The succession of Vertebratesand Plants across the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary in the Tremp Formation, Ager valley (South-central Pyrenees, Spain)

Diversity and faunal changes in the latest Cretaceous dinosaur communities of southwestern Europe

“…The authors described the "lower" assemblages as those composed by titanosaurids alongside rhabdodontids and nodosaurids whereas the "upper" assemblages were dominated by hadrosauroids. The hypothesis was supported by many subsequent findings (Buffetaut, 2005;Buffetaut et al, 1997;Casanovas, PeredaSuberbiola, Santaf e, & Weishampel, 1999;Casanovas et al, 1995;Laurent et al, 2002;L opez-Martínez et al, 1999L opez-Martínez et al, , 2001Vila et al, 2006) and two decades later, with the profusion of new discoveries, correlations of some of the most important localities and successions with the magnetostratigraphic time scale and advances in chronostratigraphy (Oms et al, 2007;Pereda-Suberbiola et al, 2009;Riera et al, 2009;Vila et al, 2012Vila et al, , 2013, we are able to refine the timing and the nature of this turnover (Fig. 2).…”

“…From the analysis of the data compiled in our database we recognize a clear heterogeneity and disparity in the fossil record of these regions, in terms of number of sites, dinosaur-bearing formations, and taxonomic occurrences by region, age and type of evidence (Table 1). The Iberia region comprises a total number of 33 sites (27 for the upper Campanian-lower Maastrichtian; 6 for the upper Maastrichtian) including sites such as Aveiro and Viso in Portugal (Antunes & Sigogneau-Russell, 1991, and Laño, Lo Hueco, Chera, Armuña, and Quintanilla del Coco in Spain Ortega et al, 2015;Pol et al, 1992;among others); the Pyrenees region encompasses 359 sites (190 for the upper Campanian-lower Maastrichtian; 169 for the upper Maastrichtian) with remarkable sites such as Areny, Blasi, Els Nerets, Basturs, Fumanya, Fontllonga-6, Coll de Narg o in Spain and Auzas, Cassagnau, Tricout e, Le Bexen, Albas, Bellevue, Rennes le Château in France (Beetschen, 1985;Casanovas, Santaf e, Sanz, & Powell, 1995;Erben, Hoefs, & Wedepohl, 1979;Lapparent, 1958;Laurent, Cavin, & Bilotte, 1999;Laurent et al, 2002;Le Loeuff & Martínez, 1997;L opez-Martínez, Fern andez-Marr on, & Valle, 1999, L opez-Martínez et al, 2001Le Loeuff, 2005;PeredaSuberbiola et al, 2009;Sell es et al, 2013). The Provence region comprises 102 sites (83 for the upper Campanian-lower Maastrichtian; 19 for the upper Maastrichtian) such as Fox-Amphoux, La Boucharde, Massecaps, La Cairanne, Velaux-La Bastide Neuve, Jas Neuf, and Vitrolles-La-Plaine (Allain, 1998;Buffetaut et al, 1999;Garcia, Amico, Fournier, Thouand, & Valentin, 2010;Lapparent, 1947;Tortosa et al, 2014;Valentin et al, 2012;Vianey-Liaud, Mallan, Buscail, & Montgelard, 1994).…”

A multi-proxy geochemical investigation of the early Paleocene (Danian) continental palaeoclimate at the Fontllonga-3 site (South Central Pyrenees, Spain)

“…However, the abundance of mesotherm taxa, the presence of evergreen angiosperms (Magnoliaceae and Lauraceae) and the presence of entire-margined leaves would indicate a subtropical climate. Therefore, López-Martínez et al (1999) conclude that during the earliest Paleocene a subtropical seasonally dry climate may have occurred in the South Central Pyrenees.…”

New dinosaur sites correlated with Upper Maastrichtian pelagic deposits in the Spanish Pyrenees: implications for the dinosaur extinction pattern in Europe

“…These sites have been considered to be Late Maastrichtian on the grounds that the youngest underlying marine deposits are Late Campanian-Early Maastrichtian; in fact the age-range of the foraminifer Lepidorbitoides minor, for long considered to be a Maastrichtian marker species, is Late Campanian according to recent calibrations (lower Gansserina gansseri Biozone; Caus et al, 1988). The middle part of the dinosaur-bearing red beds is supposed to be Maastrichtian because it contains the palynomorph Pseudopapillopollis praesubhercynicus (Weishampel et al, 1991;Grigorescu et al, 1994); however this criterion is unreliable, because there is a continuous succession of palynomorph taxa across the Cretaceous/Tertiary transition in the Tethys area, the stratigraphic ranges of which are imprecisely known (Méon, 1991;Médus et al, 1992;Ló pez-Martínez et al, 1999b).…”