A 200 million year old
northern paradise
Exploring the Triassic and Jurassic terrestrial ecosystems of Sweden, Poland and Greenland
ProjEct LEader: Grzegorz Niedźwiedzki, PhD
I am the lead scientist for the research on early dinosaurs and the evolution of the Mesozoic ecosystems at the Department of Organismal Biology at Uppsala University. My past and recent research addresses major evolutionary events and palaeoecology, particularly as exemplified by extinct vertebrates. I am especially interested in the origin and early radiation of tetrapods in the aftermath of the Permian-Triassic and end-Triassic mass extinctions, the large extinction events in the history of life. Throughout my career I have published over 250 peer-review publications, conference abstracts and popular science texts, as well as two popular science books. My most important work includes the origin of early tetrapods (Nature, Scientific Reports), the origin and early evolution of dinosaurs (Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Nature), the evolution of the Late Triassic therapsids (Science, PNAS).
Team, collaboration
and participants:
LATE TRIASSIC OF EAST Greenland - project
The Triassic of Greenland has been attracting interest for several decades. The fossil material collected there in 2014 by the Polish-Danish expedition is still being studied, but the first results of this project have recently been published (see below).
Skåne, Norra Albert - project
We have been working at the site “Norra Albert” since 2015. This is a unique locality with uppermost Triassic rocks that has yielded many interesting plant and animal fossils. We are currently carrying out field exploration work at four other fossiliferous sites in Skåne (see below).
MARGIN of Fennosarmatia LAND - project
Sedimentary rocks from the Upper Triassic and Lower Jurassic are exposed in numerous places in southern Poland. We found interesting fossils of animals, which are not known from the geological record of Europe so far. These represent remnants of the fauna from the Fennosarmatia Land (see below).
WORLD of SCANDINAVIAN TRIASSIC
(coming soon)
The terrestrial ecosystems of the Carnian-Norian (Upper Triassic) of Skåne and Bornholm are not well studied. Our newly collected data sheds new light on this Scandinavian world, which was bustling with life over 215 million years ago (more soon).
The RISE of Giants FIRST MegaPREDATORS (coming soon)
When the first large predatory dinosaurs appeared? This project started in 1999 in the Holy Cross Mts. (Poland), when the first fossils of large theropods were discovered, but much earlier something amazing had already been found in Skåne (Sweden), but it was... completely forgotten (more soon).
"STEGOCEFALEN" WEIRDOS FROM SKÅNE
(coming soon)
Fossils of the so-called "Stegocefalen from Bjuf" are known from the Upper Triassic of Skåne. We found bones of another bizarre temnospondyl amphibian in coal-bearing rocks from old mines (more soon).
LATE TRIASSIC OF EAST Greenland - project
The Upper Triassic exposure stretches along the north−eastern coast of Jameson Land, East Greenland and forms part of the southern sector of a bigger Triassic sequence. Although the Upper Triassic rocks was the subject of sedimentological work since the early 20th century, very few fossils have been identified and described from this unite until a series of expeditions led by Farish A. Jenkins of Harvard University.
Jenkins’ team excavated a diversity of fossils include dipnoan and actinopterygian fish, temnospondyl amphibians Gerrothorax and Cyclotosaurus, the turtle cf. Proganochelys, the aetosaurs Aetosaurus and Paratypothorax, the pterosaur Eudimorphodon, unidentified theropod dinosaur and sauropodomorph dinosaur Plateosaurus, the cynodont Mitredon and the mammaliaforms Haramiyavia, Kuehneotherium and ?Brachyzostrodon, as well as fragmentary remains of other tetrapod taxa. Vertebrate trace fossils were also unearthed, including an extensively studied dinosaur footprint assemblage.
In 2014 I took part in an expedition to East Greenland, and I would like to tell you about its achievements.
Roots of mammals
A team of scientists from Poland, Denmark and Sweden led by Grzegorz Niedzwiedzki from Uppsala University have investigated the jaw anatomy and tooth structure of a recently described new mammaliaform species named Kalaallitkigun jenkinsi.
See: Sulej et al. 2020. PNAS 117 (43) 26861-26867.
https://www.pnas.org/content/117/43/26861
Looking for more
Preliminary results of the Polish-Danish expedition were published in 2014 (see below), but more interesting finds are under study. We plan to return to East Greenland and complete fieldwork in some sites that were discovered in 2014.
See: Sulej et al. 2014. Polish Polar Research 35 (4) 541–552.
http://www.polishpolar.com/index.html
Tracks and trackways
The preliminary data suggest that the Late Triassic tracksites of the Fleming Fjord Formation include a truly great diversity of tetrapod trace fossils. More than 300 tetrapod tracks and traces were recovered from different beds and stratigraphic intervals. The most common imprints represent tridactyl traces of basal dinosaurs (on-going study).
Preliminary results
See: Niedzwiedzki et al. 2014. International Palaeontological Congress, Argentina (abstract); Niedzwiedzki et al. 2015. EAVP (abstract); Niedzwiedzki 2017. ICCI (abstract)
LUNGFISH in the north
The record of lungfish from the Fleming Fjord Formation in East Greenland shows a close relation between the Late Triassic Jameson Land Basin freshwater fauna and the fauna of the coeval Germanic Basin. The Greenlandic lungfish, Ptychoceratodus, had a sensory line pit pattern somewhat similar to that of the extant African Protopterus, which suggests a similar mode of life.
