Estimated to be about 148 million years old, these findings offer a unique peek into the world of creatures that once ruled Earth's oceans.
Plesiosaurs, powerful marine predators that dominated the seas during the Late Triassic to the Late Cretaceous period (roughly 237-145 million years ago), were distinct for their extended bodies and paddle-like limbs. With sizes ranging from 3.5 to 5 meters, their diet was based on fish.
The teeth were located at the Owadów-Brzeziński quarry, a site celebrated for its exceptional preservation of Late Jurassic fossils, encapsulating both aquatic and land-based life forms.
Commenting on the discovery's importance, Łukasz Weryński, a graduate student of Jagiellonian University’s Institute of Geological Sciences remarked: “They are exceptionally well-preserved teeth. Their unique features, including the extended, conical form, the distinct curvature, and the evident grooves on the surface, lead us to conclude that they originated from plesiosaurs, likely from the Cryptoclididae family, predominantly found in what is now northern Europe, particularly England.”
Remarkably, the teeth, with the largest spanning a striking 5 cm, were not from a single plesiosaur. Instead, they were gathered from various locations within the quarry over a two-year duration.
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Source: PAP