Stefan Vasile | University of Bucharest (original) (raw)

Papers by Stefan Vasile

Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia, 2024

The present work deals with the carnivorans found in five Neogene localities in eastern Romania: ... more The present work deals with the carnivorans found in five Neogene localities in eastern Romania: the Vallesian locality of Păun, the Turolian localities of Pogana 1 and Creţeşti 1, and the Ruscinian localities of Bereşti and Măluşteni. The presented material includes cranial and postcranial specimens, some of which are herein described for the first time. This study includes a re-description and re-depiction of the type material of Lutra rumana Simionescu, 1922 and Promephitis malustenensis Simionescu, 1930, in order to clarify the taxonomic position of these two enigmatic taxa. The carnivoran faunal lists of all five localities are reviewed offering interesting insights into the temporospatial range of the discovered forms. Most localities have only yielded a limited number of species, except for Măluşteni, which shows evidence of at least nine different coexisting forms. Notable occurrences in terms of biostratigraphy include Paludolutra sp. in Pogana 1, Protictitherium crassum (Depéret, 1892) in Creţeşti 1, and a phocid from Măluşteni. This review aims to aid the understanding of the Neogene ecosystems in the north of the Paratethys in terms of faunal contents, biostratigraphy and palaeoecology.

Oltenia. Studii și comunicări. Științele Naturii, 2023

The Miocene deposits of the Carpathian Foreland yielded marine vertebrate remains in numerous fos... more The Miocene deposits of the Carpathian Foreland yielded marine vertebrate remains in numerous fossil localities. Various authors have described a fauna composed of pinnipeds, sea birds, turtles, bony fish, and cetaceans. This fauna is characteristic to the Paratethys epicontinental sea. The family Cetotheriidae appears to have included most baleen whale taxa that lived in the Eastern Paratethys in general, and in the Dacian Basin in particular, during the Miocene. In the Dacian Basin, several Miocene cetotheriid occurrences have been mentioned so far, yet remain scarce. The aim of this work is to describe previously unpublished cetotheriid remains housed at the Museum of Oltenia Craiova and to provide an updated distribution of the cetotheriid fossil localities from the Dacian Basin.

Buletinul Muzeului Județean Teleorman. Seria Arheologie

This paper describes the first fossil remains discovered in the detritic deposits that crop out a... more This paper describes the first fossil remains discovered in the detritic deposits that crop out along the Burdea River, at Albeşti (Teleorman County). The specimens described in this paper are assigned to proboscideans (Mammuthus meridionalis) and to cervids (Megaloceros
giganteus). Along with the specimens from Albeşti, two other specimens are presented, found in Upper Pleistocene deposits near Bucharest, that have never been described previously in scientific literature. The taxa from Albeşti indicate both Lower Pleistocene and Upper Pleistocene deposits are present in the sedimentary succession found along the Burdea River.

BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, 2022

The latest Cretaceous kogaionid multituberculates from Transylvania (western Romania) were part o... more The latest Cretaceous kogaionid multituberculates from Transylvania (western Romania) were part of an endemic European clade of mammals that underwent an insular radiation at the end of the Cretaceous and then survived the end-Cretaceous mass extinction that extinguished many groups of contemporary therians. Transylvanian kogaionids lived on what was an island during the latest Cretaceous—“Hațeg Island”—and their fossils are found in the uppermost Campanian to upper Maastrichtian deposits of the Hațeg, Rusca Montană, and southwestern Transylvanian basins. This fossil record has improved dramatically over the past several decades, in part resulting from our decade-long joint Romanian-American-Scottish fieldwork, and comprises one of the most impressive and complete archives of Mesozoic mammals, including not only jaws and teeth but several incomplete skulls and partial skeletons.
We here review the fossil record of kogaionids from Transylvania. We report four new occurrences from the Hațeg Basin, update information on previously described ones, and use our database to reassess the chronostratigraphical and geographical distribution of kogaionids and their evolutionary patterns.
Although it was previously suggested that large and small kogaionids had largely mutually exclusive spatial distributions, we recognize the cooccurrence of small and large taxa in various units, suggesting a sympatric distribution across their entire chronostratigraphic range. We also identify a novel pattern: small kogaionids appear somewhat earlier than their larger relatives in all well-sampled sedimentary successions, suggesting that kogaionid colonizations of Hațeg Island and component regions took place at small body size and that body size increased only later through local evolution. We find correlations between body size, preservation style, and sedimentary context, which give insight into kogaionid paleobiology and diversity. Larger kogaionids are represented more often by partial skulls and occasionally skeletons compared with small kogaionids, which are usually represented only by isolated teeth, regardless of provenance. Larger kogaionids currently have a higher recognized local taxic diversity than their smaller relatives. We hypothesize that this may be in part a consequence of preservational bias related to body size, as more complete specimens may be more easily diagnosed as distinct taxa than those that are represented by more fragmentary and/or incomplete fossils. If true, the taxic diversity of smaller kogaionids may currently be underestimated. Finally, we identify correspondence between sedimentary facies and preservation style. Red-colored fine-grained rocks, suggestive of well-drained, oxidized floodplain paleoenvironments, yield more complete specimens than drab, greenish or grayish sediments deposited in more poorly drained parts of the floodplain. This pattern may suggest habitat preferences for better-drained floodplain environments and a semifossorial lifestyle for some taxa.
As the kogaionid fossil record improves, we can further test the hypotheses and patterns outlined above. The pace of new kogaionid discoveries by our team and others indicates that a more complete picture of kogaionid distribution, paleobiology, and evolution will emerge in the coming years, contributing to a more profound understanding of this peculiar group of island-dwelling Mesozoic mammals.

