Integrated Palaeontological Investigation of a New Mid-Late Bartonian Fish Fauna from Călata Area, Transylvanian Basin, Romania

The Calata site (north-west of Transilvanian Basin, Romania) includes the Ciuleni Member of the middle Eocene-age Mortanusa Formation, a marine deposit in an outer, open marine facies, from where fossil vertebrates were very poorly known. In the last four years, nearly 150 remains of fish (mostly teeth) were recovered from the Calata site. We identified 21 taxa representing 20 genera that belong to 12 orders of chondrichthys and teleostei fishes. This study is the first to report Rostroraja and Palaeocybium from Romania, and we report seven additional genera from the Bartonian of Romania for the first time. We performed analysis of calcareous nannoplankton and foraminifera which allowed us to refine the age of the deposits and corroborate palaeoecological data. The combined data from the microfossils and fishes document the first middle-late Bartonian (NP17) marine fish fauna from Romania. This fauna was deposited in tropical waters with relatively shallow depths and with increased terrigenous input from a probable close-by shoreline.