Sarmatian and Pannonian mollusks from Pécs-Danitzpuszta, southern Hungary: a unique local faunal succession

As the almost 200-year palaeontological research revealed, the geographical distribution of various fossil mollusk faunas in deposits of the late Neogene Lake Pannon displays a regular pattern. The lake basin was filled by lateral accretion of sediments, resulting in condensed sedimentary successions in the distal parts of the basin and successively younger shallow-water deposits from the margins towards the basin center. Exposed intra-basin basement highs, however, broke this strict pattern when they acted as sediment sources during the lake’s lifetime. The Mecsek Mts in southern Hungary was such an island in Lake Pannon during the early late Miocene. Deposition of the 200 m thick Sarmatian–Pannonian sedimentary succession in Pécs-Danitzpuszta at the foot of the Mecsek Mts was thus controlled by local tectonic and sedimentary processes, resulting in a unique succession of facies and mollusk faunas. A typical, restricted marine Sarmatian fauna is followed by a distinct freshwater or oligohaline interval, which, according to micropalaeontological evidence, still belongs to the Sarmatian. Although poor preservation of fossils does not allow firm conclusions, it seems that freshwater Sarmatian snails were the ancestors of the brackish-water-adapted early Pannonian pulmonate snail taxa. The successive “Sarmatian-type” dwarfed cockle fauna is similar to those widely reported from the Sarmatian–Pannonian boundary in various parts of the Pannonian Basin; however, a thorough taxonomic study of its species is still lacking. The bulk of the sedimentary succession corresponds to the sublittoral to profundal “white marls,” which are widespread in the southern Pannonian Basin. In Croatia and Serbia, they are divided into the Lymnocardium praeponticum or Radix croatica Zone (11.6–11.4 Ma) below, and the Congeria banatica Zone (11.4–9.7 Ma) above; this division can be applied to the Pécs-Danitzpuszta succession as well. Sedimentation of the calcareous marl, however, ceased at Pécs-Danitzpuszta at about 10.5–10.2 Ma ago (during the younger part of the Lymnocardium schedelianum Chron), when silt was deposited with a diverse sublittoral mollusk fauna. Similar faunas are known from the Vienna Basin, southern Banat, and other marginal parts of the Pannonian Basin System, but not from Croatia and Serbia, where deposition of the deep-water white marls continued during this time. Finally, the Pécs-Danitzpuszta succession was capped with a thick, coarse-grained sand series that contains mollusk molds and casts representing a typical littoral assemblage. This littoral fauna is well-known from easternmost Austria, northern Serbia, and northwestern Romania, but never directly from above the sublittoral L. schedelianum Zone. The fauna is characteristic for the upper part of the Lymnocardium conjungens Zone and has an inferred age of ca. 10.2–10.0 Ma. The Pécs-Danitzpuszta succession thus allows to establish the chronostratigraphic relationship between mollusk faunas that have not been observed in one succession nor in close proximity to each other in other parts of the Pannonian Basin.

Refinements on the fauna of shell-bearing prosobranch gastropods in the southern part of the Kara Sea

On the basis of material from the ZIN collection, as well as literature data, the species composition, taxonomic and biogeographic structure of the prosobranch gastropod fauna in the southern part of the Kara Sea were clarified. The analysis of the peculiarities of the distribution of gastropods of the Kara Sea by depth, temperature and salinity has been carried out. It has been established that the species composition of this fauna is extremely poor in comparison with other Arctic seas. It contains around 90 species belonging to 16 families. But at least 10 percent of them are represented by only single finds made on the border of the Kara Sea with other water areas. Therefore, it remains to be determined whether these species belong to the mollusk fauna of the Kara Sea. The biogeographic structure of the fauna turned out to be opposite to that described in the literature. Boreal species are absent, and the proportion of Atlantic species is much lower than that of the Pacific. It was also found that these two groups prefer different depths and are partially separated in space. The reasons for the separation of different biogeographical groups of gastropods in space and depth are not clear. It is assumed that the southern and northern parts of the sea are different faunal regions.

Bivalve mollusk fauna and ecological groups of Unionidae and Corbiculidae families in natural and artificial reservoirs of Uzbekistan

The length of the rivers in Uzbekistan and the presence of all the biotopes in the mollusks have made they a favourable reservoir for the mollusks. However, it should be noted that all species in the rivers differ in their density. Rivers and fishery farms play a great role in formation of bivalve mollusks fauna in the canals. It was studied the fishery farms of the Syrdarya River and its surroundings have a major effect on the fauna of the Mirzachul and South Mirzachul canals; the Zarafshan River’s effect on spreading of bivalve mollusks in the Dargom and Eskiankhor canals; the Amudarya River and its surrounding areas influence of fishery farms on the fauna of the Amu-Bukhara, Kizketgan and Karshi main canals. Colletopterum family breeds in the water studied, do not show any superiority in natural or artificial reservoirs compared to other breeds. Three species of these family are included in the Red Book of the Republic of Uzbekistan (C.baсtrianum, C. cyreum sogdianum, C. kokandicum). C. Bactrianum can be found only in rivers in the middle Zarafshan and Amudarya, in the Syrdarya river (Syrdarya Region only), in the reservoir and in the fishery farms only in Chelak, and the canals only in the Tuyatortar and Mirzachul canals.