Materiale și Cercetări Arheologice (Serie Nouă), 2021

The Vârghiș Gorges karst system (Perșani Mountains, Eastern Carpathians) constituted a point of i... more The Vârghiș Gorges karst system (Perșani Mountains, Eastern Carpathians) constituted a point of interest for speleologists, paleontologists and archaeologists since the second half of the 19th century. Their efforts succeeded in highlighting the notable archaeological potential of the area, although the actual research results were not always thoroughly reported. Since 2014, our team reunited specialists from 10 different institutions and various fields of research and initiated archaeological excavations, coupled with achaeozoological, sedimentological and chronometric investigations, in several caves within the Vârghiș Gorges. As the paper below will show, although the results obtained so far are definitively informative, further investigation are clearly needed, in order to accurately clarify aspects pertaining to the intricate cultural and chronological framework.

Materiale și Cercetări Arheologice (Serie Nouă), 2021

Recent (2006–2009) excavations at the Palaeolithic site from La Adam Cave (central Dobrogea, sout... more Recent (2006–2009) excavations at the Palaeolithic site from La Adam Cave (central Dobrogea, south-eastern Romania) yielded numerous fossil remains, that were analysed in order to obtain more information on the Late Pleistocene faunal assemblage from the area of the cave, on the animal and anthropic contributions to bone accumulation in the cave, and on the taphonomic processes present at the site. The faunal remains analysed were highly fragmented, which prevented the precise taxonomic assessment for most of them. However, numerous specimens bear signs of chemical corrosion and carnivore bite marks, only a few showing signs of anthropic activity. The cave seems to have functioned as shelter for the carnivores, with cave bear remains dominating numerically. Other large carnivores, such as cave hyenas, most probably also contributed to bone accumulation, with large and middle-sized ruminants being their most common prey.

This paper presents a preliminary quantitative analysis of some of the most important Maastrichti... more This paper presents a preliminary quantitative analysis of some of the most important Maastrichtian microvertebrate assemblages from the Haţeg Basin, documenting the relative abundance of the identified taxa and discussing the palaeoecological significance of the differences derived from the current samples. The different abundance of the taxonomic groups, as well as the different abundance of taxa as grouped based on their diet and habitat point to significant between the studied assemblages, that appears to be closely related to the distance each local palaeoenvironment was placed from the river course (i.e. proximal vs. distal).

Palaeontologia Electronica, 2020

This paper describes the first early Pleistocene freshwater fish assemblage from the Dacian Basin... more This paper describes the first early Pleistocene freshwater fish assemblage from the Dacian Basin, Romania. The fossil sample, consisting mainly of isolated teeth, supports the presence of a rich and taxonomically diverse fish assemblage: 17 taxa were identified, belonging to 10 genera of the families Cyprinidae, Salmonidae, Siluridae, Esocidae, and Percidae. The ecological affinities of the identified taxa suggest the early Pleistocene fishes from Copăceni lived in a large lowland mesophitic river. The faunal composition is comparable to that of other southeast European assemblages, however, it includes more thermophilic taxa, suggesting the Dacian Basin represented an early Pleistocene refugium in a cooling post-Pliocene environment. The taxonomical composition of the fossil assemblage suggests a pre-Pleistocene dispersion of freshwater taxa took place in the areas surrounding the Euxinian Basin.

