is famous for finding remains of a huge dicynodont – Lisowicia bojani, as well as the discovery of the remains of a large predatory archosaur called the Smok wawelski (Wawel Dragon).
The museum is divided into three sections. One is dedicated to the Smok wawelski and the Coelophysis dinosaurs, whose teeth and tracks were discovered near Lisowice (their bones have not been found so far, so the exact species affiliation of these animals has not been determined). The second room is dedicated to the Lisowicia bojani and other animals (e.g., temnospondyls, freshwater sharks) that lived in the Lisowice area approximately 210 million years ago. The third part of the museum is devoted to fauna from the glacial period. In the shop you can buy figures of several popular size Collecta dinosaurs.

Lisowicia bojani was the largest dicynodont known to science – it was the size of a small elephant, measuring approximately 4.5 meters long. It was also one of the latest living dicynodonts. Because it needed to support its heavy body, unlike other dicynodonts, its forelimbs were not directed out to the sides of its body, but were positioned directly beneath it. This was brilliantly shown in the Collecta Lisowicia figurine from 2020. When its giant bones were discovered, scientists initially thought they were those of a prosauropod.

The shoulder blade, tibia, and fibula of Lisowicia bojani.




Fragment of the cyclotosaurus head.

 

The Smok wawelski (Wawel Dragon) hunted Lisowicia Bojani. The museum displays, among other things, a Lisowicia bone with traces of the Wawel Dragon's teeth. Smok wawelski is an approximately 6-meter-long predator that was almost certainly a dinosaur (no foot bones were found that would ultimately determine its classification). However only its hind feet were found, and these tracks were similar to those of Jurassic theropods. The guide was fully convinced that Smok wawelski moved only on its hind legs. It looks like that Collecta in 2022 incorrectly portrayed this animal as a typical four-legged rauisuchian. The museum houses numerous remains of this predator— fragments of its jaws, teeth, leg bones, and spine bones. The museum also houses coprolites and casts of its tracks.

Reconstruction of the skeleton of a juvenile Smok wawelski.

 

Jaw bones and femur of Smok wawelski.

 


Teeth of dinosaurs from the Coelophysis family. 

 

I highly recommend visiting this museum if you ever decide to visit Poland. Tickets are really cheap. I only paid 15 zloty for admission. (4,1 dolar/3,5 euro).

[Libraraptor]

Thank you for sharing! Looks like quite an interesting place!
I really like Smok and all the secrets it is hopefully still about to reveal

[DinoToyForum]

Interesting post and photos. Thanks for sharing, that's an impressive skeletal reconstruction. 

[Gwangi]

Thanks for sharing! I have a fascination with Poland's Triassic fossils. I love CollectA's Smok and Lisowicia figures but I wish they reconstructed Smok as a biped.

[Jergi]

I think Collecta made a great rauisuchid figure, though not necessarily the best Smok figure. I imagine this is a Polonosuchus figurine. Overall, both of these archosaurs were similar in size.

[crazy8wizard]

I love the collecta Smok but I do wish they made it more ambiguously posed as to whether it's a Dinosaur or Pseudosuchian.