Early Pleistocene freshwater fishes of Copaceni (Dacian Basin, southern Romania)

This paper describes the first early Pleistocene freshwater fish assemblage from the Dacian Basin, Romania. The fossil sample, consisting mainly of isolated teeth, supports the presence of a rich and taxonomically diverse fish assemblage: 17 taxa were identified, belonging to 10 genera of the families Cyprinidae, Salmonidae, Siluridae, Esocidae, and Percidae. The ecological affinities of the identified taxa suggest the early Pleistocene fishes from Copaceni lived in a large lowland mesophitic river. The faunal composition is comparable to that of other southeast European assemblages, however, it includes more thermophilic taxa, suggesting the Dacian Basin represented an early Pleistocene refugium in a cooling post-Pliocene environment. The taxonomical composition of the fossil assemblage suggests a pre-Pleistocene dispersion of freshwater taxa took place in the areas surrounding the Euxinian Basin.