Poland to open museum for cousin of T-Rex
By Gabriela Baczynska
LISOWICE, Poland, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Poland opens a museum on Thursday to exhibit the remains of a previously unknown dinosaur, an ancestor of Tyrannosaurus Rex, which have attracted scientists from around the world to this small southern village.
Since an official announcement of the find last week, palaeontologists have been flocking to the brickyard where Polish Science Academy scientists dug up an incomplete skeleton of a predator dinosaur that lived around 200 million years ago.
"This place is unique," Grzegorz Niedzwiedzki, one of the discoverers covered in clay, told Reuters on the site.
"Not only have we found our dinosaur here, but also a mammal-type reptile, dicynodon, and some remains of other flying dinosaurs as well as plants. And it's all just 5 metres (16 ft 5 in) deep."
The locals also remember two mammoth tusks found in the 1990s in the yard, which is located on a prehistoric river-bed.
Now, groups of foreign scientists and students from all around Poland have travelled to the village of Lipie Slaskie to test their luck at the brickyard.
Despite clouds of thick dust, discoveries are made every few minutes while digging through the layers of clay.
"One of the students just found this. We don't yet know what that could be," Niedzwiedzki says showing a half-metre irregular bone. "But the ancestor of the T-Rex beats it all."
THE "DRAGON"
Given the working name "Dragon", the dinosaur was around 5 metres (yards) long and moved on two legs. Its longest teeth were 7 centimetres (2 inches) long.
The dissected findings, parts of a scull, vertebrae and leg bones, will be exhibited in the small museum in Lisowice together with a life-size drawing of the "Dragon".
"It all started from minerals. When a collector came to Lipie Slaskie to look for pyrite two years ago he found the first bone," said Marek Blyszcz, a representative of local authorities. "It was thought to be a cow's bone."
"But, luckily, he contacted palaeontologists."
To keep the dinosaur finding secret until last week's official announcement, Blyszcz worked to organise the museum in secret, under cover of night. It also exhibits the remains of the dicynodon, said to be the biggest ever found.
Local authorities also want to keep the 1920s brickyard operating -- it employs 20 out of 1,000 inhabitants of Lisowice.
"We hope it will give us new jobs in tourism," Blyszcz said.
But as Blyszcz and Niedzwiedzki plan a bigger museum of natural history for Lisowice, they consider with regret those pieces of history that have been lost.
"What else could we have found if it wasn't ground into bricks?," Niedzwiedzki asks. "That we will never know," says Blyszcz. (Editing by Mary Gabriel)
LISOWICE, Poland, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Poland opens a museum on Thursday to exhibit the remains of a previously unknown dinosaur, an ancestor of Tyrannosaurus Rex, which have attracted scientists from around the world to this small southern village.
Since an official announcement of the find last week, palaeontologists have been flocking to the brickyard where Polish Science Academy scientists dug up an incomplete skeleton of a predator dinosaur that lived around 200 million years ago.
"This place is unique," Grzegorz Niedzwiedzki, one of the discoverers covered in clay, told Reuters on the site.
"Not only have we found our dinosaur here, but also a mammal-type reptile, dicynodon, and some remains of other flying dinosaurs as well as plants. And it's all just 5 metres (16 ft 5 in) deep."
The locals also remember two mammoth tusks found in the 1990s in the yard, which is located on a prehistoric river-bed.
Now, groups of foreign scientists and students from all around Poland have travelled to the village of Lipie Slaskie to test their luck at the brickyard.
Despite clouds of thick dust, discoveries are made every few minutes while digging through the layers of clay.
"One of the students just found this. We don't yet know what that could be," Niedzwiedzki says showing a half-metre irregular bone. "But the ancestor of the T-Rex beats it all."
THE "DRAGON"
Given the working name "Dragon", the dinosaur was around 5 metres (yards) long and moved on two legs. Its longest teeth were 7 centimetres (2 inches) long.
The dissected findings, parts of a scull, vertebrae and leg bones, will be exhibited in the small museum in Lisowice together with a life-size drawing of the "Dragon".
"It all started from minerals. When a collector came to Lipie Slaskie to look for pyrite two years ago he found the first bone," said Marek Blyszcz, a representative of local authorities. "It was thought to be a cow's bone."
"But, luckily, he contacted palaeontologists."
To keep the dinosaur finding secret until last week's official announcement, Blyszcz worked to organise the museum in secret, under cover of night. It also exhibits the remains of the dicynodon, said to be the biggest ever found.
Local authorities also want to keep the 1920s brickyard operating -- it employs 20 out of 1,000 inhabitants of Lisowice.
"We hope it will give us new jobs in tourism," Blyszcz said.
But as Blyszcz and Niedzwiedzki plan a bigger museum of natural history for Lisowice, they consider with regret those pieces of history that have been lost.
"What else could we have found if it wasn't ground into bricks?," Niedzwiedzki asks. "That we will never know," says Blyszcz. (Editing by Mary Gabriel)
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