Excavations

Excavations in Annopol

The site of Annopol (Middle Vistula river section, Poland) has long been famous for its phosphate rock, mined for the production of fertilizers for agriculture, as well as for the fossils of Cretaceous marine creatures. In the years 2008–2015, Marcin Machalski from the Institute of Paleobiology of the Polish Academy of Sciences organized excavations in the vicinity of Annopol. The aim of this work was to collect Cretaceous (Albian and Cenomanian) fossils and reconstruct their taphonomy (i.e. processes leading to their preservation).

Thousands of fossils of marine invertebrates, such as ammonites, as well as vertebrates such as sharks, bony fish, chimeroid fish and marine reptiles (pliosaurs, ichthyosaurs and sea turtles) have been collected in an abandoned underground phosphate mine and open pits at Annopol. The Annopol phosphates represent a typical fossiliferous deposit of the concentration type. Isolated skeletal elements, such as teeth or vertebrae, were collected by washing the sediment on sieves. In the mine, spectacular fragments of skeletons and the skull of an ichthyosaur were also found, as well as the remains of a sea turtle previously unknown to science.
The workers from the Institute of Paleobiology: Agnieszka Kapuścińska, Michał Andziak, Adam Zaremba, Zbigniew Lis, as well as Oksana Malchyk, PhD student, participated in the excavations in Annopol and nearby Chałupki. Other members of the exploration team involved Artur Komorowski (the finder of the first remains in the mine), Witold Biernat, Grzegorz Gajek, Tomasz Mleczek, Krzysztof Nejbert, Zofia Dubicka and firefighters from the OSP Sucha Wólka. Support for the excavations was provided by the authorities of Annopol, led by the then mayor, Wiesław Liwiński.

Scientific exploration of the Annopol and Chałupki sites was financed by grants from MNiSW and NCN: Vertebrate taphonomy in condensed mid-Cretaceous deposits of the Annopol anticline (NE border of the Holy Cross Mts.) in 2010–2013, and The Albian phosphorite horizon at Annopol – a unique „Fossil Lagerstätte” in Poland, and its palaeobiological significance in 2013–2016. The results were published in a series of publications co-authored by leading Polish and foreign researchers (full list on the Machalski website). The most recent update of the Annopol stratigraphy can be found in Machalski et al. 2023 (Stratigraphy of the Albian–Cenomanian (Cretaceous) phosphorite interval in central Poland: a reappraisal. Acta Geologica Polonica, 73 (1), 1–31.). A popular-science text (Machalski 2011, Drugie życie annopolskiej kopalni, Rocznik Muzeum Ewolucji 3, 20–31.) deals with the history of phosphate mining and paleontological exploration of the Annopol site.