See: Pawlak et al. 2020. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 65 (3): 561–574.
https://www.app.pan.pl/article/item/app006792019
LARGE DINOSAURS
This find is a surprise, it seems to represent the early history of the Greenland dinosaurs, and may have interesting implications. I have plans to return to the site where the bones of a fairly large and basal dinosaur were found and collect more data for research.
Preliminary results
See: Niedzwiedzki and Sulej 2020. Nordic Geological Meeting, Geolological Society of Norway (abstract)
JAMESON LAND THEROPOD
In 2014, we found an accumulation of medium-sized theropod dinosaur bones in Greenland. Research on this material is ongoing, but preliminary results have already been announced.
Preliminary results
See: Niedzwiedzki and Sulej 2017. Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (abstract)
Niedzwiedzki and Sulej 2020. Nordic Geological Meeting, Geolological Society of Norway (abstract)
NOT ONLY DINOSAURS
During the expedition in 2014 and 2016, I observed many interesting rock formations in the Middle and Upper Triassic exposures of E Greenland. Some of them require further research and, as a person with strong love for geology, I intend to pay more attention to these enigmatic deposits. (on-going study).
FLEMING FJORD TemnosPONDYLS
Numerous bones of temnospondyl amphibians and other aquatic tetrapods collected from the Upper Triassic exposed in the MacKnigt Bjerg Quarry are currently under study. New taphonomic observations will allow us to understand how this massive accumulations of bones originated (on-going study).
skåne, Norra Albert - project
This project builds on a highly successful field exploration and scientific programme in Sweden that was supported by Swedish Research Council.
Traces of EVOLUTION
The Triassic period is one of the great turning points in the history of the terrestrial ecosystem. In the Triassic, new functional categories of tetrapods evolved, which is evidenced by fossils of the first active fliers (pterosaurs) and the first endotherms (stem-group mammals, dinosaurs). Findings from the Late Triassic of the Norra Albert Quarry complements the picture of the origin and evolution of several groups of Triassic tetrapods. (on-going study).
Postcards from the past
During a field program that I have organised in Skåne, we were able to collect and document thousands of fossils. One of the most interesting site, the Norra Albert Quarry, is located near Billesholm and Bjuv, old coal-mining settlement in NW Skåne. We have been working in this locality for five years. This site has provided many unique plant and animal specimens.
Preliminary results
See: Niedzwiedzki and Qvarnström 2020. Nordic Geological Meeting, Geolological Society of Norway (abstract)
Triassic Greenhouse
Palaeoclimatic data from the Triassic-Jurassic transition reveals episodes of unusually warm and humid conditions. Some of these palaeoclimatic events are known from stomatal index of fossil plant leaves to have been episodes of elevated global atmospheric CO2.
Preliminary results
See: Lindström et al. 2020. EGU General Assembly 2020 (abstract)
Story of death
The project describe past and recent microbial content, molecular preservation and taphonomy of dinosaur remains collected from a single bone accumulation excavated at Norra Albert site. (on-going study).
margin of Fennosarmatia - PRoject
A key feature of this project, which distinguishes it from all other recent research on the Late Triassic-Early Jurassic faunas, is its focus on the fossil localities of the southern margin of the Fennosarmatia Land. The region has unique potential as a source of new data, partly because it is extremely under-studied.
DINOSAURS ON MUD
Numerous, well-preserved and distinctive trace fossils of Triassic and Jurassic dinosaurs are widely known from the northern slope of the Holy Cross Mountains, Poland. Dinosaur traces reported between 1991 and the present are collected from more than 15 Early Jurassic sites in this region. I am currently working in three new tracksites that substantially complement our knowledge of the early dinosaur faunas.
See: Niedzwiedzki, G., Pienkowski 2016. Geological Quarterly 60 (4), 840-856.
doi: 10.7306/gq.1310
WALKING TALL
The discovery from Poland provides the first evidence that mammal-like elephant sized dicynodonts were present at the same time as the more well-known long-necked sauropodomorph dinosaurs, contrary to previous belief. It fills a gap in the fossil record of dicynodonts and it shows that some anatomical features of limbs thought to characterize large mammals or dinosaurs evolved also in the non-mammalian synapsid. Finally, these findings from Poland are the first substantial finds of dicynodonts from the Late Triassic in Europe.
See: Sulej and Niedzwiedzki 2019. Science 363, 78-80.
RARE BONES
A new bone−bearing locality of Early Jurassic age was recently discovered in southern Poland. Since then, numerous vertebrate fossils have been collected from the site, including remains of dinosaurs. Among the fossils, probably the most intriguing are the remains of a relatively large animal which was tentatively recognized as sauropodomorph dinosaur. (on-going study)
WINDOW INTO JURASSIC
In 1999, a gigantic theropod dinosaur footprint was discovered in the Early Jurassic deposits of the Holy Cross Mountains, Poland. This discovery, along with a set of recent finds from the same region, provide ichnological evidence of a occurrence of gigantic predatory dinosaurs in the Early Jurassic of Europe. The new finds are surprising and allow us to better understand when the great predators arose. (on-going study)
