Smok wawelski Temporal range: Late Triassic,
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Reconstructed skeleton, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Reptilia |
Clade: | Archosauromorpha |
Clade: | Archosauriformes |
Clade: | Archosauria (?) |
Genus: | †Smok Niedźwiedzki et al., 2012 |
Species: | †S. wawelski
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Binomial name | |
†Smok wawelski Niedźwiedzki et al., 2012
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Smok (meaning "dragon" in Polish) is an extinct genus of large carnivorous archosaur. It lived during the latest Triassic period (latest Norian to early Rhaetian stage, between 208.5–205 Ma). Its remains have been found in Lisowice, southern Poland. The only species is Smok wawelski (after the Wawel Dragon, a dragon from Polish folklore) and was named in 2012. It is larger than any other known predatory archosaur from the Late Triassic or Early Jurassic of central Europe. The relation of Smok to other archosaurs has not yet been thoroughly studied; it may be a rauisuchid, prestosuchid, an ornithosuchid pseudosuchian (part of the crocodilian lineage of archosaurs) or a theropod dinosaur (part of the bird/dinosaurian lineage of archosaurs).[1]