A Unique Late Cretaceous dinosaur locality in the Bakony-Balaton Geopark of Hungary (Iharkút, Bakony Mts.)

Abstract

Iharkut is a Late Cretaceous (Santonian) vertebrate-bearing locality in the Bakony Mountains of western Hungary, where productive and continuous paleontological excavations have been carried out in the last twenty years. Field work resulted in a very rich and diverse assemblage of terrestrial and freshwater animals (fishes, amphibians, turtles, lizards, a freshwater mosasaur, pterosaurs, crocodilians, dinosaurs including birds). This abundance and diversity of fossil taxa plays a significant role in the understanding of the evolutionary history of European Late Cretaceous continental vertebrate faunas. Furthermore, due to its palaeogeographic position (in the western Tethyan archipelago) and its Santonian age, the locality fills an important gap in the Late Cretaceous record of continental vertebrates in Europe. The locality is among the geological values of the Bakony-Balaton UNESCO Global Geopark. The uniqueness of the fossils raises this locality into the list of high priority geoheritage sites of the world, which draws the attention of both scientific and non-scientific geopark visitors.