A new fossil-lagerstätte from the lower eocene of lessini mountains (northern Italy): A multidisciplinary approach

Abstract

Hemipelagic dark limestones within calciturbiditic deposits at Monte Solane in the western Lessini Mountains of northern Italy yield a fish fauna dominated by stomiiforms. A minor component of the fossil assemblage is represented by a macroalgal non-calcareous flora associated with rarer terrestrial components including few angiosperm leaves and seeds. Micropaleontological (foraminifera, dinoflagellate cysts), sedimentological and geochemical proxies (TEX86) indicate a deposition of the fossil-bearing bed in a hypoxic to possibly anoxic, warm, restricted basin. High-precision dating based on rich foraminiferal and calcareous nannoplankton content allows ascribing the site to the upper part of the Ypresian (Lower Eocene). The site is slightly older than the Ypresian worldwide-famous shallow-water Bolca Konservat-Lagerstätte located in the same region. Convergent paleoenvironmental clues based on both microfossils and ichthyofauna indicate that the sediments were deposited in the upper bathyal zone, probably between 300 and 600m. Solane is therefore one of the rare and precious Eocene Lagerstätte to have fossilized in a deep marine setting. The site contains the oldest Cenozoic record of an ichthyofauna dominated by meso-bathypelagic taxa.