Food and Ornament: Use of Shellfish at Ifri Oudadane, a Holocene Settlement in NE Morocco

Recent excavations of Ifri Oudadane, a prehistoric rockshelter on the Mediterranean coast of NW Morocco, yielded a rich marine and terrestrial fauna. We present an analysis of the shellfish remains (exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates) from the 2011 trench, covering the Epipaleolithic and Early Neolithic levels. A total of 4,415 liters of sediment contained 8,749 specimens (MNI) of at least 40 species of shellfish: 12 bivalves, 24 gastropods, one tusk shell, barnacles, crabs, and sea urchins. The mean abundance of shellfish was 2 MNI per liter. Limpets (Patellidae), topshells (Trochidae), mussels (Mytilidae), and rockshells (Muricidae) formed 98% of the total mollusk fauna and were part of the diet; limpets prevailed in Epipaleolithic levels and topshells in Neolithic ones. Evidence was found for a systematic butchering of topshells (Phorcus turbinatus): the shells in Epipaleolithic levels were mostly smashed while topshells in Neolithic levels were usually topped in a uniform way. Seven species of mollusks showed traces of manipulation and were used as ornament or tools. Species used as food, such as limpets, topshells, and mussels, never show any indications of being used as ornament or tools, and the mollusks that were used as jewelry or tools were not part of the diet.

Late Pleistocene (Eemian) mollusk and small mammal fauna from Mikhailovka-5 (Kursk oblast, Central Russia)

The locality Mikhailovka-5 is situated in the northern part of the Mikhailovka quarry in the northwest of the Kursk Oblast in central Russia. A rich mollusk fauna was collected along with small mammal remains from this lacustrine deposit located between Likhvinian (= Holsteinian) fossil soils and Valdayian (= Weichselian) periglacial deposits. The small mammal fauna is diverse, and includes numerous rodents, e.g., such indicative taxa as Arvicola ex gr. sapidus and Microtus ex gr. agrestis, a significant number of Clethrionomys glareolus and various insectivores. This assemblage closely corresponds to other Mikulino (= Eemian) faunas from the Russian Plain. The mollusk fauna includes a large number of terrestrial species, some of which have currently a more southern and western distribution. Both the molluskan and mammal faunas from Mikhailovka-5 indicate temperate climatic conditions, as evidenced by the diversity of insectivores, particularly the moles. Abundant remains of rodents of the genera Clethrionomys, Apodemus, and Microtus (Terricola) and of mollusks such as Acme, Macrogastra, Ruthenica, Punctum, and Acanthinula indicate the presence of extensive woodlands of mixed or broadleaf type, which were typical for this latitude during the Eemian interglacial. The palaeontological data provided in this paper, confirm that Mikhailovka-5 belongs to the Mikulino interglacial, as previously suggested by pedological arguments.

Mollusk fauna associated with Cystoseira barbata (Stockhouse) C. Agardh, 1820 in the Sea of Marmara (Turkey)

Mollusk species associated with Cystoseira barbata were examined in the Sea of Marmara in 2012 at 14 sampling sites with a depth ranging from 0.2 to 0.5 m. A total of 18 468 specimens belonging to three classes (Polyplacophora, Gastropoda and Bivalvia) and 30 species were identified. Alvania mamillata Risso, 1826 is a new record for the marine mollusk fauna of the Sea of Marmara. The number of species at the sampling sites varied from 2 to 11 (400 cm–2), the density ranged between 758 and 63 083 ind. m–2, and wet weight between 0.4 and 34.3 g m–2. Gastropoda were the richest class, represented by 22 species and 7611 individuals. The families Rissoidae, Mytilidae and Pyramidellidae were represented by the largest number of species. The most dominant mollusk species in C. barbata facies were Mytilaster minimus (Poli, 1795) (37.77%), Rissoa splendida Eichwald, 1830 (27.20%), Mytilaster lineatus (Gmelin, 1791) (18.69%) and Bittium reticulatum (da Costa, 1778) (6.89%). However, the mollusks R. splendida (86%), M. lineatus (71%), M. minimus (69%) and Steromphala adansonii (Payraudeau, 1826) (67%) were characterized by the highest values of the frequency index. Canonical correspondence analysis showed that the main factors affecting the assemblages of mollusks were the content of total nitrogen, the maximum thallus height, algal wet weight and temperature

The new data of fauna and landscapes history in the Manych basin during the late Pleistocene

The geology and mammal and mollusk fauna from the Late Pleistocene locality Sanmanych (the single location of paleontological remains in the Manych basin) in Rostov region are discussed. The received data permit to reconstruct the climatic-environmental condition during the Early Khvalynian transgression in the Manych basin. This transgression was dated by 14 C in the interval between 16–12 kyr BP. As a result of the formation of a Cascade of Eurasian Basins for the first time in the Late Pleistocene Caspian waters of the Khvalynian Sea had flooded to the Manych depression and the Manych-Kerch strait was originated during that time. The marine mollusks appeared in the Manych basin together with Caspian Sea water. The salinity of Khvalynian basin was close to the same of the Caspian Sea (10–12%) and the water temperature was lower than recent one, what confirms by the fact that mollusk’ shells were two-three times smaller than the modern ones of the same species. The analysis of the small mammal fauna permits to reconstruct the arid open landscapes during the formation of the location. The lower mammal diversity indicates the unfavorable climatic and environment conditions – the high aridity and the rather cool climate.