Szabó János szerk.: Fragmenta Mineralogica Et Palaentologica 20. 2002. (Budapest, 2002)

FRAGMENTA PALAEONTOLOGICA HUNGARICA 20, BUDAPEST, 2002 A new genus and new species of grebe (Podicipediformes, Aves) from the Early Miocene lake deposits of Valjevo Basin (Serbia) by Vesna DlMITRIJEVICH, Erika GÁL & Eugen KESSLER Abstract — Miodytes serbicus, a new genus and species of grebe from the Early Miocene lake deposits of Bela Stena series (Valjevo Basin, West Serbia) is introduced. The fossil bird bones of an almost complete wing skeleton are found in anatomical connection in a thin layer slate. The representatives of Podicipedidae are rare in Central European deposits of any age, and indicate the vicinity of a seacoast environment, i. e. Paratethys Sea. Among rare bird remains in the Neogene of Serbia, the find from Valjevo Basin is the very first to enable species identification. Key words — Aves, Podicipediformes, Podicipedidae, Miodytes, Early Miocene, Valjevo Basin, Serbia. DlMITRIJEVICH, V., GÁL, E. & E. KESSLER E. (2002): A new genus and new species of grebe (Podicipediformes, Aves) fromt he Early Miocene lake deposits of Valjevo Basin (Serbia). — Fragmenta Palaeontologica Hungarica, 20: 3-7. Introduction The bird remains were found in the village Suseoke in the Valjevo Basin (Figure 1). Situated in West Serbia, the Valjevo Basin is filled with Early and Middle Miocene lake deposits and subsequently, in the north and northeast, also with Late Miocene brackish sediments (DOLICH, 1995). The occasional occurrences of laminated sediments with organic matter (kerogen), which are found from the river Toplica on the east to Klinci near Valjevo on the west and exposed in the village Suseoke are called "Bela Stena series". They contain plant remains (PANTICH, 1956) and fish bones (ANDJELKOVICH, 1970). Remains of insects and bird feathers are also registered (STEVANOVICH, 1977). "Bela Stena series" probably belong to the oldest lake formation in the Valjevo Basin assigned to the Early Miocene (JOVANOVICH et al., 1994). In earlier literature its age was differently treated as "freshwater Tortonian", "freshwater Sarmatian", "freshwater Sarmatian-Early Pannonian", "freshwater Pannonian" and "brackish Sarmatian and Pannonian" (PANTICH, 1956; STEVANOVICH, 1977; PANTICH et al, 1980 and DOLICH, 1984). Bird remains are rare in Neogene of Serbia, and the find from "Bela Stena series" in Suseoke village is the first to enable species identification. A single bird bone is recorded from the Miocene deposits of Arandjelovac (LASKAREV, 1936), and fossil eggs in Miocene of Brajkovac near Ljig (STEVANOVICH, 1959). Recently, a bone of "the song bird" (Passeriformes) is found in the core of a bore hole drilled in the Late Miocene deposits near Negotin in eastern Serbia (KRSTICH et al., 1995). Abundant bird remains are appearing not until Pleistocene, when they are preserved in cave sediments (MALEZ & DlMITRIJEVICH, 1990). Figure 1 — Site position. Material and methods Acronyms used — IPH: Regalia Collection in the Human Palaeontology Institution, Paris. LAC: Laboratory of Comparative Anatomy, National Museum of Natural History, Paris. UCBL: Department of Geology, Claude Bernard University, Lyon. MTM: Geological and Palaeontological Department, Hungarian Natural History Museum. BBU: Department of Zoology, Babe§-Bolyai University, Cluj. USNM: National Museum of Natural History,