The Lower Miocene Libàno Sandstone of Veneto is historically known for being home to abundant finds of marine vertebrates, especially odontocetes, that have been collected and studied since the 18th century. The historical fossiliferous sites, stretching the Belluno area, expose coarse-grained sediments that could not be dated by biostratigraphic means as they are barren, and are loosely constrained to the Early Miocene. Here, we report an odontocete assemblage from the Colle della Croce quarry, a newly discovered locality near Feltre. The fine-grained sediments exposed in the quarry have been dated by calcareous nannoplankton biostratigraphy to the 20.89–19 Ma (latest Aquitanian to early Burdigalian) time interval. A preliminary systematic assessment of the odontocetes from the new quarry reveals an assemblage characterized by good diversity and disparity: it includes squalodontids, a new squaloziphiid-like dolphin, a physeteroid, eurhinodelphinids, an odontocete possibly related to Dalpiazina, and additional material of basal delphinidans (a cranium with ear bones from this very site was described as belonging to Kentriodon sp. by Nobile et al., 2024). Moreover, the marine vertebrate fossils from the Colle della Croce quarry also include sea turtles (Cheloniidae), bony fishes (Sparidae) and many different elasmobranch taxa. The new odontocete assemblage from the Colle della Croce quarry is somewhat similar to the historical Belluno fossil fauna due to the shared occurrence of members of squalodontids, eurhinodelphinids, physeteroids and possibly dalpiazinids. Apparent idiosyncracies of the Colle della Croce quarry include the occurrence of a kentriodontid and a squaloziphid-like, whose absence from the Belluno fauna may be due to small differences in terms of age and palaeoenvironment (with the strata exposed in the vicinity of Feltre representing distal facies compared to the Belluno outcrops).
A new Lower Miocene odontocete assemblage from the Colle della Croce quarry (Feltre; Northeastern Italy), and a chronostratigraphic calibration of the Belluno Sandstone
Francesco NOBILE;Alberto COLLARETA;Giovanni BIANUCCI
2024-01-01
Abstract
The Lower Miocene Libàno Sandstone of Veneto is historically known for being home to abundant finds of marine vertebrates, especially odontocetes, that have been collected and studied since the 18th century. The historical fossiliferous sites, stretching the Belluno area, expose coarse-grained sediments that could not be dated by biostratigraphic means as they are barren, and are loosely constrained to the Early Miocene. Here, we report an odontocete assemblage from the Colle della Croce quarry, a newly discovered locality near Feltre. The fine-grained sediments exposed in the quarry have been dated by calcareous nannoplankton biostratigraphy to the 20.89–19 Ma (latest Aquitanian to early Burdigalian) time interval. A preliminary systematic assessment of the odontocetes from the new quarry reveals an assemblage characterized by good diversity and disparity: it includes squalodontids, a new squaloziphiid-like dolphin, a physeteroid, eurhinodelphinids, an odontocete possibly related to Dalpiazina, and additional material of basal delphinidans (a cranium with ear bones from this very site was described as belonging to Kentriodon sp. by Nobile et al., 2024). Moreover, the marine vertebrate fossils from the Colle della Croce quarry also include sea turtles (Cheloniidae), bony fishes (Sparidae) and many different elasmobranch taxa. The new odontocete assemblage from the Colle della Croce quarry is somewhat similar to the historical Belluno fossil fauna due to the shared occurrence of members of squalodontids, eurhinodelphinids, physeteroids and possibly dalpiazinids. Apparent idiosyncracies of the Colle della Croce quarry include the occurrence of a kentriodontid and a squaloziphid-like, whose absence from the Belluno fauna may be due to small differences in terms of age and palaeoenvironment (with the strata exposed in the vicinity of Feltre representing distal facies compared to the Belluno outcrops).I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
