Crocodylian remains from the Miocene of the Fore-Carpathian Basin and its foreland—including the world’s northernmost Neogene crocodylian

2025/05/09 by Marcin Górka, Jakub Březina, Milan Chroust +4
Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Evolution and Paleontology Studies #Geological Formations and Processes Exploration #Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology

paper · pdf · doi:10.4202/app.01194.2024

openalex publication_date 2025/05/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29

Abstract

The geographic distribution of Crocodylia in Europe throughout the Cenozoic experienced fluctuations in the extension of its northern limit. Whereas crocodylians reached very high latitudes during the early Eocene (78ºN), their northward extension was more moderate during almost the entire Paleogene and the Neogene. Here we reassess previous Early-to- Middle Miocene crocodylian records from the Fore-Carpathian Basin and its foreland, namely from marine limestones of Pińczów (Poland), and Židlochovice (Czechia) and from the new vertebrate site of Szczerców (Poland), currently interpreted as a freshwater paleoenvironment. All crocodylian material from these three sites represents Crocodylia indet. and its possible taxonomic attribution is discussed. The new Szczerców specimen, an osteoderm, represents the world’s northernmost record of a crocodylian from the entire Neogene.

Citations

• An astronomically dated record of Earth’s climate and its predictability over the last 66 million years
• Phylogenetic analysis of a new morphological dataset elucidates the evolutionary history of Crocodylia and resolves the long-standing gharial problem
• The anatomy and taxonomy of the North African Early Miocene crocodylian ‘ Tomistoma ’ dowsoni and the phylogenetic relationships of gavialoids
• Miocene crocodylian and marine turtle from Kienberg: First record from the Moravian part of the Vienna Basin
• The last crocodylian in Central Europe? A new occurrence from the late Middle Miocene of the Vienna Basin (Austria)

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