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Introduction
Currently, I am the Curator of Palaeontology and Mineralogy-Petrography collections of Mureș County Museum, Department of Natural Sciences. I am a PhD in geology since 2016. My main interest are fossil vertebrates, especially those from the Late Cretaceous, and their related paleobiogeography.
Additional affiliations
December 2018 - present
Mures County Museum, Târgu Mureș, Romania
Position
- Curator
Description
- Curator of Palaeontology and Mineralogy-Petrography collections
Education
October 2013 - September 2016
October 2011 - July 2012
October 2007 - July 2011
Publications
Publications (66)
Being one of the first dinosaurs discovered in Romania, Elopteryx nopcsai is a Paravian dinosaur species whose described material is mainly based on proximal femur fragments. All the known remains assigned to this taxon have been collected from the latest Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) deposits of the Hațeg Basin. A similar fragment was collected from...
Located in South-Western Transylvania (Romania), Râpa Roșie was and still is a controversial outcrop for the researchers which dealt with its deposits. Several opinions about the geological age of these red beds were proposed by diverse authors. We briefly discuss here this aspect, considering that an uppermost Cretaceous age (Maastrichtian) for th...
To date, in SW Transylvania, latest Cretaceous terrestrial deposits that yielded microvertebrates are known from two localities: Oarda de Jos and Petreștii de Jos. Recently, at Oarda de Jos, works for a quarry were undertaken in order to prepare the field for a new neighborhood (residential area). We continuously surveyed this quarry and, in the sp...
Moldova region is situated in the eastern territory of Romania located between the Eastern Carpathians and the Prut River. Structurally, its basement consists of Moldavian and Scythian platforms. They share three “mega-cycles” (Ionesi, 1994) or, better said, sedimentary mega-sequences. The last mega-sequence lasted from late Badenian until Quaterna...
Surprisingly, after the Early Cretaceous taxonomic diversity recorded in Europe, which probably is largely an artifact of inadequate taxonomy and inflation of taxa, multituberculate mammals became extremely scarce in the Late Cretaceous in this continent, being reported exclusively from the uppermost Cretaceous continental deposits of the so-called...
Among the Late Cretaceous fossil sites of Europe, only those from the so-called “Haţeg Island” in Transylvania, western Romania, are remarkable by their abundance in mammal remains. Curiously, all of them belong to a single family of multituberculates, the Kogaionidae, one of the rare families that survived the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction...
Pliocene formations are cropping out in Romania on extended areas that can be found mainly in the Dacian basin, but also in the Bârsei sedimentary basin, from the inner Carpathian region. Several other mastodon discoveries in the same region, such as the findings in the Pannonian basin and the related sub-basins can also be presumed to be related t...
Keywords: terrestrial deposits, Maastrichtian, microvertebrates, Transylvanian Basin.
Keywords: terrestrial environment, vertebrates, Maastrichtian, Transylvania, Romania
Cuvinte-cheie: reptile, red-beds, Insula Hațeg, Maastrichtian, România.
We appreciate the comments of Buffetaut and Angst on our recent study of a Gargantuavis-like pelvis from the Late Cretaceous of Romania. We consider some of their points to be valid, but maintain our conclusion on the likely absence of a glycogen body in Gargantuavis and the lack of fusion of the pelvic elements in the acetabular region. Both chara...
An isolated leg bone of the chalicothere Ancylotherium pentelicum was found in the locality Pogana, in Moldavia (Eastern Romania). The ungual phalanx was unearthed from Maeotian sands. It is the first chalicothere species ever reported in Romania documenting the presence of the Schizotheriinae. The fossil, as well as the sedimentary environment of...
The Upper Cretaceous “Hațeg Island” is not only renowned mostly for its peculiar assemblage of dwarf dinosaurs, but also for its Azhdarchidae pterosaurs including giant specimens (e.g. Hatzegopteryx thambema) and medium-sized ones (e.g. Eurazhdarcho langendorfensis), discovered in the Hațeg and Transylvanian basins of Romania. Here, we report a new...
