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The Large Superpredators' Teeth from Middle Triassic of Poland

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The Large Superpredators' Teeth from Middle Triassic of Poland 91 Contemporary Trends in Geoscience vol . 2 DOI: 10.2478/ctg-2014-0013 Dawid Surmik1, Tomasz Brachaniec2 The large superpredators’ teeth from Middle 1Faculty of Earth Science, University of Silesia, Triassic of Poland Department of Paleontology and Stratigraphy, Bedzinska Str. 60, 41-200 Sosnowiec. Email: [email protected] 2 Faculty of Earth Science, University of Silesia, Department of Geochemistry, Mineralogy and Petrography, Bedzinska Str. 60, 41-200 Sosnowiec. Email: [email protected]. Key words: Abstract predator, teeth, archosaur, Żyglin, An unusual large teeth, finding from time to Gogolin, Middle Triassic, Poland. time in marine sediments of Muschelkalk, Silesia, Poland indicate the superpredators occurrence. According to size and morpho- logical features the teeth are similar to ar- chosaurs or giant marine reptiles. Contemporary trends in Geoscience vol . 2 92 Introduction We report findings of two teeth of large pred- affiliation of mentioned remains to terres- ators from outcrops in Żyglin and Gogolin, trial or aquatic archosaurs or giant marine Silesia, Poland. We discuse the taxonomical reptiles, like piscivorous ichthyosaurs. Geological settings Żyglin is a hamlet of Miasteczko Śląskie silesiacus). The main Muschelkalk outcrops town, near Tarnowskie Góry, Upper Silesia, in Gogolin and Zakrzów are right now not Southern Poland. This locality is famous accessible because of side devastation and from great abundance of Middle Triassic overgrown by plants. marine reptiles remains, especially notho- As in Żyglin and Gogolin areas, in local saurs (Surmik 2010). The outcrops in Gogolin quarries, the carbonate rocks of Lower area, including nearby Zakrzów, (former- Gogolin Formation are exposed, and rep- ly in German – Sacrau) quarry are famous resens the shallow-water marine carbonate historical localities, well known in scien- succession, constituting the lowest part of tific literature due to findings of numerous the Lower Muschelkalk, rich in vertebrate taxa of Muschelkalk sauropterygians, in- fossils from an Early Anisian. cluding holotypes (e.g. Proneusticosaurus Material & Methods We presented two similar predators’ teeth Lowest Anisian) and is located on small frag- from Middle Triassic (Muschelkalk) of ment of crinoid limestone with Dadocrinus Silesia. The first specimen (Fig. 1A) was gracilis (Fig.1B). found at local quarry in Żyglin by one of To make macroscopic photos of investi- us (T.B.) and comes from weathering crust gate teeth, camera Canon 350D was used. of the Lower Gogolin formation (the Lowest Tooth from Żyglin quarry was ammonium Anisian). Second one specimen comes from chloride-coated. Lower Gogolin formation of Gogolin (the Discussion Originally, both of mentioned teeth have presence of edge serration, however it still been considered as archosaurian, especial- shows a slightly curvature and specific both ly tooth from Żyglin quarry is distinct be- sides flattening. cause of the fairly strong curvature and the The serrated edges with both sides flattening serrated cutting edges (Fig. 2). is a characteristic feature of archosaurs, how- Żyglin tooth is 23mm in length and is very ever serration occurs also in huge Middle similar to rauisuchian teeth, for example Triassic piscivorous ichthyosaurs from cen- Qianosuchus. Chinese taxon Qianosuchus is tral Nevada, USA (Frobisch et al. 2013). Also aquatic poposaurid, lived in near-shore en- tooth curvature is known already in the ear- vironments (Li et al. 2006). The taxon was ly reptiles, so both of these features have described from marine deposits of Middle no appreciable systematic significance and Triassic (Anisian) of Guanling Formation, should be analyzed in terms of functional Pan County in China. Mysterious tooth