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The Hateg - Island Or Outpost?

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The Hateg - Island Or Outpost? C. - M . J i a nu1 & G.J. B o e k s c h o t e n 2 1 Muzeul Dacice çi Romane, D ev a 2 Instituut voor A a rd we t e n s c h ap p e n , A m s t e rd a m The Hateg - island or outpost? Jianu, C.-M. & Boekschoten, G.J., 1999 - The Hateg - island or outpost? - in: Reumer, J.W. F. & De Vo s , J. (eds.) - EL E P H A N T S H AV E A S N O R K E L! PA P E R S I N H O N O U R O F PA U L Y. SO N D A A R - DEINSEA 7: 195-198 [ISSN 0923-9308]. Published 10 December 1999 The Hateg upper Cretaceous island concept was coined by Franz Baron Nopcsa in 1912 and has held ever since. After a review of the tectonic, sedimentological and paleontological data available, it is con- cluded that neither the tectonic background nor the sediment infilling make the Hateg basin a probable island site. The balanced vertebrate fauna also suggests a continental setting. The peculiar features of some of its constituents rather suggest vicariant developments along a long and not very wide moun- tain range, projecting from the southeast into the epicontinental seas of upper Cretaceous Europe. Hateg was not an island; it was an outpost. Correspondence: C.-M. Jianu, Muzeul Dacice çi Romane, Deva, Romania; G.J. Boekschoten, Instituut voor Aardwetenschappen, Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1085, NL- 1081 HV Amsterdam, T h e N e t h e r l a n d s Keywords: island evolution, dinosaurs, Cretaceous I N T RO D U C T I O N The Hateg upper Cretaceous island concept explicit. According to Weishampel et al. was coined by Franz Baron Nopcsa when he (1991) and also to Benton (1996) the island lectured, 27t h November 1912, in Vienna at a measured about 7,500 km2, and it lay in an session of the Zoologische Botanische archipelago some 200 to 300 km from the Gesellschaft, section Paleontology and evolu- nearest mainland mass in northern Europe. tionary sciences. According to a short abs- The sediments consist of river deposits with tract (Nopcsa 1914) he pointed out that all tropical soils, and here and there, ashes, testi- Transsylvanian dinosaurs were notably smal- fying to continuing volcanic activity and ler than their northern American and east uplift of the island. African counterparts. Their diminutive size, then, was compared with the nanism of After 86 years, much new information has Mediterranean Pleistocene island elephants. been gathered on the Hateg, and on fossil During discussion, Abel concurred with this island faunae. The aim of the present paper is isolation idea, and pointed to the dwarfing of to review some constraints for reconsidering Mediterranean H i p p o p o t a m u s , as well as to the Hateg island concept. It was the good for- island gigantism. Nopcsa and Abel referred to tune of the second author to join with Paul earlier work by Forsyth Major on Malta, and Sondaar on Crete, Cyprus, Mallorca and - then new - discoveries by Miss D.M.A. Menorca when he started his career as an Bate on Cyprus and Crete. The Hateg island island addict. concept has held, and it even became quite 195 ELEPHANTS HAVE A SNORKEL! DEINSEA 7, 1999 T E C TONIC A S P E C T S A recent summary is presented by Sanders cally by Anastaiu & Ciobuca (1989). Marine (1998). Tectonic compression in the area sediments of Campanian - early starts in the early Cretaceous, and lasts into Maastrichtian age are overlain by the 4 km the late Cretaceous; it is caused by the mutual thick Densus-Ciwa formation, consisting of collision between microplates (Burchfiel alluvial fan deposits merging into lacustrine 1980). The origin of these continental frag- deposits. The Sinpetru of roughly equal age ments is controversial. The compressional was deposited in a braided river environment 1 structures are covered by undisturbed late and is at least 2 /2 km thick. Continental Cretaceous sediments, marking the end of the deposits of such thickness are not found on compressional event within the fragments. A any actual Mediterranean island, be it admit- late Alpine tectonic episode started in the ted that part of the Hateg clastics