Marine reptiles from the Triassic of the Tre Venezie Area, Northeastern Italy
By: Olivier Rieppel --, Fabio Marco Dalla Vecchia --.
Contributors: Dalla Vecchia, Fabio Marco. joint author
Series: Fieldiana -- new ser., no. 44; Publication -- 1511; Publication (Field Museum of Natural History) -- 1511.
Publisher: Field Museum of Natural History
Published: 2001
Place of publication: Chicago, Ill
Subjects: Sauropterygia -- Italy, Northern.; Paleontology -- Triassic.
Other titles: Triassic marine reptiles from Italy
Description: Ichthyosaurian and sauropterygian remains are described from Triassic deposits in the Tre Venezie area of northeastern Italy. The taxa recorded include Mixosaurus, Cymbospondylus, ?Shastasaurus, Placodus, ?Cyamodus, an as yet unnamed cyamodontoid placodont, Nothosaurus sp., and Nothosaurus cf. N. giganteus. The temporal distribution of these fossils ranges from the earliest Anisian to the middle Carnian. Placodus (from the lower upper Anisian Calcare di Recoaro Formation of Vallarsa and Recoaro) is recorded for the first time (on the basis of diagnostic material) from the Alpine facies of the Middle Triassic. Collectively, the sauropterygian fauna from the Tre Venezie area resembles that of the eastern Alpine Triassic more closely than that of the southwestern Alps. This may indicate two separate colonization events of the Alpine Triassic as intraplatform basins developed along the northwestern Tethyan margin.