Quarry near Vatsiana, Gavdos Island (Cretaceous of Greece)

Where: Greece (34.8° N, 24.1° E: paleocoordinates 21.9° N, 20.5° E)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Late/Upper Maastrichtian (70.6 - 66.0 Ma)

• The age of the fossiliferous horizons that yielded the fish material examined in this work correspond to the stratigraphically deeper layers of the ‘transitional’ marly limestone. These were biostratigraphically constrained to the mid-late Maastrichtian, on the basis of contained planktonic foraminifera. More specifically fish-bearing slabs previously collected from the same pavements, and deriving from the same horizons exposed in Vatsiana Quarry, produced foraminiferal associations characteristic of the †Contusotruncana contusa-†Racemiguembelina fruticosa biozones. This, in conjunction with the absence of biomarkers for the latest Maastrichtian †Abathomphalus mayaroensis biozone, roughly indicate an absolute age constraint between 69.18 Ma and 70.14 Ma.

• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: slope; lithified, argillaceous lime mudstone

• It is worth noting that in the bed containing the fish remains, the single microbiota present are abundant planktonic foraminifers together with various very small (3-10 microns) palynomorphs visible in the thin sections. The absence of benthic organisms with shells, together with the dark color of the sediment, the microlaminations, the good preservation of organic matter and the excellent preservation of the fish material, are valuable criteria indicating a dysoxic to anoxic environment. The absence of terrigenous input as well as the abundance of large trochospiral ornamented – keeled taxa [see Caron, 1983; Caron and Homewood, 1983; Hart, 1999] suggest an offshore deep (bathyal) environment.
• Thin-bedded marly limestone

Size classes: macrofossils, mesofossils

Collection methods: quarrying

• Repository: Natural History Museum of Crete, University of Crete, Sofokli Venizelou Avenue, Heraklion. Paleontology and Geology Museum (AMPG) of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA).

Primary reference: L. Cavin, A. Alexopoulos, and A. Piuz. 2012. Cavin, L., Alexopoulos, A., & Piuz, A. (2012). Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) ray-finned fishes from the island of Gavdos, southern Greece, with comments on the evolutionary history of the aulopiform teleost Enchodus. ulletin de La Societe Geologique de France 183(6):561-572 [E. Vlachos/E. Vlachos]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 207367: authorized by Evangelos Vlachos, entered by Evangelos Vlachos on 08.01.2020, edited by Matthew Clapham

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Chondrichthyes
 Hexanchiformes - Hexanchidae
Gladioserratus sp. Underwood et al. 2011 cow shark
AMPG_VTS_1
Actinopteri
 Teleostei -
Teleostei indet., "Eurypterygii indet." = Eurypterygia
Teleostei indet. Müller 1846
AMPG_VTS_9, 18, 24
"Eurypterygii indet." = Eurypterygia Rosen 1973
AMPG_VTS_16
 Aulopiformes - Enchodontidae
Enchodontidae "indet. 1" Woodward 1901
AMPG_VTS_3, 10, 20
Enchodontidae "indet. 2" Woodward 1901
AMPG_VTS_28
Calypsoichthys pavlakiensis n. gen. n. sp. Argyriou et al. 2022
AMPG_VTS_25
Enchodus cf. dirus Leidy 1857
An isolated skull (fig 4). Collection number: Gavdos_fish_2/2010.
 Aulopiformes - Ichthyotringidae
Ichthyotringa pindica n. sp. Argyriou et al. 2022
AMPG_VTS_30, 2, 15, 17, 26
 Aulopiformes - Dercetidae
Dercetidae indet. Cope
AMPG_VTS_27
 Myctophiformes - Sardinioididae
cf. Sardinioididae indet. Goody 1969
AMPG_VTS_5, 31
 Ichthyodectiformes -
Ichthyodectoidei indet. Romer 1966
A single sub-articulated specimen comprising part of the caudal skeleton (fig. 3). Collection number: Gavdos_fish_1/2010; 5 scales (AMPG_VTS_7, 8, 13, 21, 22) and 1 caudal fin (AMPG_VTS_29) in Argyriou et al. 2022