from morphology than phylogenetic relationships. Żyglin quarry also comes from Anisian ma- Historical records from Muschelkalk of rine sediments. Silesia described the remains, originally as- The specimen from Gogolin measures signed to the archosaurs. The oldest scientif- 37mm in length and includes central and ic literature (see in Surmik 2010) quote dor- apical part of crown. We suspect that it sal vertebra of “Thecodontosaurus” primus, is only a fragment of the whole specimen. comes from Gogolin Formation of Gogolin Unfortunately, a poor state of preservation quarry and femur of “Zanclodon” silesiacus makes it impossible to identification of the from the same outcrop. 93 Contemporary Trends in Geoscience vol . 2 Both of these finds are now considered to (Sulej et al. 2011 and literature cited therein). be the remains of a large specimens of prol- Also the remains of ichtyosaurian/ichty- acertiform genus – Tanystropheus (Surmik opterygians were described from Lower 2010). Genus Ticinosuchus, probably from Muschelkalk of Poland (Surmik, 2010 and Anisian/Ladynian borderline of Stare Gliny literature cited therein). Huene (1916) men- quarry deposits, near Olkusz was mentioned tions Pachygonosaurus (nomen dubium) by Benton (1986). dorsal vertebra and Mixosaurus cf. atavus Remains of archosaurs were found in grey (current name Contectopalatus atavus, see clays of Ladynian outcrop in Miedary (Sulej Maisch & Matzke, 2001) scapula. et al. 2011), near Tarnowskie Góry. The anal- Also Hagdorn & Rieppel (1999) mention gi- ysis of archosaurian tooth found in men- ant genus Cymbospondylus, and Sander & tioned locality indicates the strong affini- Mazin (1993) described lower jaw of Tholodus ty to Batrachotomus kupferzellensis from with characteristic durophagous dentition. Ladynian sediment of Southern Germany Fig. 2. The serrated cutting edges of tooth from Żyglin quarry. Fig.1. Superpredators’ teeth from Middle Triassic of Poland. A) Specimen from Żyglin quarry, B) Specimen from Gogolin quarry. Summary The teeth described here confirmed the oc- the land. Tooth from Gogolin seems archo- currence of large predators in the early stages saurian teeth, however the fact that it cannot of marine transgression in the lowest part of be dissected from the rock (as an important Anisian at Upper Silesia. Tooth from Żyglin museum specimen) decreases its scientific quarry is closer to archosaurs (rauisuchi- value, because it makes impossible to rec- ans) in origin, and probably it has been de- ognize significant features. livered to marine deposits by elution from Contemporary trends in Geoscience vol . 2 Dawid Surmik, Tomasz Brachaniec 94 The large superpredators’ teeth from Middle Triassic of Poland Acknowledgments We would like to thank Dr. Wojciech Krawczyński for taking a photos of tooth from Żyglin quarry. References Benton, M.J. (1986) The Late Triassic reptile Surmik D. (2010) Zróżnicowanie takso- Teratosaurus – a rauisuchian not a dino- nomiczne i wybrane aspekty tafonomii saur, Palaeontology, 29, 293-301. gadów morskich wapienia muszlowego Frobisch, N.B., Frobisch, J., Sander, Śląska, Niepublikowana praca magister- P.M. Schmitz, L., Rieppel, O. (2013) ska, Archiwum Uniwersytetu Śląskiego, Macropredatory ichthyosaur from the Sosnowiec: 110. Middle Triassic and the origin of mod- Surmik, D. (2012) Ząb dużego archozau- ern trophic networks, PNAS, doi: 10.1073/ ra z wapienia muszlowego Gogolina. In: pnas.1216750110. Conference abstracts. IV Konferencja Li, C., Wu, X.C., Cheng, Y.N., Sato, T., Naukowa „Młodzi w Paleontologii”, Sopot: Wang, L. (2006) An unusual archosau- 83-84. rian from the marine Triassic of China, Naturwissenschaften, 93, 200-206. Sulej, T., Niedźwiedzki, G., Niedźwiedzki, R., Surmik, D., Stachacz, M. (2011) Nowy zespół kręgowców z marginalno-morskich i lądowych osadów dolnego kajpru (la- dyn, środkowy trias) z Miedar na Śląsku, Przegląd Geologiczny, 59, 426-430. .
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