NEW REPORT OF CETOTHERIID (CETACEA: MYSTICETI) REMAINS FROM SOUTHWESTERN ROMANIA.

The Miocene deposits of the Carpathian Foreland yielded marine vertebrate remains in numerous fossil localities. Various authors have described a fauna composed of pinnipeds, sea birds, turtles, bony fish, and cetaceans. This fauna is characteristic to the Paratethys epicontinental sea. The family Cetotheriidae appears to have included most baleen whale taxa that lived in the Eastern Paratethys in general, and in the Dacian Basin in particular, during the Miocene. In the Dacian Basin, several Miocene cetotheriid occurrences have been mentioned so far, yet remain scarce. The aim of this work is to describe previously unpublished cetotheriid remains housed at the Museum of Oltenia Craiova and to provide an updated distribution of the cetotheriid fossil localities from the Dacian Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]