A new continental vertebrate locality from the Upper Eocene of Zambrana (Miranda-Trevino Basin, Alava, Basque Country)

Recent field work in the Upper Eocene of Zambrana (Alava, Basque Country) h as yielded continental vertebrate remains, the first discovered in the Tert iary Miranda-Trevino Basin. The fossil association consists of turtles (Che lonii indet.), crocodilians (Diplocynodon sp.) and mammals, including possi ble insectivores (Lipotyphla indet), carnivores (cf Quercygale sp.), rodent s (Theridomys aff. golpei, Elfomys aff. parvulus, Pseudosciurinae indet., G lamys priscus), artiodactyls (Xiphodontidae indet.) and perissodactyls (Par anchilophus sp., Plagiolophus aff. mazateronensis, Palaeotherium sp.). The association of rodents and perissodactyls suggests an early middle Ludian ( Priabonian) age, which corresponds to the biozone MP 18. The mammalian faun a of Zambrana is like the middle-Upper Eocene endemic faunas from the weste rn and central Iberian basins. The fossiliferous beds are lacustrine coal-b earing marls and limestones. The geological study of the area evidences tha t the Tertiary Miranda-Trevino Basin was highly influenced by tectonic acti vity, and that the first compressive stresses related to the Pyrenean phase of the Alpine orogenesis took place during the early Eocene.