Argesis - Studii și comunicări. Științele naturii., 2019

The microvertebrate fossil sites of the Hațeg Basin are essential in understanding the compositio... more The microvertebrate fossil sites of the Hațeg Basin are essential in understanding the composition of the continental Maastrichtian fauna of western Romania, and its temporal evolution. This paper describes additional fossil vertebrate remains discovered at the "Pui Swamp locality", one of the geologically oldest Maastrichtian localities in the Hațeg Basin. Albanerpetontid and anuran amphibian, crocodyliform, lizard, and kogaionid mammal remains, as well as small fossil eggshell fragments are described, representing novel occurrences that improve the knowledge on the composition of the oldest Maastrichtian vertebrate assemblages of the area.

Genes, 2021

The Asiatic wild dog (Cuon alpinus), restricted today largely to South and Southeast Asia, was wi... more The Asiatic wild dog (Cuon alpinus), restricted today largely to South and Southeast Asia, was widespread throughout Eurasia and even reached North America during the Pleistocene. Like many other species, it suffered from a huge range loss towards the end of the Pleistocene and went extinct in most of its former distribution. The fossil record of the dhole is scattered and the identification of fossils can be complicated by an overlap in size and a high morphological similarity between dholes and other canid species. We generated almost complete mitochondrial genomes for six putative dhole fossils from Europe. By using three lines of evidence, i.e., the number of reads mapping to various canid mitochondrial genomes, the evaluation and quantification of the mapping evenness along the reference genomes and phylogenetic analysis, we were able to identify two out of six samples as dhole, whereas four samples represent wolf fossils. This highlights the contribution genetic data can make when trying to identify the species affiliation of fossil specimens. The ancient dhole sequences are highly divergent when compared to modern dhole sequences, but the scarcity of dhole data for comparison impedes a more extensive analysis.

Buletinul Muzeului Județean Teleorman. Seria Arheologie, 2019

This paper describes associated proboscidean remains found in the left bank of the Vedea River, n... more This paper describes associated proboscidean remains found in the left bank of the Vedea River, northwest of Brebina (Teleorman County). The specimens include an almost complete mandible, bearing second and third molars, three thoracic vertebrae, two large fragments of the sacrum, and part of the pelvis. Tooth morphology and measured parameters confidently assign the mandible to the southern mammoth, Mammuthus meridionalis. Molar measurements are similar to those of other specimens found in the Dacian Basin, but it is not clear if the specimen from Brebina represents a derived, geologically younger, form of the species, or not. Tooth eruption and wear stage indicate the Brebina mammoth died between 29 and 34±2 years old. The incomplete mandible and fragmentary pelvis do not allow gender assessment for the mammoth found at Brebina

Palaeontologia Electronica, 2020

This paper describes the first early Pleistocene freshwater fish assemblage from the Dacian Basin... more This paper describes the first early Pleistocene freshwater fish assemblage from the Dacian Basin, Romania. The fossil sample, consisting mainly of isolated teeth, supports the presence of a rich and taxonomically diverse fish assemblage: 17 taxa were identified, belonging to 10 genera of the families Cyprinidae, Salmonidae, Siluridae,
Esocidae, and Percidae. The ecological affinities of the identified taxa suggest the early Pleistocene fishes from Copăceni lived in a large lowland mesophitic river. The faunal composition is comparable to that of other southeast European assemblages, however, it includes more thermophilic taxa, suggesting the Dacian Basin represented an early Pleistocene refugium in a cooling post-Pliocene environment. The taxonomical composition of the fossil assemblage suggests a pre-Pleistocene dispersion of freshwater taxa took place in the areas surrounding the Euxinian Basin.

Materiale și Cercetări Arheologice (serie nouă), 2019

The Upper Palaeolithic site from Buda (Bacău County) has been known since 1952 for the large amou... more The Upper Palaeolithic site from Buda (Bacău County) has been known since 1952 for the large amount of animal bones discovered alongside Gravettian tools. The revision of the osteological material from the old excavations (1958-1960), as well as the study of newly discovered specimens excavated in the 2012-2014 field seasons was carried out. The faunal material is dominated by long bone epiphyses and elements of the distal limbs, suggesting that the site functioned, for a short period, as a butchery site where the steppe bison and reindeer carcasses were dismembered, long bones were cracked for marrow extraction and then the skeletal elements that presented no interest were abandoned. Based on the population structure and reindeer antler development, we estimate that the hunting expeditions took place at the beginning of the cold season.

