Before dinosaurs ruled the Earth, scientists have discovered a 2,865-pound predator; Now 2,000 ordinary people are helping uncover her skeleton

A massive 1,300-kilogram (2,865-pound) fossilized skeleton found in southern Poland is currently being cut up from solid rock by a group of more than 2,000 public volunteers.According to a report by the Associated Press, this unusual public science project is taking place inside a private, glass-walled laboratory on the ground floor of the Copernicus Science Center in Warsaw. Museum visitors often stop on the other side of the glass wall to watch volunteers wearing safety glasses use special tools to clean the fossil. Children point excitedly as parents look at the massive creature the bones once belonged to.Meticulous cleaning work requires great concentration. Each bone must be removed from the surrounding rock millimeter by millimeter using a small air-powered chisel. The tool’s thin needle gently breaks up the hard stone, while a special ultraviolet light shows the precise line where fossil bone ends and rock begins.The project relies entirely on ordinary citizens rather than expert geologists or paleontologists. Assistants include managers, cleaners, tattoo artists, and locals from many non-scientific jobs.

After basic training, volunteers receive safety equipment and join two-hour supervised chipping sessions.Tatiana Kozik, leader of the volunteer teams, shared the deep feeling that helpers feel while working on ancient bones.“I imagine that those bones have been underground for 240 million years, and I am the first person on Earth to touch them,” Kozik said. “I’m still trying to wrap my head around this experience.”

Discovery of an ancient giant

The skeleton belonged to a Mastodonsaurus, one of the largest amphibians ever known. This animal lived about 240 million years ago during the Middle Triassic Period, and lived in the Earth’s waters when the first dinosaurs began to appear, long before they dominated the Earth.It lived as an underwater ambush hunter, feeding mostly on fish and small amphibians. It reaches a length of approximately six meters (20 ft), and has a broad, flat head, long, powerful jaws and sharp, pointed teeth.

Although its body closely resembles a modern crocodile, it actually belongs to a completely different group of animals with backbones.The fossil was found in southern Poland in 2023 by Tomas Solij, a paleontology expert and professor at the Institute of Paleobiology at the Polish Academy of Sciences, along with his colleague Wojciech Pawlak from the Faculty of Geology at the University of Warsaw. Given the amount of hard work required to clean the fossil, the duo came up with a plan to invite the public to help.When the cleaning is completed, it will be the largest Mastodonsaurus skeleton on display in any museum in the world. While other Mastodonsaurus fossils have been found in places like Germany and Russia, those finds are usually only two to three meters (6½ to 10 feet) long.Solig noted that the sheer size of this find and its exquisite condition offer unique scientific value, promising to reveal completely new facts about how this species lives and grows.“The structure of the body is different from what we have known so far,” Sollig said. “This is completely new information for the scientific world.”

Lessons from Earth’s past

For those who work on bones, this experience provides a mental break and a rare link to deep history. Dorota Serafin, a 51-year-old manager from Warsaw and a volunteer on the project, said working with the skeleton of an ancient animal is an experience that is “relaxing, philosophical, even mystical” at the same time.Serafin plans to return for more work sessions and eventually bring her family to see the final display when the skeleton is displayed to the public, which organizers expect to happen around October or November.Beyond the excitement of surveying ancient history, project participants say Mastodonsaurus offers a useful perspective on planetary change. This giant aquatic animal lived in Earth’s rivers and lakes right after the largest mass extinction event in history, serving as evidence of how robust life is on this planet.While people worry about the major impacts of climate change today, Sollig points out that the story of the mastodonosaur carries a message of lasting strength.“Mastodonsaurus survived the Great Extinction, which shows one thing: nature always gets things done,” Sollig said. “It is not true that humans can destroy life on this planet. Nature and life always find ways to survive.”