Early Cretaceous Lower Vertebrates from Galve (Teruel), Spain

Abstract

The Early Cretaceous (Barremian–Aptian) lower vertebrate fauna from Galve, Spain, includes two hybodontid sharks, Hybodus parvidens and Lonchidion microselachos n. sp., as well as fragmentary remains of characteristic Mesozoic bony fishes. The salamander AIbanerpeton cf. megacephalus (Prosirenidae) is most similar to Jurassic Portuguese specimens of this species. Galverpeton ibericum n. gen. et sp. (family incertae sedis) was probably a slim-bodied animal; it resembles the ambystomatoid–plethodontoid salamanders and is the earliest record of the more derived salamander groups. The first disarticulated specimens of the Upper Jurassic or Lower Cretaceous discoglossid frog Eodiscoglossus santonjae permit refinement of the diagnosis of this primitive frog. A variety of small reptiles is also present, including lizards, crocodilians and dinosaurs; the latter are notable in being represented by teeth of very small (young?) animals. The Galve assemblage includes primarily freshwater forms, and, based on a limited sample, shows broad similarities to other Early Cretaceous faunas in England and (to a slightly lesser degree) North America. It also seems to indicate the beginnings of endemism in the Iberian Peninsula and related areas at the beginning of the Cretaceous, a time when Laurasia was still a single unit.