Before the turnover: comparative analysis on pre-Campanian Late Cretaceous endemic faunas from two sites in Europe and South America.

APESTEGUÍA, S., ŐSI, A., GALLINA, P. A., GALACZ, A.

Trelew

Jornada; XXIII Jornadas Argentinas de Paleontología de Vertebrados; 2007

Museo Egidio Feruglio

Late Cretaceous European continental faunas were extensively discused by several authors. Most views are coherent in recognizing that latest Cretaceous (Late Campanian-Maastrichtian) European faunas are strongly influenced by Gondwanan elements. This way, the recognition of European native components is beyond the possibilities of researchers. However, the discovery and study of localities from strata older than the Gondwanan contacts such as the Turonian-Santonian continental faunas of Iharkut (Bakony Mts., Hungary), allowed for the first time the recognition of European native components for the Late Cretaceous. The pre-Campanian faunas of Europe are perhaps a mixture of Asian-North American plus Gondwanan elements, with insular and endemic peculiarities. Although the connection with Antarctica and also with Indo-Malgasy region is still discussed, the main faunal mixture for South America also occurred during the latest Cretaceous. Late Campanian-Maastrichtian faunas show a mixture with North American faunas that were absent in older assemblages. However, considering that phylogenetic positions of most of those taxa has a poor resolution, only a good knowledge on older endemic elements will allow the recognition of the truly allochthonous components. The pre-Campanian faunas of South America show thus a continuity of mainly Jurassic faunas and also endemic peculiarities. It becomes of main importance to frame research on both Late Cretaceous faunas in time-sliced analyses with a boundary on Early to Middle Campanian.