A fish fauna from the lowermost bartonian of the Transylvanian Basin, Romania

Abstract

A fish fauna newly discovered in the middle Eocene marine sediments cropping out near the village of Luna de Sus, Romania, completes the fossil record of the Eastern European region. Teeth belonging to 15 species of Chondrichthyes and two species of Actinopterygii are herein recorded from the lowermost Bartonian deposits. These Paleogene fish document a marine tropical environment of medium deep waters in the northwestern area of the Transylvanian Basin. The vertical distributions of extant equivalent taxa allow a sea depth estimation of 100 to 200 m. The warm climate is documented by both the present faunal assemblage and previous palynological studies. It is important to note the presence of the scarcely known and poorly understood pycnodont species Phacodus punctatus and of the oldest representative of Labridae from this Carpathian area. The diversity of the fauna was found to be average compared to some areas from Western Europe or North Africa, but it falls within the regional diversity range of the Eastern European localities.