Overview
- Scientists with Bavaria’s environmental agency propose that large amphibians gathered in green-mud pools during an acute drought, died as the water vanished, and were later transported to the Rauhenebrach quarry by subsequent rains.
- Preparators found greenish clay trapped between teeth while the quarry rock is yellow sand, indicating the death site differed from the discovery site.
- A special 3D computed-tomography system at the Fraunhofer Institute in Fürth enabled detailed, non-destructive imaging of the fossils.
- At least ten individuals from two predator groups—Cyclotosaur and metoposaurid—were identified and dated to roughly 230 million years ago.
- The Landesamt für Umwelt is exhibiting the find and its reconstruction in its Hof offices from early March through May 29, 2026.