TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS ON THE MESOZOIC PERI-ADRIATIC CARBONATE PLATFORMS: THE VERTEBRATE EVIDENCE

Abstract

The remains of Mesozoic carbonate platforms outcrop along the margins of the Adriatic Sea and the mountain chains surrounding them in Italy, Slovenia and Croatia. Despite the fact that the platforms were far from continents, abundant evidence of terrestrial vertebrates was recently found, mainly in the Norian, Lower Jurassic and Cretaceous, and is here reviewed. The presence of populations of large terrestrial vertebrates (mainly dinosaurs) on these carbonate platforms, and in particular the discovery of late Hauterivian-early Barremian sauropods and late Santonian hadrosaurids, has important paleoecological and paleogeographical implications. KEY WORDS. Peri-Adriatic carbonate platforms. Mesozoic Tethysian paleogeography. Mesozoic terrestrial vertebrates. Paleoichnology. Reptilia. Dinosauria. Theropoda. Sauropoda. Ornithopoda. Hadrosauridae.