was fresh early Miocene, resulting in large strike-slip volcanic material. Much of the detritic mate- faulting in the area. A regional update is rial must have been derived from newly ele- given by Ziegler (1987). In his plate 16, the vated Cretaceous mountain ranges, and was main positive areas (putative landmasses) deposited in a rapidly subsiding restricted during the Turonian-Campanian in Europe are sedimentary basin. the fold belts that prolong from Turkey by Greece on to the Alps. The fact that dinosaurs PA L E O N TOLOGICAL A S P E C T S lived on these ranges is proven by finds of Islands are known for their restricted faunas. ‘early Senonian’ hadrosaur bones at Duino, But the Hateg fauna is, in contrast, reasona- Italy (Brazzati & Calligaris 1995). bly diverse and includes a good sample of Apparently the adjacent shallow Karst carbo- undisputed mainland taxa from other parts of nate platform was colonized from the fold the world. New research adds steadily more belt. This extensive SE European-Levantine species (Grigorescu et al., 1998). The fossil landmass was bordered to the north and west vertebrates of the Hateg area are listed below: by one larger island (Fennosarmatia) and many smaller islands (the Iberian meseta, the O s t e i c h t h y e s Ebro high, the Corsica-Sardinia high, the C h o n d r o s t e i Massif Central, the Armorican massif, Acipenseriformes indet. Cornwall, Ireland, Caledonia and the Rhenish Te l e o s t e i massif). Ziegler’s (1987) plate 17 gives the C h a r a c i f o r m e s early Tertiary situation: the anorogenic Characidae indet. islands have fused into one large European landmass. The fold belts of SE Europe are Amphibia indet. still bordered by narrow deep seas, but the Discoglossid anurans Moesian platform is a wide corridor between Albanerpetonid lissamphibians fold belts and cratons. Modern tectonic data, thus, suggest Hateg as about the least proba- R e p t i l i a ble island site in the late Cretaceous! L e p i d o s a u r i a Squamata indet. S E D I M E N TOLOGICAL A S P E C T S Te s t u d i n e s Nopcsa (1905) already described the Hateg C a s i c h e l y d i a deposits as largely fluviatile with some lacu- S e l m a c r y p t o d i r a strine intercalations. He wondered about Fam. Kallokibotionidae these gigantic formations that stand isolated; Kallokibotium bajazidi their thicknesses would add up to 2,500 met- A r c h o s a u r i a res. The deposits were studied sedimentologi- C r o c o d y l i a 196 JIANU & BOEKSCHOTEN: review of the Hateg island concept E u s u c h i a M a m m a l i a C r o c o d i l i d a e M u l t i t u b e r c u l a t a Allodaposuchus praecedens Barbatodon transsylvanicus Doratodon s p . (= Paracimexomis dacicus) A l l i g a t o r i d a e Kogaionon ungure a n u i Musturzabalsuchus s p . A c y n o d o n s p. If the fauna is not as large as elsewhere, this S a u r i s c h i a may be also due to the restricted area in S a u r o p o d a which sediments were preserved and are Ti t a n o s a u r i d a e accessible for collection: some 15x21 km, at M a g y a ro s a u rus dacus most. But the fauna is, as such, not unbalan- T h e r o p o d a ced: a variety of Hateg herbivores and at least Carnosauria indet. one large predator are present. There are not “M e g a l o s a u r u s” h u n g a r i c u s any morphological peculiarities of Hateg Troodontidae indet. dinos that would make them better swimmers Ceratosauria indet. than many mid-continent species at other Tetanura (non Maniraptora) places. This then does not indicate dispersal Heptasteornis andre w s i towards a Hateg volcanic island arising from Bradycneme draculae the sea. Native volcanic islands anyhow are not often part of a vicariant distribution pat- ( M a n i r a p t o r a ) tern, resulting from the breakup of a former D r o m a e o s a u r i d a e l a rge r area. Understandably, vicariance is E l o p t e r yx nopcsai considered by Weishampel et al. (1991). But cf. Saurnitholestes langstoni then a new problem arises: as yet there is not Velociraptorinae much known about continentality in the cf. E u ro n y c h o d o n s p . Premaastrichtian of the area.
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