Vălioara-Budurone (VB) (Cretaceous of Romania)

Also known as Vălioara Budurone; Valioara; Valiora

Where: Hunedoara, Romania (45.6° N, 22.8° E: paleocoordinates 32.7° N, 21.0° E)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Middle Member (Densuş-Ciula Formation), Early/Lower Maastrichtian (70.6 - 66.0 Ma)

• Close to the base of the Densuș-Ciula succession, in the basal part of the ‘middle member’, and are thus most probably of earliest to early Maastrichtian in age (Csiki-Sava et al., 2016). This age assessment is congruent with the 71.3+/-1.6 Ma K-Ar radiometric age reported by Bojar et al. (2011) from a tuff layer situated slightly to the west (Botfalvai et al. 2021)

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: wet floodplain; concretionary, micaceous, pyritic, black, gray, blue, silty mudstone and coarse-grained sandstone

• "a poorly drained alluvial plain, with areas of high water saturation and ponding, but also influenced by fluvial sedimentary processes from nearby channels (probably as crevasse splay deposits, judging from the sheet-like geometry of the coarser beds and lack of identifiable channel-linked structures within them)."
• "dark, grey-bluish to blackish mudstones"; includes pyrite concretions. Fossiliferous bed is "a well-sorted, micaceous silty mudstone, over 1 m thick, wedged between two 40-cm thick lithons of coarse sandstones showing graded bedding, in the median part of the succession. The dark-colored, blackish-slightly bluish silty mudstone is massive, without evident macroscopic sedimentary structures; it contains small, framboidal pyrite concretions and a large quantity of fusinite (charcoal) fragments, sometimes up to 0.5-0.7 cm long."

Size classes: mesofossils, microfossils

Collected by Grigorescu in 1996-1998

Collection methods: bulk, sieve,

Primary reference: D. Grigorescu, M. Venczel, Z. Csiki and R. Limberea. 1999. New latest Cretaceous microvertebrate fossil assemblages from the Haţeg Basin (Romania). Geologie en Mijnbouw 78:301-314 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano/P. Mannion]more details

Purpose of describing collection: general faunal/floral analysis

PaleoDB collection 67818: authorized by Matthew Carrano, entered by Matthew Carrano on 12.12.2006, edited by Philip Mannion and Jonathan Tennant

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

unclassified
  -
Bryopsida
  -
Rouseisporites
  -
Rouseisporites simplex1 Dettmann 1963
Lycopodiopsida
 Selaginellales -
Camarozonosporites insignis1 Norris 1967 clubmoss
 Lycopodiales - Lycopodiaceae
Lycopodiumsporites sp.1 Delcourt and Sprumont 1955 clubmoss
Lycopodiumsporites clavatoides1 Couper 1958 clubmoss
Alisporites
  -
Carpolithes
  -
Carpolithes spp.1 Schlotheim 1820
about 15 indeterminate species
Equisetopsida
 Cupressales - Pinidae
Inaperturopollenites dubius1 Thomson and Pflug 1953
Ginkgoopsida
 Ephedrales -
Ephedripites jansonii1 Muller 1968
Angiospermae
 Proteales -
Triatriopollenites sp.1 Thomson and Pflug 1953
 Buxales -
Polypodiidites sp.1 Potonié 1966
Pteridopsida
  -
Cyathidites sp.1 Couper 1953
Cyathidites australis1 Couper 1953
Leiotriletes sp.1 Potonie and Kremp 1954
Polypodiopsida
  - Polypodiaceae
Laevigatosporites ovatus1 Wilson and Webster 1946
 Schizaeales - Polypodiidae
Appendicisporites sp.1 Weyland and Greifeld 1953
Cicatricosisporites sp.1 Potonie and Gelletich 1933
Cicatricosisporites dorogensis1 Potonie and Gelletich 1933
  - Gleicheniaceae
Gleicheniidites sp.1 Dettmann 1963
Lingulata
 Acrotretida - Eoconulidae
Eoconulus sp.1 Cooper 1956
Gastropoda
 Stylommatophora - Pyramidulidae
 Heterostropha - Physidae
 Heterostropha - Lymnaeidae
Lymnaea dilatata1 Noulet 1854 snail
Reptilia
 Saurischia - Titanosauridae
 Ornithischia - Rhabdodontidae
Zalmoxes sp.1 Weishampel et al. 2003 rhabdodontid
FGGUB R.1812
 Ornithischia -
Telmatosaurus sp.1 Nopcsa 1903 ornithopod
 Theropoda -
"Euronychodon sp." = Paronychodon1
"Euronychodon sp." = Paronychodon1 Cope 1876 maniraptoran
FGGUB R.1826
 Loricata - Atoposauridae
Theriosuchus sp.2 Owen 1878 crocodilian
Teeth
 Loricata - Allodaposuchidae
cf. Allodaposuchus precedens Nopcsa 1928 crocodilian
FGGUB
 Loricata -
Doratodon sp.1 Seeley 1881 crocodilian
FGGUB
 Testudinata -
Kallokibotion sp.1 Nopcsa 1923 turtle
 Squamata -
Scincomorpha indet.1 squamates
FGGUB v.481, 482
 Squamata - Slavoiidae
? Slavoia sp.1 Sulimski 1984 squamates
FGGUB v.470
 Squamata -
Lacertilia indet. lizard
indeterminate lizards
Amphibia
 Temnospondyli - Albanerpetontidae
Albanerpeton sp. Estes and Hoffstetter 1976 tetrapod
FGGUB v.414
 Salientia -
Anura indet.1 Fischer von Waldheim 1813 frog
FGGUB v.438
 Salientia - Discoglossidae
cf. Bakonybatrachus sp.3 Szentesi and Venczel 2012 painted frog
LPG(FGGUB) v. 452
 Salientia - Alytidae
Paralatonia transylvanica n. gen. n. sp.1
Paralatonia transylvanica n. gen. n. sp.1 Venczel and Csiki 2003 midwife toads
Actinopteri
 Lepisosteiformes - Lepisosteidae
Lepisosteidae indet.1 Cuvier 1825 gar
scales; FGGUB v.401
Atractosteus sp.1 Rafinesque 1820 gar
Lepisosteus sp.1 Agassiz 1843 gar
 Teleostei -
Plicapollis
  -
Plicapollis sp.1 Pflug 1953
Subtriporopollenites
  -
Trudopollis
  -
Trudopollis sp.1 Pflug 1953