We describe a well-preserved pelvis from the Maastrichtian Sanpetru Formation of the Hateg Basin in Romania. The fossil closely resembles the pelvis of Gargantuavis philoinos from the Ibero-Armorican Peninsula, but differs in a smaller size and a few morphological features. It constitutes the first record of Gargantuavis outside the Ibero-Armorican...
A small, but illustrative collection of Maastrichtian reptilian teeth and bones is hosted in the Natural Sciences Branch of the Mureş County Museum. The fossils were collected by József Fikk in 1943, and probably sold to the museum by Laszlo Fikk in 1962. This collection remained practically forgotten in, never mentioned in any paper. The teeth and...
Cuvinte-cheie: multituberculate, Insula Hațeg, Cretacic Superior, România. Mamiferele multituberculate cretacic superioare sunt extrem de rare în Europa, fiind semnalate exclusiv din depozitele maastrichtiene continentale ale așa-numitei "Insule Hațeg". Au fost recuperate resturi de multituberculate din bazinele sedimentare Hațeg și Rusca Montană,...
Cuvinte-cheie: platforme, paleontologia vertebratelor, medii continentale, Moldova, România. Domeniile platformice din estul României-i.e. platformele Moldovenească și Scitică-, prin evoluțiile lor geologice oferă posibilitatea urmăririi unor bio-evenimente continentale care s-au succedat pe parcursul Neogenului. Sub acest aspect, prezintă interes...
Amynodontidae is a family of Rhinocerotoidea (Mammalia, Perissodactyla) known from the late Early Eocene to the latest Oligocene, in North America and Eurasia. European Amynodontidae are very rare, and all remains belong almost exclusively to a single post—Grande Coupure genus from the Oligocene, Cadurcotherium. The “Grande Coupure” defines an exti...
Morphological data matrix used for the phylogenetic analysis in NEXUS format and TNT format.
(ZIP)
List of synapomorphies retrieved during the phylogenetic analysis with PAUP, in Excel format.
Changes in blue with double-arrows are unambiguous. Number of steps and CI of characters are also included. Numbers on the tree are node numbers. Refer to the included tree for node numbers and to the morphological data matrix for characters description (S...
This contribution contains the 3D model(s) described and figured in the following publication: Tissier et al. 2018, Plos One, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0193774.
Perissodactyls are one of the major groups affected by the Grande Coupure event (Eocene-Oligocene transition) in Europe. Palaeotheriidae went almost extinct during this crisis, whereas Rhinocerotidae appeared for the first time in Europe after this biogeographical event. Knowledge on fossiliferous Eastern-European localities around this period is c...
Abundant isolated bones of fossil lizards from the uppermost Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) continental deposits of western Romania point to a previously unexpected squamate diversity in the so-called Hațeg Island. Using previously reported and recently collected material, we define here a new family of teiioid lizards. In addition, new specimens recov...
The continental Maastrichtian formations from Transylvania are notorious mainlyfor bearing peculiar fossils related to an island realm known as the "Hațeg Island". The thick piles of sedimentary rocks accumulated in fluvial environments. The "red beds" are in dominance. However, local peculiar environments are of interest for specific types of foss...
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 (Maa...
About the presence of Barbatodon oardaensis (Mammalia: Multituberculata) in the Rusca Montană Basin
Multituberculate mammals are scarce in the Late Cretaceous of Europe, being recorded exclusively from the Maastrichtian terrestrial deposits of the Hat¸eg and Transylvanian basins, in Romania. Moreover, they all belong to the endemic and primitive cimolodontan family Kogaionidae. Here, we report multituberculate teeth originating from the Maastrich...
Uppermost Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) continental deposits in the Transylvanian region of western Romania contain a diverse and important assemblage of fossil vertebrates, including lissamphibians. Bones of anurans (frogs) and albanerpetontids are abundantly represented at multiple vertebrate microfossil localities in the region, but there continues...
The notorious "Hațeg Island" was an insular realm in the Tethys Ocean which emerged in the latest Cretaceous, soon after the "Laramian" tectogenesis. The hard evidence concerning the specific environments documented by terrestrial deposits can be noticed in several sedimentary basins. The best studied one is the Hațeg Basin (abbreviated, HB), which...
