The Priabonian fish from Leghia (Transylvanian Basin, Romania)

ABSTRACT

A fish fauna originating from a limestone level of the Palaeogene sedimentary succession exposed on the northwestern side of the Transylvanian Basin (Gilău sedimentary area), belonging to the Viștea Limestone Formation, was discovered. On this occasion, we studied a lower Priabonian fish assemblage from the Leghia-Tabără area in Cluj County. Priabonian in Romania is a stage for which there are few data concerning fossil fish. Herein, it documented the occurrence of two orders of elasmobranchs (Lamniformes and Carcharhiniformes), one order of batoids (Myliobatiformes), and three other orders of actinopterygians (Istiophoriformes, Perciformes and Tetraodontiformes). Striatolamia tchelkarnurensis, a species formerly described solely from the Turgai Strait, is firstly reported outside of the region of its original description. Furthermore, noteworthy is the first record of the species Physogaleus alabamensis from Europe. This Palaeogene fish fauna from Leghia completes the regional and continental distributions, resulting in a more accurate understanding of palaeogeography and paleoenvironments.

KEYWORDS:

• Late Eocene
• paleoichtyology
• Elasmobranchii
• Actinopterygii
• Romania

Acknowledgments

We like to thank Dr Oleksandr Kovalchuk (National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine) and one anonymous reviewer for the work carried out for the correction of our manuscript and for the suggestions made to improve it. We warmly thank Mr Adrian Oltean for his donation of the vertebrate fossils from Leghia-Tabără quarry to the Babeș-Bolyai University. His inquisitive spirit was decisive in recovering the fossils, which otherwise would be lost. The authors are very grateful to June Ebersole, Jason Seitz and David Ward for the discussions we had about some of the specimens herein published.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

For V.A.C. and M.B., this work was supported by a grant of the Romanian Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitization, CNCS-UEFISCDI, project number PN-III-P4-PCE-2021-0351, within PNCDI III.