Uppermost Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) continental deposits in the Transylvanian region of western ... more 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 to be no evidence for urodeles (salamanders) at any locality. Using previously reported and new collections of isolated bones, here we provide an up-to-date and comprehensive account of the anuran component of the Romanian assemblage, with particular emphasis on new specimens exhibiting features that are informative for differentiating species and resolving their higher level affinities. We recognise at least five species belonging to two or three families of moderately primitive (i.e. non-neobatrachian), crown-clade anurans: the alytids Paralatonia transylvanica, cf. Bakonybatrachus sp. and cf. Eodiscoglossus sp.; the bombinatorid Hatzegobatrachus grigorescui; and an indeterminate, possible pelobatid. Ilia previously reported as cf. Paradiscoglossus (a monotypic alytid genus reliably known only from the Maastrichtian of western North America) are here referred to Paralatonia. Also present are indeterminate alytids and at least two potentially distinctive, but indeterminate, taxa of uncertain family affinities. New specimens allow Hatzegobatrachus, formerly regarded as incertae sedis, to be assigned to Bombinatoridae as the geologically oldest member of that family. The Romanian Maastrichtian anuran assemblage is the most diverse yet documented for the European Late Cretaceous. It contains a mix of endemic taxa (Paralatonia and Hatzegobatrachus), a relict taxon (cf. Eodiscoglossus sp.), and one taxon (cf. Bakonybatrachus) possibly resulting from a pre-Maastrichtian dispersal from present-day Hungary. Compared to contemporaneous and older (Santonian–Campanian) anuran assemblages elsewhere in Europe, the Romanian assemblage is similar in containing alytids and a pelobatid-like taxon, but differs in having more alytid taxa (n = 3) and a bombinatorid, and in lacking the palaeobatrachids seen in the Campanian–Maastrichtian of Western Europe and the probable ranoid Hungarobatrachus reported from the Santonian of Hungary

Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia, 2024

The present work deals with the carnivorans found in five Neogene localities in eastern Romania: ... more The present work deals with the carnivorans found in five Neogene localities in eastern Romania: the Vallesian locality of Păun, the Turolian localities of Pogana 1 and Creţeşti 1, and the Ruscinian localities of Bereşti and Măluşteni. The presented material includes cranial and postcranial specimens, some of which are herein described for the first time. This study includes a re-description and re-depiction of the type material of Lutra rumana Simionescu, 1922 and Promephitis malustenensis Simionescu, 1930, in order to clarify the taxonomic position of these two enigmatic taxa. The carnivoran faunal lists of all five localities are reviewed offering interesting insights into the temporospatial range of the discovered forms. Most localities have only yielded a limited number of species, except for Măluşteni, which shows evidence of at least nine different coexisting forms. Notable occurrences in terms of biostratigraphy include Paludolutra sp. in Pogana 1, Protictitherium crassum (Depéret, 1892) in Creţeşti 1, and a phocid from Măluşteni. This review aims to aid the understanding of the Neogene ecosystems in the north of the Paratethys in terms of faunal contents, biostratigraphy and palaeoecology.

Oltenia. Studii și comunicări. Științele Naturii, 2023

The Miocene deposits of the Carpathian Foreland yielded marine vertebrate remains in numerous fos... more The Miocene deposits of the Carpathian Foreland yielded marine vertebrate remains in numerous fossil localities. Various authors have described a fauna composed of pinnipeds, sea birds, turtles, bony fish, and cetaceans. This fauna is characteristic to the Paratethys epicontinental sea. The family Cetotheriidae appears to have included most baleen whale taxa that lived in the Eastern Paratethys in general, and in the Dacian Basin in particular, during the Miocene. In the Dacian Basin, several Miocene cetotheriid occurrences have been mentioned so far, yet remain scarce. The aim of this work is to describe previously unpublished cetotheriid remains housed at the Museum of Oltenia Craiova and to provide an updated distribution of the cetotheriid fossil localities from the Dacian Basin.

