La Nisiparie sandpit, near Draxeni (Miocene of Romania)

Where: Vaslui, Romania (46.6° N, 27.5° E: paleocoordinates 47.0° N, 26.5° E)

• coordinate estimated from map

When: Muncelu Member (Scheia Formation), Sarmatian (12.7 - 11.6 Ma)

• At Draxeni, the basal member - if present - does not crop out. In these circumstances, the sand in the open pit could be related to the Muncelu Member.

Environment/lithology: shoreface; silty sandstone

• On the basis of these features, the lithological succession at Draxeni open-pit could be interpreted as representing the shoreface > foreshore environments, i.e., a regressive evolution (Fig. 2). Energy of the environment was obviously high, the teeth and bones bearing marks of rolling by waves and currents before their burial. The remains are always isolated, no anatomical connection being reported until now
• The pit exposes an 8 m succession of lumachelle sand, greenish clay sand and silts. The sand consists of angular and subangular white quartz grains. Subordinate muscovite is present, along with rare biotite spangles. In some sectors, there is lumachelle sand with a high concentration of small comminuted mollusc and ostracod shell fragments.

Size classes: macrofossils, mesofossils

Collection methods: quarrying,

• The vertebrate fossils are curated at the Natural Science Branch, Bârlad Museum.

Primary reference: V. Codrea and L. Ursachi. 2007. The Sarmatian vertebrates from Draxeni (Moldavian Platform). Studia Universitatis Babeş-Bolyai, Geologia 52(2):19-28 [E. Vlachos/E. Vlachos]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 197472: authorized by Evangelos Vlachos, entered by Evangelos Vlachos on 13.11.2018

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Mammalia
 Perissodactyla - Rhinocerotidae
Aceratherium incisivum Cuvier 1824 rhinoceros
Left P4; left M2 fragment; right p3; left ? Mc V; lower ? premolar, abraded by rolling
 Perissodactyla - Equidae
Hippotherium sp. Kaup 1832 hipparionine horse
cf. Hippotherium primigenium, Right M3
 Artiodactyla - Lagomerycidae
"? Lagomerycinae indet." = Lagomerycidae
"? Lagomerycinae indet." = Lagomerycidae Pilgrim 1941 ruminant
Tibia diaphysis fragment
 Proboscidea - Gomphotheriidae
Tetralophodon longirostris Kaup 1832 gomphothere
Right M3
Reptilia
 Testudines - Testudinidae
Testudinidae indet. Batsch 1788 turtle
Right PL 3, left PL 6, ? PL, ? hypoplastron fragment.