In the Cretaceous period, two of the largest predatory dinosaurs cavorted in Upper Austria – this is proven by the latest finds. After the pliosaur was detected in 2019, as reported, fossils from private collectors now also position the ichthyosaur in our state. A scientific sensation.
“The new ichthyosaur teeth are an important link, they are the first evidence of their kind in Austria,” says Upper Austrian paleontologist Alexander Lukeneder, who conducts research at the Natural History Museum in Vienna. It was also him who found the remains of a pliosaur in the Salzkammergut in 2019 – reports about this prompted the two collectors Karl Böhmdorfer from Pinsdorf and Alfred Leiblfinger from Golling (Sbg.) to examine their finds more closely and contact the museum reported a direct hit: Both fossil remains (teeth/snout) of ichthyosaurs come from limestones of the Schrambach Formation in Upper Austria and from sandstones of the Rossfeld Formation in Salzburg – until now ichthyosaurs had never been detected here. The snout find comes from the same layers, in where the remains of the pliosaur had also been found. The two finders gave the fossils to the Natural History Museum in Vienna and the Haus der Natur in Salzburg, where they, like the pliosaur, will soon be on display.
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