In a glass-walled laboratory located on the ground floor of Warsaw’s Copernicus Science Centre, a unique public science project is currently underway. More than 2,000 volunteers are working alongside Polish scientists to restore the skeleton of a Mastodonsaurus, a fearsome aquatic predator that lived during the dawn of the dinosaur age. Visitors to the center can watch the process unfold through the laboratory glass, where children and parents alike observe the meticulous work being performed on the nearly six-meter (20-foot)-long remains.
The restoration process is highly detailed and requires extreme precision. Volunteers, who come from various walks of life including managers, cleaners, and tattoo artists, are not professional geologists or paleontologists. Before beginning their two-hour-long, supervised sessions, they receive specialized training and are provided with protective gear. Armed with brushes, protective goggles, and pneumatic chisels, the volunteers work to separate bone from the surrounding rock millimeter by millimeter. The process is aided by ultraviolet light, which helps the team identify exactly where the bone ends and the rock begins.
Tatyana Kozyk, the coordinator of the volunteer teams, expressed the significance of the work, stating, "I imagine that those bones were lying underground for 240 million years and I am the first human on earth to touch them. I'm still trying to wrap my head around this experience."
The Mastodonsaurus was one of the largest amphibians to ever exist, living approximately 240 million years ago during the Middle Triassic period. While the earliest dinosaurs were beginning to appear during this time, they had not yet come to dominate the Earth. The creature was an underwater ambush hunter that primarily preyed on fish and smaller amphibians. It possessed a broad, flat head, long jaws, and sharp conical teeth, giving it an appearance similar to a crocodile, though it belonged to a different branch of the vertebrate family tree.
Tomasz Sulej, a paleontologist and professor at the Institute of Paleobiology at the Polish Academy of Sciences, noted that once the restoration is complete, the skeleton—which weighs 1,300 kilograms (2,865 pounds)—will be the largest of its kind exhibited in a museum anywhere in the world. Sulej and his colleague Wojciech Pawlak, from the Faculty of Geology at the Warsaw University, discovered the skeleton in southern Poland in 2023 and conceived the idea to involve the public in its restoration.
According to Sulej, this discovery is scientifically significant because no other known Mastodonsaurus skeletons of this size exist globally. While other specimens have been found in countries like Germany and Russia, those typically measure only two to three meters (6.5 to 10 feet) in length. "The structure of the body is different from what we knew so far," Sulej explained. "This is information that is completely new to the scientific world."
For 51-year-old Warsaw manager and-old Warsaw manager Dorota Serafin, participating in the project has been a "relaxing and philosophical, even mystical" experience. She plans to return for further sessions and intends to bring her family to see the skeleton when it is exhibited, which is expected to occur in October or November. Reflecting on the creature's survival through history, Sulej remarked, "The Mastodonsaurus lived after the great extinction, which shows one thing, that nature always manages. It's not true that humans can destroy life on this planet. Nature and life always find ways to survive."
Other Mastodonsaurus skeletons have been found elsewhere, including in Germany and Russia, Sulej said, but they are around 2 to 3 meters (6½ to 10 feet) long.
