Home: Via Marche 33, I-33037 Colloredo di Prato, Italy Museo della Rocca, Via Valentinis 134, I-34074 Monfalcone, Italy and Institut Català de Paleontologia (ICP) Edifici ICP Campus de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona E-08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès
fabio.dallavecchia@icp.cat
Fabio M. Dalla Vecchia graduated in Geological Sciences at the University of Bologna (1990) and obtained a Ph.D. in Paleontology at the University of Modena (1994) with a dissertation on the Triassic pterosaurs. He did post-doctoral work at the University of Padua on Mesozoic terrestrial vertebrates of the Northern Adriatic region (1995-97). He is a researcher at the Institut Català de Paleontologia (ICP), Cerdanyola del Valles (Catalonia, Spain). He is also honorary curator of the Paleontological Museum of Monfalcone (Gorizia, Italy) and consultant of the Museo Friulano di Storia Naturale. He is author of 78 technical papers published in national and international journals, mainly on Vertebrate Paleontology, in particular on dinosaurs, pterosaurs and marine reptiles. He published three books and over 80 divulgative articles on paleontological and geological subjects. He participated to field expeditions in Italy and other countries.
Abstract: Vertebrate remains found in the Friuli region of north eastern Italy range from Ordovician conodonts to late Pleistocene mammals, through Paleozoic fish microremains, petalodontiform teeth, Triassic and Cretaceous osteichthyans, Mesozoic and Cainozoic shark teeth, marine and terrestrial Triassic diapsids, some Miocene mammals, Carboniferous, Triassic, Cretaceous and Miocene tetrapod footprints.
Animal reconstructions (art work) are by Lukas Panzarin.
Notes: 304 pages, 279 colour figures (representing, among others, Megalancosaurus, Langobardisaurus, Preondactylus, Bobosaurus, Protenodontosaurus and dinosaur footprints), size 24.5 x 17.5 cm, hardcover.
Abstract: The holotype specimen of the non-pterodactyloid pterosaur Eudimorphodon rosenfeldi from the Late Triassic (Norian) of NE Italy is described in detail and compared to the other specimens referred in literature to the genus Eudimorphodon. It is considered conspecific with the specimen MPUM 6009 from the Norian of NW Italy, previously attributed to Eudimorphodon ranzii. A new genus, Carniadactylus, is proposed for the two specimens based on the apomorphic shape of the âcoronoidâ process, coracoid and pteroid, wing phalanx proportions and the several anatomical differences with E. ranzii and âEudimorphodonâ cromptonellus. No definitive evidence of a juvenile stage occurs in the two specimens. A phylogenetic analysis using parsimony shows that Carniadactylus is nested inside the Campylognathoididae and is the sister-group of Caviramus schesaplanensis + âRaeticodactylusâ filisurensis. The systematics of specimens referred in the literature to Eudimorphodon is reviewed.
Abstract: The Triassic pterosaur Austriadactylus cristatus is reported for the first time from the Norian (Upper Triassic) of north-eastern Italy. It is only the second specimen of this taxon and provides new information on the mandibular dentition, cranium and postcranium (cervical vertebrae and the forelimb), not available in the holotype. A cladistic analysis shows that Austriadactylus is phylogenetically closer to Preondactylus than to Eudimorphodon.
Abstract: Hadrosauroids, the ornithopods more derived than Iguanodon, were the most successful dinosaurs during the Cretaceous, mainly in the Late Cretaceous when hadrosaurids spread in North America and eastern Asia. The European hadrosauroid record is very scarce before the Late Campanian (few teeth in England and possibly Belgium), but relatively rich in the Late Campanian-Maastrichtian of Spain, France and Romania. Remains are reported also from the Late Campanian-Maastrichtian of Belgium and the Netherlands (teeth, limb bones, and vertebrae), Germany (a partial skeleton), Italy, Slovenia (teeth) and Ukraine (limb bones). Unfortunately all those remains, with the exception of still undescribed material from Italy, are very incomplete. For this reason, only three species have been named since 1900 that are considered valid to date: Parahabdodon isonensis, Koutalisaurus kohlerorum and Telmatosaurus transsylvanicus. Parahabdodon isonensis and Koutalisaurus kohlerorum are both based on few bones from the Maastrichtian Tremp Formation of Spain. Because of its incompleteness the phylogenetic position of Parahabdodon is ambiguous and the problem of the synonymy of Koutalisaurus with Pararhabdodon cannot be solved as overlapping skeletal parts have not been found yet. Although other hadrosauroid species were undoubtedly present in the Maastrichtian of Spain, the fragmentarity of the specimens did not allow the establishment of new taxa.
Telmatosaurus transsylvanicus from the Maastrichtian of Transylvania (Romania), usually considered the better known European hadrosauroid, is problematic under several aspects. There is uncertainty about the identity of the type material; the referred specimens resulted to belong partly to Zalmoxes and come from four different formations with thickness of many hundred metres. The postcranial material attributed to Telmatosaurus cannot be compared to the lectotype that is represented by skull and mandible. All the scattered hadrosauroid remains from the thick Maastrichtian continental deposits of a wide region of Transylvania were attributed to this species, and there is the suspicion that more than one species could be represented in the sample.
The European hadrosauroids lived in an archipelago of relatively small islands and generally have a diminutive size when compared to the well-known coeval hadrosaurids living in North America. The other members of the dinosaur fauna of the European Archipelago are also small with respect to their continental relatives and appear to be more primitive. The small size and the morphological peculiarities of the Late Cretaceous European dinosaur fauna are probably due to the insular condition, although more studies are needed to better understand this phenomenon.
