Fish, amphibian and reptilian assemblage from the middle Miocene locality Gračanica—Bugojno palaeolake, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

This paper presents the first fossil fish, amphibian and reptilian fauna from Bosnia and Herzegovina Dinarides. The fauna of ectothermic vertebrates of the Bugojno palaeolake, dated to 15.2-14.0 Ma, composes of killifishes (Cyprinodontiformes indet.), a barb (Barbini indet. (aff. Barbus), a crocodile newt (Chelotriton sp.), a painted frog (Latonia sp.) and a crocodile (Alligatoroidea indet. [?Diplocynodon]). The crocodile remains are confined to the lower part of the section corresponding to the swamp deposit (unit 1). The remaining fauna, which includes fishes and amphibians, come from the upper lacustrine unit 2. A possible Barbus (Barbini indet. (aff. Barbus)) could represent one of the oldest fossil records of the genus found in Europe, which composes of skeletal elements and pharyngeal teeth. The crocodile newt (Chelotriton sp.) represents the first record of this group from the area. For the first time, fossil tadpoles of the genus Latonia are described in this paper, which, moreover, are the first record of tadpole for both the family Discoglossidae and clade of discoglossoid frogs. The crocodile remains, identified as Alligatoroidea indet., should belong to the genus Diplocynodon, which will be tested later on a better preserved material. The fossils, coming from the lacustrine interval, are referred to the deeper water facies. Taphonomic observations of the fossil remains suggest relatively short phase of decay of the animal bodies and their (probably quick) sedimentation in the deeper parts of the lake, with poor oxygen content.

Phylogenetic analysis of a new morphological dataset elucidates the evolutionary history of Crocodylia and resolves the long-standing gharial problem

“…Earlier studies suggested the presence of alligatoroids in the latest Cretaceous of Europe too (Martin, 2007(Martin, , 2010bDelfino, Martin & Buffetaut, 2008), but these taxa (Acynodon, Allodaposuchus) have since been universally recovered outside of Crocodylia (e.g. Narváez et al, 2015), and there is no longer any unambiguous evidence of Diplocynodon remained abundant in western Europe until its last appearance in the middle Miocene, after which no further alligatoroids are known from Europe (Martin, 2010a;Martin & Gross, 2011;Aráez et al, 2017;Rio et al, 2020;Vasilyan, 2020;Chroust et al, 2021).…”

Biogeographic history of Palearctic caudates revealed by a critical appraisal of their fossil record quality and spatio-temporal distribution

“…The salamandrid Chelotriton is one of the most common taxa in European vertebrate assemblages, spanning the middle Eocene through to the Pliocene (figures 1 and 4c; [8,14,79,[101][102][103][104][105][106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113][114][115][116][117][118][119][120]). According to Marjanović& Witzmann [115], Chelotriton is an early-branching member of the extant salamandrid group Pleurodelinae (the sub-family including all extant 'newts').…”

Potentiality of the Bugojno Coal Basin, Bosnia and Herzegovina

“…In the development of the Neogene, the Middle and Upper Miocene were separated (Figure 2), which is divided into seven lithostratigraphic units: basal ( 1 M2,3), the second bottom coal layer ( 2 M2,3), clay, clayey sandstones and marls ( 3 M2,3), first bottom coal layer ( 4 M2,3), marly limestones and marls ( 5 M2,3), main coal layer ( 6 M2,3), clays and sandy clays ( 7 M2,3), Miocene is followed by Pliocene-Quaternary (Pl,Q) and Quaternary (Q) sediments [4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12].…”