period: Lower Jurassic (199.6-175.6 million years ago)

excavation site: Gromadzice near Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski

There are many tracks left by dinosaurs in Poland – the extinct vertebrae living on Earth between 210 and 70 million years ago. The first tracks of dinosaurs in Poland were found in 1959 in Gliniany Las near Kielce. Dinosaur’s track from Gromadzice is a natural cast – a fossilised track of Scelidosaurus’ foot. Walking dinosaur left the imprint in a wet ground, which was immediately covered with sediment hardening later for many million years. Scelidosaurus was a large four-legged herbivorous ornithischian dinosaur – an ancestor of spiked Stegosaurus and armoured dinosaurs. Its length reached 5 metres and weight was up to 2 tons.

The piece comes from the collection of Geological Museum of the National Geological Institute – National Research Institute.