Estado de las investigaciones sobre los Vertebrados del Jurásico Superior y Cretácico Inferior de Galve (Teruel)

Abstract

Galve (Teruel, Spain) is not a single fossil site but an ensemble of more than 50 localities with Mesozoic terrestrial vertebrate remains of Tithonian-Lower Barremian age. Galve fossil sites belong to the Maestrazgo basin (Central Iberian Range), Gaive Subbasin, and appear in four geological formations: Higueruelas Formation (Tithonian), Villar del Arzobispo Formation (upper Tithonian-middle Berriasian), El Castellar Formation (uppermost Hauterivianlowermost Barremian) and Camarillas Formation (lower Barremian). Most sites contain bony remains, but there are also paleoichnological and paleoological sites, with dinosaur and other reptilian tracks and eggshells. Mammals and dinosaurs are the best-known Gaive vertebrates, but some studies on sharks, bony fishes, amphibians, squamates and crocodiles have been published. Some groups, like turtles and pterosaurs, have not practically been studied yet. Galve is the type locality of severa1 taxa: the shark Lonchidion microselachos, the amphibian Galverpeton ibericum, the dinosaur Aragosaurus ischiaticus, the mammals Galveodon nannothus, Lavocatia alfambrensis, Eobaatar hispanicus, Parendotherium herreroi, Spalacotherium henkeli and Pocamus pepelui, and the dinosaur eggshell Macroolithus turolensis. In this paper we revise the knowledge on Galve vertebrates, and update the faunal list of its fossil sites, taking into account, for the first time, the stratigraphic distribution of the taxa.