The first record of dinosaurs in the Dalmatian part (Croatia) of the Adriatic-Dinaric carbonate platform (ADCP)

Mezga, Aleksandar; Meyer, Christian A.; Tešović, Blanka Cvetko; Bajraktarević, Zlatan; Gušić, Ivan

doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2006.01.001

Cited by 18 publications

(27 citation statements)

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“…‘ Huanghetitan ’ ruyangensis and Ruyangosaurus ), South America ( Malarguesaurus ), and Africa ( Angolatitan ). Post‐Cenomanian, sauropods are absent from Europe and North America until the latest Cretaceous [with the exception of a late Turonian–early Coniacian Croatian tracksite (Mezga et al ., )], although whether this ‘hiatus’ reflects regional extinctions, poor sampling, or a combination of the two remains controversial (Lucas & Hunt, ; Le Loeuff, ; Williamson & Weil, ; D'Emic, Wilson & Thompson, ; Mannion & Upchurch, ; D'Emic & Foreman, ; see below).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Osteology of the Late Jurassic Portuguese sauropod dinosaurLusotitan atalaiensis(Macronaria) and the evolutionary history of basal titanosauriforms

et al. 2013

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Titanosauriforms represent a diverse and globally distributed clade of neosauropod dinosaurs, but their inter‐relationships remain poorly understood. Here we redescribe Lusotitan atalaiensis from the Late Jurassic Lourinhã Formation of Portugal, a taxon previously referred to Brachiosaurus. The lectotype includes cervical, dorsal, and caudal vertebrae, and elements from the forelimb, hindlimb, and pelvic girdle. Lusotitan is a valid taxon and can be diagnosed by six autapomorphies, including the presence of elongate postzygapophyses that project well beyond the posterior margin of the neural arch in anterior‐to‐middle caudal vertebrae. A new phylogenetic analysis, focused on elucidating the evolutionary relationships of basal titanosauriforms, is presented, comprising 63 taxa scored for 279 characters. Many of these characters are heavily revised or novel to our study, and a number of ingroup taxa have never previously been incorporated into a phylogenetic analysis. We treated quantitative characters as discrete and continuous data in two parallel analyses, and explored the effect of implied weighting. Although we recovered monophyletic brachiosaurid and somphospondylan sister clades within Titanosauriformes, their compositions were affected by alternative treatments of quantitative data and, especially, by the weighting of such data. This suggests that the treatment of quantitative data is important and the wrong decisions might lead to incorrect tree topologies. In particular, the diversity of Titanosauria was greatly increased by the use of implied weights. Our results support the generic separation of the contemporaneous taxa Brachiosaurus, Giraffatitan, and Lusotitan, with the latter recovered as either a brachiosaurid or the sister taxon to Titanosauriformes. Although Janenschia was recovered as a basal macronarian, outside Titanosauria, the sympatric Australodocus provides body fossil evidence for the pre‐Cretaceous origin of titanosaurs. We recovered evidence for a sauropod with close affinities to the Chinese taxon Mamenchisaurus in the Late Jurassic Tendaguru beds of Africa, and present new information demonstrating the wider distribution of caudal pneumaticity within Titanosauria. The earliest known titanosauriform body fossils are from the late Oxfordian (Late Jurassic), although trackway evidence indicates a Middle Jurassic origin. Diversity increased throughout the Late Jurassic, and titanosauriforms did not undergo a severe extinction across the Jurassic/Cretaceous boundary, in contrast to diplodocids and non‐neosauropods. Titanosauriform diversity increased in the Barremian and Aptian–Albian as a result of radiations of derived somphospondylans and lithostrotians, respectively, but there was a severe drop (up to 40%) in species numbers at, or near, the Albian/Cenomanian boundary, representing a faunal turnover whereby basal titanosauriforms were replaced by derived titanosaurs, although this transition occurred in a spatiotemporally staggered fashion. © 2013 The Linnean Society of London

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Osteology of the Late Jurassic Portuguese sauropod dinosaurLusotitan atalaiensis(Macronaria) and the evolutionary history of basal titanosauriforms

et al. 2013

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“…We will compare the palynoflora with the previously reported macrofloral assemblages. These findings can extend our knowledge of the Late Cretaceous fossil floras in the Dalmatian part of the AdCP, and determine possible food source for the herbivorous dinosaurs which were present in this part of the platform at that time, and studied in one of the analyzed sections (Mezga et al, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 68%