During the Mesozoic, multituberculates were successful mammalian
representatives which populated various continental paleoenvironments, especially in
North America, Asia, and Europe. Among Mesozoic mammals, multituberculates provided
the most abundant and diverse fossils. This paper proposes an overview of the most
important discoveries of Mesozoic...
SOME MAASTRICHTIAN VERTEBRATES
FROM FLUVIAL CHANNEL FILL DEPOSITS AT PUI (HAȚEG BASIN)
SOLOMON Alexandru, CODREA Vlad
Abstract. Latest Cretaceous deposits are cropping out in various localities of the Hațeg basin (Romania). Among these localities Pui
is of peculiar interest, being the southeastern most one where Maastrichtian fluvial deposits are e...
In Mesozoic, multituberculates were successful mammalian representatives, which populated various continental paleoenvironments, especially in Northern Hemisphere. In the fossil record, multituberculates provided the most abundant and diverse fossils. This paper proposes an overview of the most important discoveries of the latest Cretaceous (Maastr...
Prezentul studiu are ca obiect de cercetare două specimene de dinozauri ornithopozi din depozitele continentale de varstă maastrichtiană din Bazinul Haţeg. Această lucrare reprezintă prima investigaţie microtomografică a paleopatologie dinosauriene efectuată in Romania. Datorită naturii patologiei investigate care se prezintă sub forma unor exostoz...
Les séquences continentales du Crétacé terminal (Maastrichtien) du bassin de Haţeg en Transylvanie sont réputées pour leurs faunes de vertébrés originaires de « l’île de Haţeg », qui ont évolué dans des conditions endémiques (insulaires ?). Hormis des grenouilles, lézards, tortues, crocodiles, oiseaux et dinosaures, des mammifères multituberculés p...
The musculature of the pelvic girdle and hind leg of Zalmoxes shquiperorum (Dinosauria: Euornithischia: Iguanodontia) from the Uppermost Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) deposits of the Hațeg Basin is reconstructed. Corroborative evidence is sought on the osteological remains in the form of scars and correlated with muscle impressions of extant birds suc...
Pleistocene deposits recorded on the Bârlad Valley area are largely exposed, mainly on the river terraces. An illustrative outcrop can be observed on the right bank of the Bârlad River few kilometres upstream from Bârlad town, in Simila open pit. Based on detailed study, a number of characteristic sedimentary packages were outlined, referred to as...
The continental Maastrichtian formations from Transylvania are notorious mainly for bearing peculiar fossils related to an island realm known as the "Hațeg Island". The thick piles of sedimentary rocks accumulated in fluvial environments. The "red beds" are in dominance. However, local peculiar environments are of interest for specific types of fos...
The uppermost Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) terrestrial sedimentary sequences of the Haţeg Basin in Transylvania are notorious for their so-called "Haţeg Island" vertebrate fauna, which evolved in endemic environments. Besides representative frogs, lizards, turtles, crocodilians, birds and dinosaurs, peculiar multituberculate mammals are also recorded...
Abstract. Maastrichtian terrestrial successions are cropping out at Pui (Haţeg Basin, Hunedoara district) on few left tributaries of the Strei River, Bărbat River being the main of them. There are in dominance red-beds related to the Sânpetru Formation. However, in other opinions the Pui deposits could belong to a distinct formation. In dominance,...
Some Upper Pleistocene vertebrate remains originating from Zorleni (Vaslui District) are reported. They were unearthed from river terrace sands and gravels mined in a local open pit located on Dealul Bour (Bour Hill). These fossils document the wolf (Canis lupus) and the "giant deer" (Megaloceros giganteus). Zorleni-Dealul Bour is a new Upper Pleis...
Th e giant deer (Megaloceros giganteus) is a rather common fossil vertebrate found in the Pleistocene deposits in Romania. However, it is by far rarer compared to other coeval large herbivores like mammoth, wooly rhinoceros or steppe bison. Th e paper refers to half of a mandible of giant deer, recently discovered in Transylvania in the alluvia of...