Fishes and squamate reptiles from the Pliocene sites of Berești and Mălușteni (eastern Romania) – A reassessment of old but poorly known material - 04/08/24

Doi : 10.1016/j.geobios.2024.02.007

Ștefan Vasile ^a,^b, Oleksandr Kovalchuk ^c,^d,^e, Márton Venczel ^f, Bogdan-Gabriel Rățoi ^a,^g,^⁎ , Bogdan-Stelian Haiduc ^a
^a University of Bucharest, Faculty of Geology and Geophysics, Lythos Research Center, 1 Nicolae Bălcescu Avenue, 010041 Bucharest, Romania
^b Romanian Academy, Emil Racoviță Institute of Speleology, 13 Calea 13 Septembrie, 050711 Bucharest, Romania
^c National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, National Museum of Natural History, Department of Palaeontology, 15 Bogdan Khmelnytskyi Street, 01054 Kyiv, Ukraine
^d University of Wrocław, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Department of Palaeozoology, 21 Sienkiewicza Street, 50-335 Wrocław, Poland
^e A.S. Makarenko Sumy State Pedagogical University, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Geography, Department of Biology and Biology Teaching Methodology, 87 Romenska Street, 40002 Sumy, Ukraine
^f Țării Crișurilor Museum, Department of Natural Sciences, 1/A Calea Armatei Române, 410987 Oradea, Romania
^g Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, Faculty of Geography and Geology, Department of Geology, 20B Carol I Avenue, 700505 Iași, Romania

^⁎Corresponding author.

Sous presse. Épreuves corrigées par l'auteur. Disponible en ligne depuis le Sunday 04 August 2024

Abstract

This paper performs a revision of teleost fish and squamate reptile material from the Early Pliocene sites of Berești and Mălușteni (eastern Romania), found in old collections, but never described in detail. The fish assemblage includes a few cyprinid species (Rutilus robustus, Rutilus cf. R. frisii, Scardinius ponticus, Barbus sp., Tinca sp.), Silurus cf. S. soldatovi, pikes (Esox moldavicus and Esox sp.), as well as indeterminate remains of salmonid, percid and sparid fishes. Squamate reptiles are represented by isolated vertebral and cranial material assigned to the anguid lizard Pseudopus pannonicus, as well as by isolated snake vertebrae belonging to the viperid Macrovipera sp. This is the most taxonomically diverse Pliocene ectothermic vertebrate assemblage described so far from the Romanian Carpathian Foreland. The obtained results contribute to a better understanding of continental vertebrate fauna evolution in the eastern part of central Europe.