Mrzlek (Gorica Museum collection) (Cretaceous of Slovenia)

Where: Slovenia (46.0° N, 13.7° E: paleocoordinates 28.5° N, 14.7° E)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Cenomanian (100.5 - 93.9 Ma)

• Black limestone (“Fischschiefer”) of the lower Cretaceous of Karst, Gorizia in Veneto Friuli. The black limestones of Mzrlek were originally classified as Lower Cretaceous by Kner (1863), also Stache (1905) located it the 'lower Karst chalk'. Later the layers have been considered as lowermost Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian). According to the geological map of Yugoslavia, the limestone is Aptian in age. Pleničar and Buser (1967: 148) write that flat limestones with fish remains appear in the lower part of the Cretaceous strata, so they could be classified as Albian. Pleničar (2009: 266) writes that the remains of fish were found in the middle part of the Albian dark gray flat argillaceous limestone. But, in the opinion of the Italian geologists, the black fossiliferous limestone is considered to be Hauterivian up to Barremian age (dalla Vecchia et al., 2008). The fish Amiopsis prisca, from Mrzlek, is also found in Barremian strata in Italy (dalla Vecchia et al., 2007). Križnar (2014) argued that the fish-bearing beds at Mrzlek are Albian-Cenomanian in age, and many fish genera are shared with the Komen beds in the Albian-Cenomanian Povir Formation (Jurkovšek et al., 2016). Platy limestones are a facies that occur throughout the succession, but the large majority of historical fish collections come from the Cenomanian part (Cavin et al., 2000).

• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: lagoonal or restricted shallow subtidal; lithified, black limestone

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: adpression

Collection methods: Repository: Gorica Museum (Museum of Görz/Gorizia)

Primary reference: D. Gorjanović-Kramberger. 1895. Fosilne ribe Komena, Mrzleka, Hvara i M. Libanona uz dodatak o Oligocenskim ribama Tüffera, Zagora i Trifalja. Djela Jugoslavenske Akademije Znanosti i Umjetnosti 16:1-67 [M. Clapham/M. Clapham/M. Clapham]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 144686: authorized by Philip Mannion, entered by Jonathan Tennant on 15.05.2013, edited by Matthew Clapham

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Reptilia
 Testudines - Thalassemydidae
Sontiochelys cretacea n. sp. Stache 1905 turtle
Holotype lost
Actinopteri
 Pycnodontiformes - Pycnodontidae
Coelodus latus n. sp. Gorjanović-Kramberger 1895
Coelodus ovalis n. sp. Gorjanović-Kramberger 1895
Coelodus rostratus n. sp. Gorjanović-Kramberger 1895
 Amiiformes - Amiidae
Amiopsis prisca Kner 1863 bowfin
 Teleostei -
"Clupea gaudryi" = Scombroclupea gaudryi
"Clupea gaudryi" = Scombroclupea gaudryi Pictet and Humbert 1866
 Albuliformes - Albulidae
Ancylostylos gibbus n. gen. n. sp.
Ancylostylos gibbus n. gen. n. sp. Gorjanović-Kramberger 1895 bonefish
 Aspidorhynchiformes - Aspidorhynchidae
Belonostomus matteuzi n. sp. Gorjanović-Kramberger 1895
Aspidorhynchus montissancti n. sp. Gorjanović-Kramberger 1895
Osteichthyes
 Aetheospondyli -
Opsigonus squamosus n. sp. Gorjanović-Kramberger 1895