Surprisingly, after the Early Cretaceous taxonomic diversity recorded in Europe, which probably is largely an artifact of inadequate taxonomy and inflation of taxa, multituberculate mammals became extremely scarce in the Late Cretaceous in this continent, being reported exclusively from the uppermost Cretaceous continental deposits of the so-called “Haţeg Island” in Transylvania, Romania. Such mammals have been documented from the Haţeg and Rusca Montană sedimentary basins, as well as from the southwestern area of the Transylvanian Basin. All these records belong to the endemic family Kogaionidae. The present paper reports additional data related to the smallest Cretaceous kogaionid, Barbatodon oardaensis Codrea, Solomon, Venczel & Smith, 2014 based on a series of new isolated teeth recovered mainly from the type locality, Oarda de Jos (Oarda A). Furthermore, the fossil locali-ties Oarda B and Vălioara are other new occurrences for the species. Based on this new material, the intraspecific variability of B. oardaensis is confirmed and its presence is attested in the three basins. Details related to the diversity of the “Haţeg Island” kogaionids are also provided.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2022 OA
Excavations since 2004 in the early Eocene Cambay Shale Formation at Vastan, Mangrol, and Tadkeshwar open-cast lignite mines in Gujarat, western India, have yielded thousands of vertebrate specimens of terrestrial mammals, lizards, snakes, frogs, and birds as well as elasmobranch and teleost fishes. Here we report new fossils from the currently active Tadkeshwar mine discovered from several layers intercalated at different heights between the two major lignite seams. Most of them belong to taxa already described from the nearby Vastan and Mangrol mines, such as the adapoid primate Marcgodinotius indicus, the hyaenodontan Indohyaenodon raoi, the tillodont Anthraconyx hypsomylus, the perissodactyl-like mammal Cambaytherium thewissi, the agamid lizard Tinosaurus indicus, the palaeophiid snake Palaeophis vastaniensis, the caenophidian snakes Procerophis and Thaumastophis, and the bird Vastanavis. The presence of these taxa in the three mines and at different levels suggests that the deposits between the two major lignite seams represent a relatively short time span and a single mammal age. Among the new specimens from Tadkeshwar are well-preserved jaws of a new condylarth-like mammal, a new adapoid primate, and a small tapiroid perissodactyl. Most vertebrate taxa of the Cambay Shale Formation are of west European affinities; some of them seem to be endemic to India, and a few are of Gondwanan affinities, such as mesoeucrocodylians and the giant madtsoiid snake Platyspondylophis, attesting that the early Eocene was an important period in India during which Laurasian taxa coexisted with relict taxa from Gondwana before the India-Asia collision. Grant Information: Funded by Leakey Foundation, National Geographic Society, Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, and Belgian Science Policy Office (project BR/121/A3/PalEurAfrica)
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RBINS Staff Publications 2018