Buletinul Muzeului Județean Teleorman. Seria Arheologie

This paper describes the first fossil remains discovered in the detritic deposits that crop out a... more This paper describes the first fossil remains discovered in the detritic deposits that crop out along the Burdea River, at Albeşti (Teleorman County). The specimens described in this paper are assigned to proboscideans (Mammuthus meridionalis) and to cervids (Megaloceros
giganteus). Along with the specimens from Albeşti, two other specimens are presented, found in Upper Pleistocene deposits near Bucharest, that have never been described previously in scientific literature. The taxa from Albeşti indicate both Lower Pleistocene and Upper Pleistocene deposits are present in the sedimentary succession found along the Burdea River.

BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, 2022

The latest Cretaceous kogaionid multituberculates from Transylvania (western Romania) were part o... more The latest Cretaceous kogaionid multituberculates from Transylvania (western Romania) were part of an endemic European clade of mammals that underwent an insular radiation at the end of the Cretaceous and then survived the end-Cretaceous mass extinction that extinguished many groups of contemporary therians. Transylvanian kogaionids lived on what was an island during the latest Cretaceous—“Hațeg Island”—and their fossils are found in the uppermost Campanian to upper Maastrichtian deposits of the Hațeg, Rusca Montană, and southwestern Transylvanian basins. This fossil record has improved dramatically over the past several decades, in part resulting from our decade-long joint Romanian-American-Scottish fieldwork, and comprises one of the most impressive and complete archives of Mesozoic mammals, including not only jaws and teeth but several incomplete skulls and partial skeletons.
We here review the fossil record of kogaionids from Transylvania. We report four new occurrences from the Hațeg Basin, update information on previously described ones, and use our database to reassess the chronostratigraphical and geographical distribution of kogaionids and their evolutionary patterns.
Although it was previously suggested that large and small kogaionids had largely mutually exclusive spatial distributions, we recognize the cooccurrence of small and large taxa in various units, suggesting a sympatric distribution across their entire chronostratigraphic range. We also identify a novel pattern: small kogaionids appear somewhat earlier than their larger relatives in all well-sampled sedimentary successions, suggesting that kogaionid colonizations of Hațeg Island and component regions took place at small body size and that body size increased only later through local evolution. We find correlations between body size, preservation style, and sedimentary context, which give insight into kogaionid paleobiology and diversity. Larger kogaionids are represented more often by partial skulls and occasionally skeletons compared with small kogaionids, which are usually represented only by isolated teeth, regardless of provenance. Larger kogaionids currently have a higher recognized local taxic diversity than their smaller relatives. We hypothesize that this may be in part a consequence of preservational bias related to body size, as more complete specimens may be more easily diagnosed as distinct taxa than those that are represented by more fragmentary and/or incomplete fossils. If true, the taxic diversity of smaller kogaionids may currently be underestimated. Finally, we identify correspondence between sedimentary facies and preservation style. Red-colored fine-grained rocks, suggestive of well-drained, oxidized floodplain paleoenvironments, yield more complete specimens than drab, greenish or grayish sediments deposited in more poorly drained parts of the floodplain. This pattern may suggest habitat preferences for better-drained floodplain environments and a semifossorial lifestyle for some taxa.
As the kogaionid fossil record improves, we can further test the hypotheses and patterns outlined above. The pace of new kogaionid discoveries by our team and others indicates that a more complete picture of kogaionid distribution, paleobiology, and evolution will emerge in the coming years, contributing to a more profound understanding of this peculiar group of island-dwelling Mesozoic mammals.

Materiale și Cercetări Arheologice (Serie Nouă), 2021

The Vârghiș Gorges karst system (Perșani Mountains, Eastern Carpathians) constituted a point of i... more The Vârghiș Gorges karst system (Perșani Mountains, Eastern Carpathians) constituted a point of interest for speleologists, paleontologists and archaeologists since the second half of the 19th century. Their efforts succeeded in highlighting the notable archaeological potential of the area, although the actual research results were not always thoroughly reported. Since 2014, our team reunited specialists from 10 different institutions and various fields of research and initiated archaeological excavations, coupled with achaeozoological, sedimentological and chronometric investigations, in several caves within the Vârghiș Gorges. As the paper below will show, although the results obtained so far are definitively informative, further investigation are clearly needed, in order to accurately clarify aspects pertaining to the intricate cultural and chronological framework.

