‘X’ marks the spot! Sedimentological, geochemical and palaeontological investigations of Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) vertebrate fossil localities from the Valioara valley (Densus-Ciula Formation, Hațeg Basin, Romania)

Botfalvai, Gábor and Csiki-Sava, Zoltán and Kocsis, László and Albert, Gáspár and Magyar, János and Bodor, Emese Réka and Tabara, Daniel and Ulyanov, Alexey and Makádi, László (2021) ‘X’ marks the spot! Sedimentological, geochemical and palaeontological investigations of Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) vertebrate fossil localities from the Valioara valley (Densus-Ciula Formation, Hațeg Basin, Romania). CRETACEOUS RESEARCH, 123. pp. 1-40. ISSN 0195-6671

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Abstract

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Croatian-Hungarian palaeontologist Ottokár Kadić discovered a rich Late Cretaceous vertebrate assemblage around Vălioara in the Haţeg Basin, including fossils of several dinosaurs and the proposed lectotype of the iconic basal eusuchian crocodyliform Allodaposuchus. These fossils were collected from seven main localities and have been housed in the collections of the Mining and Geological Survey of Hungary. However, the collection was mixed after World War II, and this unprovenanced material currently cannot be used for palaeoecological investigations. Nevertheless, the map marking the location of Kadić’s sites has been recently uncovered, showing the positions of the fossiliferous localities, which allows matching these with the historically collected specimens using geochemistry. Based on Kadić’s map, we georeferenced, relocated, and re-excavated these vertebrate-bearing outcrops, and documented their sedimentological context. Detailed stratigraphical investigations of the exposed successions indicate that this Vălioara material represents one of the oldest (= earliest Maastrichtian) Late Cretaceous faunal assemblages known from the Haţeg Basin. The vertebrate remains collected during our new excavations around Vălioara represent turtles (including Kallokibotion), crocodyliforms (Allodaposuchus, Doratodon, ‘Theriosuchus’, Acynodon), dinosaurs (Zalmoxes, Telmatosaurus, titanosaurs, theropods), and mammals. In order to determine potential geochemical differences among the sites, we selected several specimens with recorded stratigraphic position, measured their trace element compositions, and used these as independent proxies to assess the probable stratigraphic origin of the historical vertebrate fossils. Our detailed sedimentological, geochemical and palaeontological investigations around Vălioara contribute to a deeper understanding of the distribution, evolution and palaeoecology of the Haţeg vertebrate faunas during the latest Cretaceous.

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