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New Remains of the Multituberculate Mammal Barbatodon from the Upper Cretaceous of the Hațeg Basin (Romania)

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Abstract

The so-called “Hațeg Island” (Transylvania, Romania) is well known for its rich and peculiar Late Cretaceous vertebrate assemblages, including dwarf dinosaurs, first reported at the end of the 19th century. Besides dinosaurs, other important members of the “Hațeg Island” terrestrial ecosystems were the multituberculate mammals. Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) multituberculates are extremely rare in Europe, being known exclusively from the “Hațeg Island.” Two genera are reported from this area: Kogaionon, with the single species K. ungureanui, and Barbatodon, with two species: B. transylvanicus and B. oardaensis. Both genera belong to the European endemic family Kogaionidae. We report herein new remains of B. transylvanicus from the Maastrichtian locality of Pui (Hunedoara District) in the Hațeg Basin, including the most complete dentaries found to date with complete cheek teeth rows. Intraspecific variability of this species in dentary shape, tooth morphology, and size difference is highlighted.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by grant PN-II-PCE-2011-3-0381 of the National Council of Scientific Research - CNCS (A.S., V.C., M.V.), Projects MO/36/001-004 of the Belgian Science Policy Office (T.S.), the financial support of the Sectorial Operational Programme for Human Resources Development 2007–2013, co-financed by the European Social Fund, under the projects POSDRU/159/1.5/S/133391-“Doctoral and postdoctoral excellence programs for training highly qualified human resources for research in the fields of Life Sciences, Environment and Earth” (A.S.) and POSDRU/159/1.5/S/132400 with the title “Young successful researchers-professional development in an international and interdisciplinary environment” (M.D.), Sepkoski grant (A.S). The authors thank all people involved over a decade in the field missions in the “Hațeg Island,” too numerous to be mentioned here. Also, we thank the anonymous reviewers, as well as the Editor-in-chief John Wible, for their useful comments that greatly helped to improve the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology, Faculty of Biology-Geology, Babeş-Bolyai University, 1 Kogălniceanu Str., 400084, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    Alexandru Solomon, Vlad Codrea & Mihai Dumbravă

  2. Department of Natural History, Ţării Crișurilor Museum, Dacia Avenue 1-3, 410464, Oradea, Romania

    Márton Venczel

  3. Directorate Earth and History of Life, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Rue Vautier 29, B-1000, Brussels, Belgium

    Thierry Smith

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  1. Alexandru Solomon
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Correspondence to Alexandru Solomon.

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Solomon, A., Codrea, V., Venczel, M. et al. New Remains of the Multituberculate Mammal Barbatodon from the Upper Cretaceous of the Hațeg Basin (Romania). J Mammal Evol 23, 319–335 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10914-016-9322-4

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