Late Maastrichtian small-sized herpetofauna from Valencia province, eastern Spain

Abstract

A Late Maastrichtian microvertebrate assemblage which includes amphibian remains was recovered from continental deposits of the palaeontological site of La Solana, Valencia Province, Spain. This site is composed of variegated mudstones, pedogenically modified, interbedded with fluvial sand bodies and freshwater limestones lenses, and has also yielded plant debris, freshwater and oligohaline invertebrates, abundant fish remains (isolated bones and scales), turtle plates and archosaur bones. This fossil assemblage, dominated by aquatic forms, also includes semiaquatic and terrestrial elements, and may be interpreted as the palaeofauna of a wetland environment with terrestrial environs. The new material described here consists of fragmentary remains of an indeterminate albanerpetontid, a salamandrid and two anuran taxa (an alytid and a palaeobatrachid). The amphibians from La Solana are typical Laurasiatic taxa. This faunal association shows broad similarities to other coeval faunas of the Iberian Peninsula and contrasts with the Upper Campanian–Lower Maastrichtian sites where Gondwanan elements are frequent.