The cemetery includes a complete skeleton of the oldest protodinosaur in the world which was given the name of Silesaurus Opolensis. These reptiles lived in what is now the Opolskie province about 230 million years ago. They made their habitat and hunting ground on the marshland which covered the area of today’s Krasiejów. A Dinopark, whose construction is in the planning phase, is supposed to be one of the most important pillars supporting tourism in the region. It is also to be a research centre of an international character. 230 million years ago, in the early Triassic, mammals were still a thing of the very distant future with gigantic dinosaurs taking possession of the earth only in the Jurassic and the Cretaceous periods. In this part of the world the climate was subtropical. The Opolskie province was but a marshy, boggy narrow isthmus connecting vast areas of a shallow inland sea with the ocean that stretched to the present Carpathian mountains. There are not many places in the world with traces of such distant past. That makes Krasiejów unique. The number and diversity of the Triassic fauna fossils which have been unearthed here since 1993 by, among others, Krzysztof Spa?ek, PhD, of the University of Opole, is outstanding. In addition to those species which had already been known from other, admittedly rare, paleobiological sites scattered worldwide, the site in Krasiejów also contains species that were not previously recorded by science. This was reflected by the name given to one of the species, Silesaurus Opolensis, the first and so far only specimen of a Triassic reptile in Poland. History Thanks to rich deposits of red bed clay, Krasiejów used to be famous for locally produced bricks which stood for quality and sturdiness. The brickyard was burned after the war, and the excavation site was exploited for the production of cement. In the 1980s the then high-school student Krzysztof Spa?ek (today a PhD holder at the University of Opole) discovered fossils in the clay and sent them to the University of Wroc?aw. In an unrelated episode, Robert Nied?wiedzki, PhD, from the University of Wroclaw came to Krasiejów to do research, discovered the fossils and informed Professor Jerzy Dzik form the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw about their existence. It was thanks to Robert Nied?wiedzki that Professor Dzik came to Krasiejów in 1993. This is how he recalls the day when his greatest academic adventure began: “I climbed the wall. One of the oval bones was protruding from the rock. I cleared its surroundings with a hammer and was dumbfounded. I was facing the nasal part of a large reptile’s skull. We haven’t had anything like that in Poland yet!” Excavations Exploitation of the former mine left a huge basin of almost 30 ha. Mining machines revealed prehistoric geological deposits. Their layers are like freeze frames of the history of evolution. The area of today’s Krasiejów used to be the estuary of a great river and as such it accumulated the remains of plants and animals, including land and sweet water vertebrates from the Mesozoic era. The site of paleontological discoveries was more and more frequently visited by scientists who, since 2000, have been involved in systematic excavation. Even a small excavated portion of the huge animal cemetery dating back 230 million years was enough to establish the presence of amphibian and reptiles from the era preceding that of the dinosaur domination. Since 2002, the excavation site has been supervised by the staff of the Chair of Biosystematics at the Opole University. Dinosaurs At the commission of the Institute of Paleobiology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Marta Szubert, a sculptor, recreated the animals identified in Krasiejów. Life-size replicas of particular animal specimens can be seen in the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw in its Museum of Evolution. These include: metoposaur (Metoposaurus diagnosticus krasiejowensis) – a 2m long water amphibian; phytosaur (Paleorhinus arenaceus) – similar to today’s Indian crocodiles, a 3.5m long water reptile; cyclotosaur (Cyclotosaurus) – a 3m long water amphibian; aetosaur (Stagonolepis) – a 3.5m long land reptile; silesaur (Silesaurus opolensis) – a species discovered in Krasiejów, a small 1.5m long dinosaur; and teratosaur (Teratosaurus) – the biggest one: about 4m long, land predator. Paleontologcial Hall The Paleontological Hall in Krasiejów is a place of exhibitions and research. The building of the hall is situated against the excavation wall. Its glass floor makes it possible to admire the biggest European fossil accumulation of mezozoic amphibians and reptiles. The deposits are preserved in their original position in which they froze 220 million years ago. Visitors can conveniently observe the fossils thanks to a ramp constructed in the southern part of the hall. The hall building is the first investment made by the Dinopark Association founded by the local authorities of the Ozimek and Kolonowskie municipalities in cooperation with the Opolskie Province. The Association aims to thoroughly adapt the paleontological discoveries for the needs of science, education, and tourism. The ultimate goal is to turn this area into a Dinopark, the biggest tourist attraction of the Opolskie province.