Vilafant (Pliocene of Spain)

Also known as Villafant

Where: Catalonia, Spain (42.2° N, 2.9° E: paleocoordinates 42.4° N, 2.5° E)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: MN 14 (4.9 - 4.2 Ma)

• The locality has been assigned to the terrestrial mammal zone MN 14 by Agustí (1982, Act. Geol. Hisp. 17(1-2):21-26), corresponding to a Ruscinian (Lower Pliocene) age (cf. Fleta et al., 1991).

Environment/lithology: delta plain; gravel

• No description of lithology is given in the primary reference. Fleta et al. (1991) very briefly describe the "micromamifero"-bearing beds of Vilafant ("Unidad Vilafant") as gravels and interpret them as proximal deposits of a delta system that has prograded into a bay of the Paleomediterranean. This bay is referred to as the Riumors subbasin (Cubeta de Riumors) which forms the northeastern Part of the Empordà Basin, whereas the southwestern subbasin (Cubeta de Fellines) is mainly filled with terrestrial clastics of the Late Miocene.

Size classes: macrofossils, mesofossils

Primary reference: Z. Szyndlar. 1985. Ophidian fauna (Reptilia, Serpentes) from the uppermost Miocene of Algora (Spain). Estudios Geologicos 41:447-465 [J. Head/J. Head/J. Alroy]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 167917: authorized by Johannes Mueller, entered by Torsten Liebrecht on 07.04.2015

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
Reptilia
 Squamata - Crotalidae
? Vipera sp.
? Vipera sp. Laurenti 1768 pit viper
"vertebrae of a Viperidae of enormous size"