Author:
Páll-Gergely Barna,Magyar János,Csiki-Sava Zoltán,Botfalvai Gábor
Abstract
The terrestrial gastropod Ferussina petofiana Páll-Gergely sp. n. is described from uppermost Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) deposits from the Haţeg Basin, Romania. It represents the first properly diagnosed and described snail taxon from these deposits, despite numerous earlier reports of gastropod occurrences. This new species is characterized by a depressed, mostly smooth shell, three spiral carinae on the ventral side (inside the umbilicus), and an upward-turning aperture. The last feature characterizes two European fossil snail genera, the cyclophoroidean Ferussina, and the stylommatophoran Strophostomella. The new species is classified in the former group due to its nearly circular aperture, and the presence of conspicuous spiral carinae. In contrast, the aperture of most stylommatophoran genera (including Strophostomella) is semilunar, and if raised sculptural elements are present, they are mostly radially oriented. The identification of this new taxon in the uppermost Cretaceous of Romania represents an important range extension for the genus Ferussina, and adds it to the brief list of European clades that appear to have survived the mass extinction event at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary.
Subject
Animal Science and Zoology
Reference74 articles.
1. Antonescu, E., Lupu, D. & Lupu, M. (1983): Correlation palinologique du Crétacé terminal du sud-est des Monts Metaliferi et des Depressions de Hațeg et de Rusca Montană. – Anuarul Institutului de Geologie și Geofizică 59 (Stratigrafie și Paleontologie): 71–77.
2. Archibald, J. D. (2011): Extinction and radiation: How the fall of dinosaurs led to the rise of mammals. – Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 120 pp.
3. Bandel, K. & Riedel, F. (1994): The late Cretaceous gastropod fauna from Ajka (Bakony Mountains, Hungary): a revision. – Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien, Serie A 96: 1–65.
4. Benton, M. J., Csiki, Z., Grigorescu, D., Redelstorff, R., Sander, P. M., Stein, K. & Weishampel, D. B. (2010): Dinosaurs and the island rule: The dwarfed dinosaurs from Hațeg Island. – Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 293: 438–454. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2010.01.026
5. Bojar, A.-V., Halas, S., Bojar, H.-P., Grigorescu, D. & Vasile, Ș. (2011): Upper Cretaceous volcanoclastic deposits from the Hațeg Basin, South Carpathians (Romania): K-Ar ages and intrabasinal correlation. – Geochronometria 38(2): 182–188. https://doi.org/10.2478/s13386-011-0023-8