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Another piece of the puzzle: the first report on the Early Miocene lizard fauna from Austria (Ottnangian, MN 4; Oberdorf locality)

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Abstract

The lizard fauna from the Early Miocene of Austria, namely from Oberdorf in the Styrian basin, is described here for the first time. The Oberdorf is a particularly interesting locality, because its paleoenvironment is slightly different from that of other Central European MN 4 localities, such as Dolnice in the Cheb basin. Oberdorf has rare forest and pond-like biotopes in a swampy environment near a river system. Although the fossil material is only fragmentarily preserved, it supplies important information about palaeobiodiversity and taxa spatial distribution in the Central Paratethys area during the Early Miocene. Six major lizard clades are present in Oberdorf: Gekkota, ? Chamaeleonidae, Lacertidae, ? Scincidae, Cordylidae and Anguidae. Many of these are first described from Austria. The Oberdorf lizard fauna composition is comparable to that in Lower Miocene localities including Petersbuch 2 in Germany and also Dolnice in the Czech Republic. The Oberdorf palaeobiodiversity is decidedly lower. The maxilla material designated Gekkota indet. resembles that in Euleptes; however, the limited preservation of the find precludes precise conclusions. Chamaeleonids are rare at Oberdorf, but the Scincoidea clade is abundantly represented. This includes the cordyloid material and the material tentatively assigned to Scincidae. Two types of lacertids are identified: Lacerta cf. poncenatensis and Lacerta sp. The first forms the youngest known record of this species. Among anguids, Ophisaurus cf. spinari occurs in this locality, indicating that this taxon habited a wider range of environmental conditions, for example, than O. fejfari.

Kurzfassung

Die Eidechsenfauna aus dem frühen Miozän von Österreich wird hier erstmalig beschrieben. Das fossile Material stammt aus Oberdorf im Steirischen Becken. Aufgrund seiner abweichenden Paläoumweltbedingungen im Vergleich mit anderen mitteleuropäischen MN 4- Lokalitäten, wie etwa Dolnice im Cheb-Becken, handelt es sich um eine äußerst interessante Fundstelle. Oberdorf ist geprägt von seltenem Waldbestand sowie teichähnlichen Biotopen, welche sich in einer sumpfigen Umgebung in der Nähe eines Flusssystems befinden. Obwohl das fossile Material nur fragmentarisch erhalten ist, liefert es wichtige Informationen zur Paläobiodiversität wie auch zur räumlichen Verteilung der Taxa innerhalb der zentralen Paratethys zur Zeit des frühen Miozäns. Sechs Eidechsen-Großgruppen konnten in Oberdorf identifiziert werden: Gekkota,? Chamaeleonidae, Lacertidae,? Scincidae, Cordylidae und Anguidae. Viele werden dabei erstmalig aus Österreich beschrieben. Die Zusammensetzung der dortigen Echsenfauna wird mit untermiozänen Lokalitäten verglichen, darunter beispielsweise Petersbuch 2 in Deutschland, sowie Dolnice in der Tschechischen Republik. Auffällig ist eine deutlich geringere Paläobiodiversität innerhalb der Oberdorfer Fundstelle. Das Maxillen-Material, als Gekkota indet. bestimmt, ähnelt deutlich demjenigen von Euleptes, jedoch erlaubt der schlechte Erhaltungszustand des Fundes keine eindeutige Zuordnung. Chamaeleoniden sind eher seltene Funde in Oberdorf, während Material der Scincoidea reichlich vertreten ist. Dies beinhaltet Cordylidae-Material, wie auch welches, das vorläufig den Scincidae zugewiesen wird. Zwei Arten von Lacertiden können identifiziert werden: Lacerta cf. poncenatensis und Lacerta sp. Die erstgenannte Art repräsentiert hierbei das jüngste bisher bekannte Vorkommen dieser Spezies. Innerhalb der Anguiden ist Ophisaurus cf. spinari in dieser Lokalität vorhanden. Dies deutet darauf hin, dass dieses Taxon einen breiteren Bereich von Umweltbedingungen toleriert als beispielsweise O. fejfari.

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Acknowledgments

The author is indebted to U. Göhlich (the Natural History Museum, Vienna) for access to material described in this paper. I also thank J. Klembara (Comenius University in Bratislava), R. Kosma (Staatliches Naturhistorisches Museum, Braunschweig) and K. Smith (Senckenberg Research Institute, Frankfurt am Main) for helpful advice. M. Reich (Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie Munich) and S. Kirchhof (Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin) helped with the German abstract. SEM pictures were taken by N. Halašiová (Slovak Academy of Sciences). For critical reading of the manuscript I thank J.-C. Rage (Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle), K. Rauscher (Universität Wien) and M. Reich (Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie Munich).

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  1. Department of Ecology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava, Mlynská dolina, Ilkovičova 6, 842 15, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Andrej Čerňanský

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  1. Andrej Čerňanský
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Correspondence to Andrej Čerňanský.

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Communicated by Mike Reich.

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Čerňanský, A. Another piece of the puzzle: the first report on the Early Miocene lizard fauna from Austria (Ottnangian, MN 4; Oberdorf locality). PalZ 90, 723–746 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12542-016-0329-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12542-016-0329-1

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