Middle Miocene (Badenian) delphinid and phocoenid remains from the Fore-Carpathian Depression in southern Poland

Abstract

A small assemblage of remains of the toothed whales (Mammalia: order Cetacea, suborder Odontoceti) from the Middle Miocene (Badenian) deposits of the Fore-Carpathian Depression in Poland is analyzed. Their typical occurrence site within the Pińczów Limestones on the southern slopes of the Holy Cross Mountains (Central Poland) has yielded the teeth belonging probably to the delphinid genus Lagenorhynchus, the vertebrae and a fragment of bulla tympani of indeterminable delphinids, and the teeth of the porpoises Phocoena sp. All these delphinid and phocoenid remains were buried in deposits which formed under very shallow marine conditions, close to the shore.

Commented in this report are also occurrences of the delphinid remains in deposits of the Fore-Carpathian Depression slightly younger (localities Leszcze near Pińczów, and Dzierżysław in the Upper Silesia region) than the Pińczów Limestones and which are underlying the Gypsum Member, still of Middle Miocene (Badenian) age.