DINOSAURS AND OTHER TETRAPODS IN AN EARLY CRETACEOUS BAUXITE-FILLED FISSURE, NORTHWESTERN ROMANIA

The bauxite mine at Cornet near Oradea in northwestern Romania produce d thousands of bones in an excavation in 1978, mainly from ornithopod dinosaurs and rarer pterosaurs. Bird specimens reported previously fro m this fauna are equivocal. The fossils are disarticulated bones in go od condition which occur highly concentrated in lenses within bauxite clays, which are dated as Berriasian (earliest Cretaceous). The bauxit e represents detrital material washed into deep fissures and caves for med within a karst of uplifted Tithonian (latest Jurassic) marine lime stones. The bones are generally uniform in size and shaper and they ar t: abraded, evidence for considerable transport and for winnowing of t he deposit. The area was one of several islands on the northern shore of Tethys, and it was inundated by the sea later in the Early Cretaceo us. There is evidence for insular adaptations in the dinosaur faunas. The ornithopod dinosaurs may include several taxa, but they are smalle r on average than an assemblage of typical Wealden ornithopods, perhap s because of dwarfing on the island. In addition, sauropods are absent and theropods are barely represented in the fauna. The fauna is geogr aphically significant since it shows relationships with western Europe and with Asia. (C) Elsevier Science B.V.