First report of Triassic vertebrate assemblages from the Villány Hills (Southern Hungary)

Abstract Remains of Triassic vertebrates discovered in the Villany Hills (SW Hungary) are described here. After the well-documented Late Cretaceous Iharkut locality, this material represents the second systematically collected assemblage of Mesozoic vertebrates from Hungary. Fossils were collected from both the classical abandoned road-cut at Templom Hill (Templom-hegy) and a newly discovered site at a construction zone located 200 meters west of the road-cut. Macrofossils of the construction site are mainly isolated bones and teeth of nothosaurs from the Templomhegy Dolomite, including a fragmentary mandible referred to as Nothosaurus sp. and placodont teeth tentatively assigned here to cf. Cyamodus sp. Affinities of these fossils suggest a Middle Triassic (Ladinian) age of these shallow marine deposits. New palynological data prove for the first time a Late Triassic (Carnian) age of the lower part of the Meszhegy Sandstone Formation. Vertebrate remains discovered in this formation clearly represent a ty...