Materiale și Cercetări Arheologice (Serie Nouă), 2021

Recent (2006–2009) excavations at the Palaeolithic site from La Adam Cave (central Dobrogea, sout... more Recent (2006–2009) excavations at the Palaeolithic site from La Adam Cave (central Dobrogea, south-eastern Romania) yielded numerous fossil remains, that were analysed in order to obtain more information on the Late Pleistocene faunal assemblage from the area of the cave, on the animal and anthropic contributions to bone accumulation in the cave, and on the taphonomic processes present at the site. The faunal remains analysed were highly fragmented, which prevented the precise taxonomic assessment for most of them. However, numerous specimens bear signs of chemical corrosion and carnivore bite marks, only a few showing signs of anthropic activity. The cave seems to have functioned as shelter for the carnivores, with cave bear remains dominating numerically. Other large carnivores, such as cave hyenas, most probably also contributed to bone accumulation, with large and middle-sized ruminants being their most common prey.

This paper presents a preliminary quantitative analysis of some of the most important Maastrichti... more This paper presents a preliminary quantitative analysis of some of the most important Maastrichtian microvertebrate assemblages from the Haţeg Basin, documenting the relative abundance of the identified taxa and discussing the palaeoecological significance of the differences derived from the current samples. The different abundance of the taxonomic groups, as well as the different abundance of taxa as grouped based on their diet and habitat point to significant between the studied assemblages, that appears to be closely related to the distance each local palaeoenvironment was placed from the river course (i.e. proximal vs. distal).

Palaeontologia Electronica, 2020

This paper describes the first early Pleistocene freshwater fish assemblage from the Dacian Basin... more This paper describes the first early Pleistocene freshwater fish assemblage from the Dacian Basin, Romania. The fossil sample, consisting mainly of isolated teeth, supports the presence of a rich and taxonomically diverse fish assemblage: 17 taxa were identified, belonging to 10 genera of the families Cyprinidae, Salmonidae, Siluridae, Esocidae, and Percidae. The ecological affinities of the identified taxa suggest the early Pleistocene fishes from Copăceni lived in a large lowland mesophitic river. The faunal composition is comparable to that of other southeast European assemblages, however, it includes more thermophilic taxa, suggesting the Dacian Basin represented an early Pleistocene refugium in a cooling post-Pliocene environment. The taxonomical composition of the fossil assemblage suggests a pre-Pleistocene dispersion of freshwater taxa took place in the areas surrounding the Euxinian Basin.

Argesis - Studii și comunicări. Științele naturii., 2019

The microvertebrate fossil sites of the Hațeg Basin are essential in understanding the compositio... more The microvertebrate fossil sites of the Hațeg Basin are essential in understanding the composition of the continental Maastrichtian fauna of western Romania, and its temporal evolution. This paper describes additional fossil vertebrate remains discovered at the "Pui Swamp locality", one of the geologically oldest Maastrichtian localities in the Hațeg Basin. Albanerpetontid and anuran amphibian, crocodyliform, lizard, and kogaionid mammal remains, as well as small fossil eggshell fragments are described, representing novel occurrences that improve the knowledge on the composition of the oldest Maastrichtian vertebrate assemblages of the area.

Genes, 2021

The Asiatic wild dog (Cuon alpinus), restricted today largely to South and Southeast Asia, was wi... more The Asiatic wild dog (Cuon alpinus), restricted today largely to South and Southeast Asia, was widespread throughout Eurasia and even reached North America during the Pleistocene. Like many other species, it suffered from a huge range loss towards the end of the Pleistocene and went extinct in most of its former distribution. The fossil record of the dhole is scattered and the identification of fossils can be complicated by an overlap in size and a high morphological similarity between dholes and other canid species. We generated almost complete mitochondrial genomes for six putative dhole fossils from Europe. By using three lines of evidence, i.e., the number of reads mapping to various canid mitochondrial genomes, the evaluation and quantification of the mapping evenness along the reference genomes and phylogenetic analysis, we were able to identify two out of six samples as dhole, whereas four samples represent wolf fossils. This highlights the contribution genetic data can make when trying to identify the species affiliation of fossil specimens. The ancient dhole sequences are highly divergent when compared to modern dhole sequences, but the scarcity of dhole data for comparison impedes a more extensive analysis.

