First report of Triassic vertebrate assemblages from the Villány Hills (Southern Hungary)

Abstract

Remains of Triassic vertebrates discovered in the Villány Hills (SW Hungary) are described here. After the well-documented Late Cretaceous Iharkút locality, this material represents the second systematically collected assemblage of Mesozoic vertebrates from Hungary. Fossils were collected from both the classical abandoned road-cut at Templom Hill (Templom-hegy) and a newly discovered site at a construction zone located 200 meters west of the road-cut. Macrofossils of the construction site are mainly isolated bones and teeth of nothosaurs from the Templomhegy Dolomite, including a fragmentary mandible referred to as Nothosaurus sp. and placodont teeth tentatively assigned here to cf. Cyamodus sp. Affinities of these fossils suggest a Middle Triassic (Ladinian) age of these shallow marine deposits.New palynological data prove for the first time a Late Triassic (Carnian) age of the lower part of the Mészhegy Sandstone Formation. Vertebrate remains discovered in this formation clearly represent a typical Late Triassic shallow-marine fauna including both chondrichthyan (Lissodus, Palaeobates, Hybodus) and osteichthyan (cf. Saurichthys, ?Sphaerodus sp.) fish fossils. The presence of reworked nothosaur and placodont tooth fragments as well as of possible archosauriform teeth, suggest an increase of terrestrial influence and the erosion of underlying Triassic deposits during the Late Triassic.A belemnite rostrum collected from the lowermost beds of the Somssichhegy Limestone Formation proves that this Lower Jurassic (Pliensbachian) layer was deposited in a marine environment. Most of the vertebrate remains (nothosaurs, placodonts, hybodont shark teeth, perhaps Palaeobates, Lissodus) recovered from these beds are also reworked Triassic elements strongly supporting an erosive, nearshore depositional environment.

Sedimentological Characteristics And Paleoenvironmental Implication Of Triassic Vertebrate Localities In Villány (Villány Hills, Southern Hungary)

“…Unfortunately, only a few badly preserved casts of hard-shelled invertebrate fossils are known from the dolomite and dolomarl beds of the Templomhegy Member, which cannot be used for more detailed paleoenvironmental reconstruction. However, a protected inner ramp lagoon and connected tidal flat were interpreted as the depositional environment of the Templomhegy Member (Török 1998(Török , 2000Haas 2001;Bérczi-Makk et al 2004;Ősi et al 2013).…”

“…Currently the Road-cut section is in a very poor state due to the lush vegetation and the less resistant sediment types. However, thanks to the detailed geological research, conducted over the past decades (Rálisch-Felgenhauer 1985;Vörös 2010;Ősi et al 2013), the Road-cut section is well documented. Therefore we only briefly summarize the sedimentological descriptions and provide some new observations and paleontological data, which may contribute to better understanding the conditions of the depositional environment of this sediment accumulation.…”

“…1). Field work in these sites revealed rich and diverse assemblage of coastal to shallow marine animals including scales and teeth of fishes, cranial and postcranial elements of sauropterygians (notho-saurs and placodonts), and vertebrae of Tanystropheus (Ősi et al 2013;Segesdi et al 2017; Table 1). These Triassic fossils and their embedding successions are of great importance, since according to the relevant paleoreconstructions the Tisza Megaunit, and within it the Villány area, was located at the Northern Neotethys margin, on the shelf of the European Plate southwards to the Bohemian Massif (Csontos & Vörös 2004;Haas & Péró 2004;Pozsgai et al 2017).…”

Pleisztocén folyóvízi kavics a Villányi-hegységben

“…Ezek kora a legtöbb esetben ősmaradványok híján bizonytalan. Egyes esetekben koruk tisztázott és bizonyítottan nem miocén, mint például a villányi Templom-hegy "medi terrán"-ként leírt homokja (LÓCZY 1912), mely a felső-triász Mészhegyi Formációba sorolható (ŐSI et al 2013, VÖRÖS 2010. Az üledékek hiányából következően ismereteink a hegység kainozoos fejlődéstörténetéről igen szűkösek.…”

“…A hegy tetején kialakított nagy kőfejtő kitermelt anyagát az úgynevezett siklóbevágás alagútján át szállí tották a vasútállomás felé; ez az alagút később beomlott (LÓCZY 1945, VÖRÖS 2010. A siklóbevágás feltá -rását, mint fontos alapszelvényt (RÁLISCHNÉ FELGENHAUER 1985), többször kitisztították, legutóbb 2012-ben a Pécsi Tudományegyetem Földtudományok Doktori Iskolája, ennek eredményeképp jelenleg 30 méteres hosszon vizsgál -hatók a kőzetek (ŐSI et al 2013). A letisztított feltárásban látható volt, hogy a triász és jura rétegekre diszkordánsan bizonytalan korú és eredetű törmelékes üledékek tele pül -nek.…”