The knowledge of the European hadrosauroids, their phylogenetic relationships and the palaeogeographic implications can be improved only discovering more material, mainly associated skeletal remains.
Abstract: The nothosauroid sauropterygian Simosaurus is reported for the first time both from Italy and from the lower Carnian (lowermost Upper Triassic). Diagnostic dorsal neural arches and clavicles as well dorsal ribs have been collected in the Rio dal Lago Formation near Dogna (Friuli). Purported Simosaurus remains from the Ladinian of Austria cannot be attributed to this genus with certainty and the presence of additional articular structures in the dorsal neural arch (âinfraprezygapophysesâ and infrapostzygapophyses) cannot distinguish Simosaurus from Bobosaurus if the craniocaudal polarity or other vertebral features are unknown.
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Abstract: The basal actinopterygian fish (Osteichthyes) Amiopsis is for the first time reported from Italy. It is represented by a complete and very well preserved specimen found in the Lower Cretaceous (Barremian) of the Cornappo torrent valley, Julian Prealps, Udin Province, Nimis municipality. It belongs to the species A. prisca (type-species of the genus), which specimens were all found in the Cretaceous Merzlek site (now in Slovenia) in the Julian Prealps near Gorizia during the XIX century, but now are lost. Therefore the Friulian specimen might be chosen as the neotype.
Notes: In Italian, with English abstract and figure captions.
Notes: Interested persons may email the author and request a pdf copy for her/his personal use only and is not to be redistributed or disseminated, except for educational use in a school, college, or university setting.
Notes: Interested persons may email the author and request a pdf copy for her/his personal use only and is not to be redistributed or disseminated, except for educational use in a school, college, or university setting.
Notes: Interested persons may email the author and request a pdf copy for her/his personal use only and is not to be redistributed or disseminated, except for educational use in a school, college, or university setting.
Abstract: The latest Triassic tetrapods of northern Friuli (Carnian Pre-Alps, NE Italy) are represented by both skeletal and ichnological remains. Pterosaurs, drepanosaurids, protorosaurians and a lepidosauromorph occur in the Norian (middle Alaunian-Sevatian) Dolomia di Forni Formation. They include the holotypes of Preondactylus buffarinii, Eudimorphodon rosenfeldi and Megalancosaurus preonensis, as well as the most complete skeleton of the protorosaurian Langobardisaurus. Footprints of larger tetrapods, including dinosaurs, are known from the inner carbonate platform facies of the Dolomia Principale Formation (late Carnian-Rhaetian), part of which is laterally equivalent to the basinal Dolomia di Forni Formation. The tetrapods from the Dolomia di Forni are all small terrestrial animals; no aquatic tetrapods are found. This is unlike the tetrapod fauna from the Norian basins of Lombardy, where the overall tetrapod diversity also is higher, a difference possibly due to environmental conditions. The larger animals of the platform (represented only by footprints) are not present in the basinal sample. This could be due to selective transport, to a higher number of small tetrapods, to the small size of the skeletal sample, or simply to a different age of the skeletal and ichnological records. While the Friulian and Lombardian vertebrate samples do share some tetrapod and fish species others are different. This is possibly due to the slightly different ages of these deposits.
Notes: Interested persons may email the author and request a pdf copy for her/his personal use only and is not to be redistributed or disseminated, except for educational use in a school, college, or university setting.
Notes: Interested persons may email the author and request a pdf copy for her/his personal use only and is not to be redistributed or disseminated, except for educational use in a school, college, or university setting.
Notes: Interested persons may email the author and request a pdf copy for her/his personal use only and is not to be redistributed or disseminated, except for educational use in a school, college, or university setting.
Notes: Interested persons may email the author and request a pdf copy for her/his personal use only and is not to be redistributed or disseminated, except for educational use in a school, college, or university setting.
Notes: Interested persons may email the author and request a pdf copy for her/his personal use only and is not to be redistributed or disseminated, except for educational use in a school, college, or university setting.
Notes:
Interested persons may email the author and request a pdf copy for their own personal use but not for re-distribution.
Authors may send a copy of the pdf to persons who request a copy for her/his personal use only and is not to be redistributed or disseminated, except for educational use in a school, college, or university setting, and then only if accompanied by the clear statement that the copyright is of the SVP.
Notes: Interested persons may email the author and request a pdf copy for her/his personal use only and is not to be redistributed or disseminated, except for educational use in a school, college, or university setting.
Notes: Interested persons may email the author and request a pdf copy for their own personal use but not for re-distribution.
Authors may send a copy of the pdf to persons who request a copy for her/his personal use only and is not to be redistributed or disseminated, except for educational use in a school, college, or university setting, and then only if accompanied by the clear statement that the copyright is of the SVP.
Notes: Interested persons may email the author and request a pdf copy for her/his personal use only and is not to be redistributed or disseminated, except for educational use in a school, college, or university setting.
Notes: Interested persons may email the author and request a pdf copy for their own personal use but not for re-distribution.
Authors may send a copy of the pdf to persons who request a copy for her/his personal use only and is not to be redistributed or disseminated, except for educational use in a school, college, or university setting, and then only if accompanied by the clear statement that the copyright is of the SVP.
Notes: Interested persons may email the author and request a pdf copy for her/his personal use only and is not to be redistributed or disseminated, except for educational use in a school, college, or university setting.
Notes: Interested persons may email the author and request a pdf copy for her/his personal use only and is not to be redistributed or disseminated, except for educational use in a school, college, or university setting.
Notes: Interested persons may email the author and request a pdf copy for her/his personal use only and is not to be redistributed or disseminated, except for educational use in a school, college, or university setting.
