Also known as Pfaffenberg, Hollitzer quarry
Where: Lower Austria, Austria (48.1° N, 16.9° E: paleocoordinates 48.0° N, 16.8° E)
• coordinate based on nearby landmark
• small collection-level geographic resolution
When: Pliocene (5.3 - 2.6 Ma)
• "younger Csarnotarium", i.e. Middle Pliocene
• bed-level stratigraphic resolution
Environment/lithology: cave; lithified, pebbly, rubbly, red claystone and unlithified, pebbly, rubbly, red claystone
•[In spring of 1973 a small cave, filled with red sediment, was exposed in the quarry face between the 3rd and 4th level (~ 295 m a.s.l.) after a blasting operation. The cave was not accessible without special equipment and it could not have been very deep because there was no trace of it left after the next blasting in autumn of 1974. It was a lenticular cavity within the bedding joints of the dolomitic limestones of the Pfaffenberg hill which are dipping about 50° to the south. Probably it was part of a larger cave system and its connections to other cavities within the Pfaffenberg karst system may have been destroyed during quarry operations long before.] (Mais & Rabeder, 1977)
•"Das Sediment dieser Höhlenfüllung ist nach Niedermayer und Seemann (1974) ein 'tiefrotes, toniges und von gerundeten bis gut gerundeten Quarz und Quarzitgeröllen sowie von Sinter- und Dolomitbruchstücken durchsetztes Material'."
•[The sediment of the cave fill is a "deep red clayey material interspersed with well rounded pebbles of quartz and quartzite and with fragments of travertine and dolomite", according to Niedermayer & Seemann (1974, Die Höhle 25:3-11).] (Mais & Rabeder, 1977)
•"In der Feinfraktion des Schlämmgutes fanden wir neben den pliozänen Wirbeltierstücken auch stark abgerollte und korrodierte Foraminiferen und Bryozoen, die uns zeigten, daß es sich bei diesen Sedimenten um aufgearbeiteten Leithakalk handelt, der im Hangenden des Dolomitkörpers auch heute noch ansteht."
•[The finer grain-size fraction of the cave fill sediment included, besides the Pliocene vertebrate remains, heavily worn foraminifers and bryozoans, indicating that the cave sediment resulted from reworking of the Leitha Limestone [i.e. marine Badenian, TL] that today still forms the bedrock on top of the dolomitic limestone.] (Mais & Rabeder, 1977)
•The dolomitic limestone in which the caves have formed probably is of Middle Triassic age (Döppes & Rabeder, 1996, Mitt. Abt. Geol. Paläont. Landesmus. Joanneum 54, p. 24) and belongs to the alpidic basement of the Vienna Basin.
Size classes: macrofossils, mesofossils
• "Mengenmäßig dominieren unter den Reptilienresten die Hautverknöcherungen des Scheltopusik (Ophisaurus) sowie die Wirbel von Nattern, unter den Kleinsäugern die Zähne von Prospalax, einem blindmausartigen Nager, und von den beiden Mimomys-Arten (wurzelzähnige Wühlmäuse)."
•[The reptile remains are dominated by the osteoderms of Ophisaurus and by colubrid vertebrae, the mammal remains by the teeth of Prospalax and Mimomys.]
Preservation: original phosphate
Collected by Mais & Rabeder et al. in 1973-1974
Collection methods: peroxide, sieve,
• UWPI = Paläontologisches Institut der Universität Wien [Vienna University Paleontological Institute]
•"Dieser Ton war lagenweise sehr stark verfestigt, so daß er mehrmals mit Wasserstoffperoxid aufbereitet werden mußte, bis er schlämmbar wurde."
•[Some layers of the clay were strongly lithified so that it had to be treated repeatedly with hydrogenium peroxide before it was suitable for screenwashing.] (Mais & Rabeder, 1977)
Primary reference: K. Mais and G. Rabeder. 1977. Eine pliozäne Höhlenfüllung im Pfaffenberg bei Bad Deutsch-Altenburg (Niederösterreich). Die Höhle 28(1):1-7 [J. Mueller/T. Liebrecht]more details
Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis
PaleoDB collection 167717: authorized by Johannes Mueller, entered by Torsten Liebrecht on 29.03.2015
Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)
Taxonomic list
Reptilia | |
"Ophisaurus pannonicus" = Pseudopus pannonicus
"Ophisaurus pannonicus" = Pseudopus pannonicus Kormos 1911 legless lizard | |
Coluber sp. Linnaeus 1758 racer | |
Lacerta sp. Linnaeus 1758 squamates | |
Testudinata indet. Oppel 1811 turtle | |
Mammalia | |
Talpa cf. minor Freudenberg 1914 mole | |
Beremendia sp. Kormos 1930 shrew
Episoriculus cf. gibberodon Petenyi 1864 red-toothed shrew
Crocidura cf. obtusa white-toothed shrew | |
Rhinolophus cf. euryale Blasius 1853 horseshoe bat | |
Myotis sp. Kaup 1829 vesper bat | |
Hypolagus beremendensis rabbit | |
"Apodemus cf. sylvaticus" = Mus sylvaticus
"Apodemus cf. sylvaticus" = Mus sylvaticus Linnaeus 1758 wood mouse |