Buletinul Muzeului Județean Teleorman. Seria Arheologie, 2019

This paper describes associated proboscidean remains found in the left bank of the Vedea River, n... more This paper describes associated proboscidean remains found in the left bank of the Vedea River, northwest of Brebina (Teleorman County). The specimens include an almost complete mandible, bearing second and third molars, three thoracic vertebrae, two large fragments of the sacrum, and part of the pelvis. Tooth morphology and measured parameters confidently assign the mandible to the southern mammoth, Mammuthus meridionalis. Molar measurements are similar to those of other specimens found in the Dacian Basin, but it is not clear if the specimen from Brebina represents a derived, geologically younger, form of the species, or not. Tooth eruption and wear stage indicate the Brebina mammoth died between 29 and 34±2 years old. The incomplete mandible and fragmentary pelvis do not allow gender assessment for the mammoth found at Brebina

Palaeontologia Electronica, 2020

This paper describes the first early Pleistocene freshwater fish assemblage from the Dacian Basin... more This paper describes the first early Pleistocene freshwater fish assemblage from the Dacian Basin, Romania. The fossil sample, consisting mainly of isolated teeth, supports the presence of a rich and taxonomically diverse fish assemblage: 17 taxa were identified, belonging to 10 genera of the families Cyprinidae, Salmonidae, Siluridae,
Esocidae, and Percidae. The ecological affinities of the identified taxa suggest the early Pleistocene fishes from Copăceni lived in a large lowland mesophitic river. The faunal composition is comparable to that of other southeast European assemblages, however, it includes more thermophilic taxa, suggesting the Dacian Basin represented an early Pleistocene refugium in a cooling post-Pliocene environment. The taxonomical composition of the fossil assemblage suggests a pre-Pleistocene dispersion of freshwater taxa took place in the areas surrounding the Euxinian Basin.

Materiale și Cercetări Arheologice (serie nouă), 2019

The Upper Palaeolithic site from Buda (Bacău County) has been known since 1952 for the large amou... more The Upper Palaeolithic site from Buda (Bacău County) has been known since 1952 for the large amount of animal bones discovered alongside Gravettian tools. The revision of the osteological material from the old excavations (1958-1960), as well as the study of newly discovered specimens excavated in the 2012-2014 field seasons was carried out. The faunal material is dominated by long bone epiphyses and elements of the distal limbs, suggesting that the site functioned, for a short period, as a butchery site where the steppe bison and reindeer carcasses were dismembered, long bones were cracked for marrow extraction and then the skeletal elements that presented no interest were abandoned. Based on the population structure and reindeer antler development, we estimate that the hunting expeditions took place at the beginning of the cold season.

Uppermost Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) continental deposits in the Transylvanian region of western ... more 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 to be no evidence for urodeles (salamanders) at any locality. Using previously reported and new collections of isolated bones, here we provide an up-to-date and comprehensive account of the anuran component of the Romanian assemblage, with particular emphasis on new specimens exhibiting features that are informative for differentiating species and resolving their higher level affinities. We recognise at least five species belonging to two or three families of moderately primitive (i.e. non-neobatrachian), crown-clade anurans: the alytids Paralatonia transylvanica, cf. Bakonybatrachus sp. and cf. Eodiscoglossus sp.; the bombinatorid Hatzegobatrachus grigorescui; and an indeterminate, possible pelobatid. Ilia previously reported as cf. Paradiscoglossus (a monotypic alytid genus reliably known only from the Maastrichtian of western North America) are here referred to Paralatonia. Also present are indeterminate alytids and at least two potentially distinctive, but indeterminate, taxa of uncertain family affinities. New specimens allow Hatzegobatrachus, formerly regarded as incertae sedis, to be assigned to Bombinatoridae as the geologically oldest member of that family. The Romanian Maastrichtian anuran assemblage is the most diverse yet documented for the European Late Cretaceous. It contains a mix of endemic taxa (Paralatonia and Hatzegobatrachus), a relict taxon (cf. Eodiscoglossus sp.), and one taxon (cf. Bakonybatrachus) possibly resulting from a pre-Maastrichtian dispersal from present-day Hungary. Compared to contemporaneous and older (Santonian–Campanian) anuran assemblages elsewhere in Europe, the Romanian assemblage is similar in containing alytids and a pelobatid-like taxon, but differs in having more alytid taxa (n = 3) and a bombinatorid, and in lacking the palaeobatrachids seen in the Campanian–Maastrichtian of Western Europe and the probable ranoid Hungarobatrachus reported from the Santonian of Hungary