Ozimek (named after the Polish town of the same name) is a genus of archosauromorph reptile, known from Late Triassic deposits in Poland, likely closely related to Sharovipteryx from Kyrgyzstan. It contains one species, O. volans, named in 2016 by Jerzy Dzik and Tomasz Sulej. Like Sharovipteryx, Ozimek had long, slender limbs with the hindlimbs longer than the forelimbs; the hindlimbs and probably the forelimbs likely supported gliding membranes as fossilized in Sharovipteryx. Another unusual characteristic was the shoulder girdle, where the massive coracoids formed a shield-like structure covering the bottom of the shoulder region that would have limited mobility. In other respects, such as its long neck, it was a typical member of the non-natural grouping Protorosauria. Initially classified in the family Sharovipterygidae, phylogenetic analysis has indicated that it, possibly along with Sharovipteryx, may have been an unusual member of the protorosaur group Tanystropheidae, although further study of its anatomy is needed to resolve its precise relationships. Five articulated skeletons and 30 fragmentary specimens constitute the known fossil material of Ozimek, which comes from the Krasiejów clay pit near Opole. Its remains were found uniformly distributed within a rock layer containing fossils of terrestrial animals. During the Late Triassic, the Krasiejów region would have been a lake surrounded by coniferous forests, where Ozimek would have glided between trees feeding on insects such as cupedid beetles. However, individuals of Ozimek still fell into the lake on occasion, where they were possibly subjected to scavenging by amphibians such as Cyclotosaurus and reptiles such as Parasuchus before burial.
Discovery and naming Starting in 1974, the Krasiejów clay pit near Opole, Poland was excavated by the cement plant Strzelce Opolskie, with the excavated clay being mixed with water for cement production. In the 1980s, amateur fossil collectors discovered bone fragments in the outcrops exposed by these excavations and brought them to the attention of Magdalena Borsuk-Białynicka at the Institute of Paleobiology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (ZPAL). The locality was not found until 1993, when Jerzy Dzik discovered a skull of Paleorhinus. More extensive excavations took place from 2000 to 2002, which were sponsored by the Górażdże cement plant that owned the pit by this point. The clay made the fossils easy to extract, but they were also fragile and needed to be protected by a plaster jacket (for large fossils) or cyanoacrylate glue (for small fossils). Two bone-bearing rock layers exist at Krasiejów: one mainly preserving lake-dwelling animals, and the other mainly preserving terrestrial animals. Based on comparisons of its fauna with sites in Germany (including the presence of Paleorhinus), these layers likely date to the Late Carnian age of the Triassic, approximately 230 million years ago, as part of the Grabowa Formation.
Most of the terrestrial fossils were found towards the north of the clay pit, which was likely the shore of a lake during the Late Carnian. These consist of a number of large tetrapod skeletons, as well as uniformly distributed fossils from smaller reptiles. At some point before 2007, a single, extremely elongated vertebra was discovered among these small reptile fossils; it was compared to the neck vertebrae of Tanystropheus, or the tail vertebrae of pterosaurs. Many additional specimens of this animal were recognized afterwards, with it being the most common among these small reptile fossils. An almost complete, articulated skeleton missing the head was designated as the holotype of a new genus and species, and catalogued as ZPAL AbIII/2512. Other articulated skeletons included ZPAL AbIII/2012, which preserves a crushed head, a nearly complete neck, and partial limbs; ZPAL AbIII/2511, which is the most complete specimen (lacking only the head) but is disarticulated; ZPAL AbIII/3191, which is almost complete with some disarticulated skull bones; and UOPB (University of Opole) 1148, which preserves parts of the neck and limbs. Another 30 fragmentary specimens in the ZPAL collection include neck and back vertebrae, neck ribs, gastralia ("belly ribs"), humeri, femora, tibiae, fibulae, and tarsi (ankle bones). In 2016, Dzik and Tomasz Sulej named this new genus and species Ozimek volans. The genus name, Ozimek, is derived from Ozimek, the nearby town of the same name. The species name volans (Latin "flying") refers to its possible gliding lifestyle (see §Paleobiology).
Description
Ozimek was a rather small reptile, with an estimated total length of about 90 centimetres (35 in).
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