Dzik in 2012 after the mythological Polish dragon of the same name that lived in a cave near the excavation site. The cave was on Wawel Hill, the namesake of the type species S. wawelski. Paleoecology Smok was the largest predator in its environment. Other large predatory archosaurs included the dinosaur Liliensternus and the rauisuchids Polonosuchus and Teratosaurus, but these animals were much smaller than Smok. It was one of the largest archosaurs in the world during the Late Triassic, and larger archosaurs did not appear until after the Early Jurassic. Smok lived alongside small carnivorous dinosauromorph and poposauroid archosaurs and large herbivorous dicynodonts. Paleobiology Examination of coprolites attributed to Smok by Martin Qvarnström et al., indicate that this archosaur was able to crush bone. Based on examination of the bone fragments within the coprolites, Smok'''s ability to retain food within its digestive system varied considerably based on prey availability and food type. The variable mixture of bones, some belonging to fish, others to dicynodonts, and to temnospondyls indicates Smok was a generalized predator. Teeth from this archosaur were also uncovered from these trace fossils, indicating it may have swallowed its own broken teeth during feeding. The heavy amounts of bone in the diet indicate that salt and marrow from the bones of herbivores and other prey items was an important component in the archosaur's diet; an important behavior often linked with modern mammalian predators but seldom studied in ancient archosaurian reptiles. The findings were published in the journal Scientific Reports'' in 2019. References Late Triassic archosaurs Fossil taxa described in 2012 Late Triassic reptiles of Europe Fossils of Poland