Presència de Tomistoma cf. lusitanica (Vianna i Moraes, 1945) (Reptilia: Crocodylia) al Burdigalià inferior de Mallorca (Illes Balears, Mediterrània occidental). Implicacions paleoambientals.

Abstract

The presence of the longirostrine crocodilian Tomistoma cf. lusitanica (Vianna & Moraes 1945) in the Lower Burdigalian of Mallorca (Baleares Islands, Spain) is recorded. This is a stenotherm, tropical form whose palaeoecologic contribution to characterize estuary or marine environments is discussed. The presence of these Miocene crocodilians is an excellent biological marker of the tropical and/or subtropical conditions that prevailed during Lower Burdigalian in what is now Mallorca. Their decadence and extinction would surely be related to climate degradation that begun after the Mid-Miocene Climatic Optimum. It coincided with a later, progressive cooling that culminated in the thermal oscillations of the Quaternary glacial cycles.