Review of the villafranchian s.s. faunas of Romania

Abstract

: Paleontological investigations carried out in the Dacic Basin and the Braov Depression indicate that the Villafranchian s.s. (Early Villafranchian of Italian authors, MN-16 zone, Middle Pliocene) is distinguishable for the appearance of a serie of new types of animals. Four faunal events can be distinguished on the basis of the magnetic polarity sequence: (1) appearence of Dicerorhinus elatus among the Covrigi fauna (Dacic Basin), at Araci-Fântâna Fagului and larâş-2 (Braşov Depression) (approx. 3.2 Ma); (2) appearence of Dicerorhinus etruscus among the Mătăsari/Brădetu fauna (Dacic Basin) and at larâş, Cariera Veche (Braşov Depression) (approx. 3.1 Ma); (3) appearance of a very primitive elephant, Mammuthus rumanus among the Cernăteş, ti and Tuluceşti faunas (Dacic Basin) (approx. 3.0-2.9 Ma); (4) appearance of the Mimomys stehlini minor group in the Dacic Basin Oust before the Gauss-Matuyama boundary). The micromammalian assemblage of Podari (Dacic Basin) (dated to about 3.0 Ma) which includes species of the genera Dolomys, Propliomys and Pliomys, but lacks Mimomys forms, represents an equivalent of the Cernăteş, ti fauna.