Enlarge image
The dinosaur lower jaw can be seen in the middle of a stone block
Photo: Gerd Geyer / dpa
Quarry employees in Lower Franconia discovered a 230 million year old lower jaw of a dinosaur.
The more than half a meter long bone with a row of pointed teeth probably once belonged to a mastodonsaurus, as the Bavarian State Office for the Environment (LfU) announced on Wednesday.
"It's a bit of a sensation for Bavaria," said Roland Eichhorn, head of the geological service at the LfU.
A recognized expert, palaeontology professor Gerd Geyer, looked at the find and identified it with great certainty as the lower jaw of a mastodonsaurus, said Eichhorn.
This dinosaur resembles a prehistoric crocodile and a giant amphibian.
It grew four to five meters long and, like today's crocodiles, lurked in mud and pools for prey and snatched them with large fangs.
Smaller fragments of mastodonsaurs were found more frequently in Bavaria, Eichhorn said.
However, there is rarely a whole lower jaw in the Free State.
The pine was discovered a few days ago while the quarry was in operation in Rauhenebrach (Haßberge district) in a one and a half ton stone block, said an LfU spokeswoman.
On Friday it is to be recovered and handed over to the LfU's rock collection in Hof.
sol / dpa