Baranica I Cave (Pleistocene of Serbia and Montenegro)

Where: Serbia and Montenegro (43.5° N, 22.3° E: paleocoordinates 43.5° N, 22.3° E)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Late/Upper Pleistocene (0.1 - 0.0 Ma)

• During the 1995 field season, a trench was opened in Baranica I and four layers with overall thickness of2.5 m were uncovered (Fig. 1). The uppermost layer(Layer 1) is of the Holocene age and the remaining three are of the Late Pleistocene age. Numerous remains of small vertebrates have been found in Layers 2and 4, while only a few were found in Layer 3.

Environment/lithology: cave; lithology not reported

Size classes: macrofossils, mesofossils

Collected by Facultyof Philosophy from Belgrade and the NationalMuseum of Knjaževac in 1994-1997

Primary reference: D. Duric, K. Bogicevic, D. Petrovic and D. Nenadic. 2017. Late Pleistocene Squamate Reptiles from the Baranica Cave near Knjaževac (Eastern Serbia). Annales Geologiques de la Peninsule Balkanique 78:23-25 [E. Vlachos/E. Vlachos]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 191943: authorized by Evangelos Vlachos, entered by Evangelos Vlachos on 24.02.2018

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

• Already during the course of preliminary investigation of this cave, a multitude of small and large vertebrate remains was observed. Besides squamates, there were remains of large and small mammals (rodents, insectivores, lagomorphs and chiropterans), birds, fish, anurans, gastropods, seed and pollen. Actually, the Baranica Cave yields the richest and most diverse vertebrate fauna of the Late Pleistocene age in Serbia.

•Squamate material mainly from 1995 campaign

Reptilia
 Squamata - Colubridae
Coronella austriaca Laurenti 1768 smooth snake
Coronella cf. austriaca Laurenti 1768 smooth snake
cf. Natrix sp. Laurenti 1768 water snake
 Squamata - Crotalidae
Vipera sp., "Vipera cf. berus" = Vipera (Pelias) berus
Vipera sp. Laurenti 1768 pit viper
"Vipera cf. berus" = Vipera (Pelias) berus Linnaeus 1758 common adder
 Squamata - Lacertidae
Lacertidae indet. Bonaparte 1831 squamates
Lacerta agilis Linneaus 1758 Sand lizard
 Squamata - Anguidae
Anguis fragilis Linneaus 1758 Slow worm