PBDB Collection

Fosso de la Fittaia 2013 (Miocene of Italy)

Also known as FdF2013; Fosso della Fittaia

Where: Tuscany, Italy (42.8° N, 11.4° E)

• Paleocoordinates: 40.6° N, 12.8° E (Wright 2013)

• coordinate estimated from map

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Unit CB1a Member (Synthem CB1 Formation), Tortonian (11.6 - 7.2 Ma)

• In the summer of 2013 a natural exposure of the lowermost portion of synthem CB1, known as the Fosso della Fittaia section (Figs 1, 2), was discovered, which had been made well accessible due to catastrophic erosion caused by large floods during the preceding autumn.

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: wet floodplain; massive mudstone

• Mudstones will correspond to a poorly-oxygenated floodplain though siderite nodules, which are more common in the uppermost portion of the section (Fig. 2), suggesting the occurrence of temporary shallow water bodies. Siderite may form in river bogs and marshes (Pye 1981; Postma 1977) and is reported to occur at the alluvial-palustrine facies transition (Cabrera et al. 1995). Pebbly sandstones would correspond to the infill of shallow and narrow channels by downcurrent migration of small sinuous-crested dunes.

• The upper portion of the series consists of mudstones similar to the previous ones, except for the occurrence of isolated siderite concretions. Lenticular beds of pebbly sandstone of decimetric thickness are interbedded within the mudstones, showing crude trough-cross lamination that indicates a paleocurrent directed to WSW.

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: replaced with siderite

Collected in 2013

Collection methods: quarrying, surface (in situ), sieve,

• In order to recover microvertebrates we followed the classical approach described by MacKenna (1962). The total of 100 kg of sediment sampled was completely dried. Afterwards, it was immersed in water which produced its disaggregation. The sediment was then screen-washed using professional wet sieves (Controls Srl) with mesh sizes of 10, 2.5, 0.7 and 0.5 mm respectively. Screen-washing removed all the mud and left a residue that has been inspected under a stereomicroscope in order to recover and isolate the small mammal remains and other vertebrate fossils.

•

•All the material studied in the systematic part of this work is housed within the collections of the Museo di Storia Naturale dell’Università di Firenze (Sezione Geologia e Paleontologia)

Primary reference: O. Cirilli, M. G. Benvenuti, G. Carnevale, I. Casanovas Vilar, M. Delfino, M. Furió, M. Papini, A. Villa, and L. Rook. 2016. Fosso della Fittaia: the oldest Tusco-Sardinian late Miocene endemic vertebrate assemblages (Baccinello-Cinigiano Basin, Tuscany, Italy). Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia 122(2):13-34 [E. Vlachos/E. Vlachos]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 190848: authorized by Evangelos Vlachos, entered by Evangelos Vlachos on 19.12.2017

Creative Commons license: CC0 (CC0)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names

Reptilia
Squamata - Anguidae	Anguinae indet., Anguis sp. Anguinae indet. Gray 1825 squamates IGF102244: one trunk vertebra; IGF102245: highly fragmentary trunk vertebra; IGF102246: fragmentary tail vertebra; IGF102247: one osteoderm; IGF102248: one osteoderm; IGF102249: 38 osteoderms or osteoderm fragments Anguis sp. Linnaeus 1758 slow worm IGF102243: one trunk vertebra
Squamata -	Lacertilia indet. Lacertilia indet. lizard IGF102250: one highly fragmentary tooth bearing bone, one frontal and five vertebral fragments
Serpentes -	Serpentes indet. Serpentes indet. snake IGF102255: one fragmentary trunk vertebra, five fragments of a large vertebra, one fragmentary caudal vertebra
Squamata - Colubridae	Colubridae indet. Colubridae indet. Oppel 1811 colubrid snake IGF102252: one fragmentary trunk vertebra; IGF102253: one vertebral fragment; IGF102254: one fragmentary trunk vertebra
Squamata - Boidae	cf. Erycinae indet. cf. Erycinae indet. Bonaparte 1825 sand boa IGF102251: incomplete trunk vertebra
Testudines - Testudinidae	Testudo sp. Testudo sp. Linnaeus 1758 turtle IGF102237: isolated right ilium; IGF102238: fragmentary cervical vertebra; IGF102239: 24 fragmentary girdle, appendicular or vertebral fragments; IGF102240: six costal fragments, one partial peripheral and 27 shell fragments; IGF102241: one block of sediment hosting several shell and few girdle and appendicular elements; IGF102242: one isolated partial left xiphiplastron.
Mammalia
Lagomorpha - Ochotonidae	Paludotona sp. Paludotona sp. Dawson 1959 pika a single upper molariform tooth (IGF102261)
Rodentia - Gliridae	Anthracoglis marinoi Anthracoglis marinoi Engesser 1983 dormouse four isolated cheek teeth; one M2 (IGF102262) and a lower molar series (m1-m3) belonging to a single individual (IGF102263)
Rodentia - Muridae	Huerzelerimys oreopitheci Huerzelerimys oreopitheci Engesser 1989 mouse One maxillary fragment with an M1 (IGF102266), one fragmentary mandible with an m2 (IGF102267) and seven isolated cheek teeth: one M1 (IGF102268), four M2 (IGF102269, IGF102270, IGF102271, IGF102272), one m1 (IGF102273) and one broken m2 (IGF102274)
Artiodactyla - Bovidae	Tyrrhenotragus sp. Tyrrhenotragus sp. Thomas 1984 antelope one isolated lower cheek teeth m1 (or m2) (IGF102275)
Soricomorpha - Soricidae	cf. Lartetium sp. cf. Lartetium sp. Ziegler 1989 shrew IGF102256: upper right incisor; IGF102257: isolated right m1; IGF102258: fragmentary right mandible with m1- m2; IGF102259: fragmentary right mandible with m2; IGF102260: fragmentary right mandible with m2-m3
Amphibia
Salientia -	Anura indet. Anura indet. Fischer von Waldheim 1813 frog IGF102236: one squamosal, one mandible, one humerus, two femura, ten tibiofibulae, one vertebra, one urostyle, and three indeterminate fragments.
Salientia - Alytidae	Discoglossinae indet. Discoglossinae indet. Günther 1859 midwife toads IGF102233: one fragmentary right ilium; IGF102234: one fragmentary right ilium; IGF102235: three fragmentary right ilia
Actinopteri
Gobiiformes - Gobiidae	? Gobiidae indet. ? Gobiidae indet. Bonaparte 1832 goby IGF102232, a single fragmentary left premaxilla