The Toteşti-baraj site is located in the central part of the Haţeg Basin, in the northwestern part of the South Carpathians. According to the geological map of the area, the outcropping sediments belong to the Maastrichtian Sânpetru Formation. However, the general appearance in the field of the studied sediments is rather different from the sediments of the type locality of the Sânpetru Formation. The facies distribution observed at Toteşti-baraj indicates a fluvial palaeoenvironment with sandy channel infills and mainly black silty and clayey overbank deposits. At the end of spring 2001, the first Belgo-Romanian excavation campaign discovered in this locality more than forty eggs organised in 11 nests. These eggs may be referred to as the oofamily Megaloolithidae and closely resemble the eggs previously described in the Haţeg Basin and the French oospecies Megaloolithus siruguei. The locality was probably frequented as a nesting site during a large time span, as dinosaur nests have been found at different stratigraphic levels. Screen-washing of 1500 kilograms of sediments collected around the nests provided a particularly diversified microvertebrate fauna. Amphibians are represented by Albanerpetontidae and discoglossid Anura. Two types of sciencomorph lepidosaurians co-existed in this locality. Dinosaur teeth are particularly diversified in the sample collected at Totesti-Barraj. Besides hadrosauroid and nodosaurid ornithischians, at least five different kinds of isolated theropod teeth may be distinguished. But the most remarkable collected micro-remains are mammal teeth, representing at present the richest multituberculate collection from the Upper Cretaceous of Europe. The presence of at least two taxa of the family Kogaionidae (Multituberculata) is attested by fourteen complete teeth and several tooth fragments of mammals. Micropalaeontological analysis and study of vertebrates are in process in order to determine more precisely the age, the faunal content and the palaeoenvironment of the Totesti-Baraj locality.

Abstract of an Oral Presentation or a Poster

Paleontology