Discovery of the pterosaur near Zářecká Lhota

In 1880, at sites by the former Worlova skála rock on the eastern edge of the Peliny nature reserve, the local pharmacist and collector of natural products František Hlaváč discovered the skeletal remains of a pterosaur, Ornithocheirus hlavatschi –- the most important discovery of a pterosaur in this country. 

In the summer of 1880 a group of labourers started work on repairing the adjacent road between Choceň and Zářecká Lhota, and in order to obtain the stone and gravel they needed, they started to break up the nearby Worlova skála rock, turning it into a makeshift quarry. As they quarried out the stone of the Mesolithic rocks, several strange tubular bones broke away from the grey limestone, immediately catching their eye. They didn’t know what to do with the find; after all, it couldn’t have been a person or an animal buried in the rock, and if it weren’t for a grocer who happened to be passing by – one Mrs Tomková – they would probably have thrown the bones away. However, Mrs Tomková remembered that František Hlaváč, the pharmacist and founder of the local museum, collected curios like these, and told him of the find. When František Hlaváč arrived at the site, most of the bones had already been destroyed, but he immediately realised that this was a rare find. He managed to save six fossilised bones measuring a total of 42 centimetres in length. He himself was unable to precisely identify the bones, and so he sent them to Antonín Frič, at that time the most renowned palaeontologist in the country. Professor Frič soon recognised as them as being the bones of the Mesolithic pterosaur and identified it as Cretornis hlavatschi (Hlaváč’s chalk bird). In 1905 he modified his identification further and named the discovery Ornithocheirus hlavatschi. In 2015 the find was reviewed again and was definitively confirmed as a young pterosaur from the Azhdarchoidea group, with a wingspan of up to 1.5 metres. This made it the first and so far most valuable find of a pterosaur in this country. Its bones are now laid to rest in the collections of the National Museum, but visitors can see a replica at the Orlické Museum in Choceň. 

FRIČ, A.: O zkamenělém ptáku Choceňském. Vesmír, 10/1884, č. 20, str. 233–234.

 

SOCHA, V.: Dinosauři v Čechách, Praha 2017

Fossil remains of Cretornis hlavatci (Author: Vladimír Socha)