“…Other significant fossil findings on the island of Hvar include diverse fish (mostly of Cenomanian-Turonian age; e.g., Gorjanović-Kramberger, 1892;Radovčić, 1973;Herak et al, 1976) and reptile remains (Gorjanović-Kramberger, 1892;Dutchak and Caldwell, 2006), together with the first report of dinosaur footprints in the Dalmatian part of the AdCP (Late Turonian-Early Coniacian; Mezga et al, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Late Cretaceous palynoflora from the central part of the Adriatic Carbonate Platform (Islands of Hvar and Šćedro), southern Croatia

Firi

Bercovici

Shevchuk

et al. 2017

Cretaceous Research

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This paper provides the first palynological data from four Upper Cretaceous localities from the Islands of Hvar and Šćedro (southern Croatia), in the central part of the Adriatic Carbonate Platform. Studied material represents palynomorphs produced by coastal vegetation and transported to the shallow marine platform areas. Determined vegetation includes diverse hygrophilous, understory vegetation, range of evergreen needle trees attributable to Pinaceae and Podocarpaceae, as well as Araucarian conifers; ginkgo, cycads and/or bennettites. Flowering plants were likely represented by herbaceous forms. The palynoflora is generally indicative of a temperate, warm and humid climate. The occurrence of the Normapolles group with the presence of Plicapollis sp. and Pseudoculopollis sp. point to Turonian or probable Turonian-Coniacian age, and represent the southernmost record of occurrence within the Normapolles palynological province.Dominance of angiosperms and low abundance of ferns suggests an early-Late Cretaceous age. These findings are supported by the micropaleontological analyses and previously determined age of the sauropod dinosaur footprints described on the Island of Hvar. Based on the paleobotanical and palynological data, the dinosaur's diet probably included araucarian conifers, ginkgo and angiosperms, and ferns to a lesser extent.

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“…Accordingly, the late Cenomanian to late Campanian time period, an approximately 20 My long interval 14 , was long thought to represent a hiatus in the European sauropod record 8, 15 . The discovery of some Turonian-Coniacian sauropod footprints in Croatia 1, 16 and a trackway of a probable small sauropod from the Santonian of Italy 1, 17 , however, seem to challenge this view, and suggest a sampling bias instead 18 , mainly due to the “rarity of inland sediments and dominance of coastal deposits” (Mannion and Upchurch 1 2011:529) in the European Upper Cretaceous.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Sauropod Tooth from the Santonian of Hungary and the European Late Cretaceous ‘Sauropod Hiatus’

Ősi

Csiki-Sava

Prondvai

2017

Sci Rep

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The lack of sauropod body fossils from the 20 My-long mid-Cenomanian to the late Campanian interval of the Late Cretaceous in Europe is referred to as the ‘sauropod hiatus’, with only a few footprints reported from the Apulian microplate (i.e. the southern part of the European archipelago). Here we describe a single tooth from the Santonian continental beds of Iharkút, Hungary, that represents the first European body fossil evidence of a sauropod from this critical time interval. The mosaic of derived and plesiomorphic features documented by the tooth crown morphology points to a basal titanosauriform affinity suggesting the occurrence of a clade of sauropods in the Upper Cretaceous of Europe that is quite different from the previously known Campano-Maastrichtian titanosaurs. Along with the footprints coming from shallow marine sediments, this tooth further strengthens the view that the extreme rarity of sauropod remains from this period of Europe is the result of sampling bias related to the dominance of coastal over inland sediments, in the latter of which sauropod fossils usually occur. This is also in line with the hypothesis that sauropods preferred inland habitats to swampy environments.

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The first record of dinosaurs in the Dalmatian part (Croatia) of the Adriatic-Dinaric carbonate platform (ADCP)

Cited by 18 publications

References 5 publications

Osteology of the Late Jurassic Portuguese sauropod dinosaurLusotitan atalaiensis(Macronaria) and the evolutionary history of basal titanosauriforms

Osteology of the Late Jurassic Portuguese sauropod dinosaurLusotitan atalaiensis(Macronaria) and the evolutionary history of basal titanosauriforms

Late Cretaceous palynoflora from the central part of the Adriatic Carbonate Platform (Islands of Hvar and Šćedro), southern Croatia

A Sauropod Tooth from the Santonian of Hungary and the European Late Cretaceous ‘Sauropod Hiatus’

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