The Grünbach Formation is an Austriangeological formation that dates to the lower Campanian age of the Late Cretaceous. it forms part of the Gosau Group, and represents a marine regression event, representing a coastal/brackish environment, being underlain by the marine carbonate and overlain by the deep marine siliciclastic . The main lithology is Clay, Marl, Siltstone and Sandstone, with a minor Conglomerate component. Coal seams have also been noted.[1][2] It is notable for its fossils including those of dinosaurs and plants.
All remains have been found at a single locality, which is a thin marl seam in the Konstantin mining tunnel, within the Felbering Mine in the Neue Welt area north west of Muthmannsdorf in Lower Austria.[3] The initial remains were discovered in 1859 after an Ornithopod tooth was found in a piece of coal in a dump outside the mine by Professor Ferdinand Stoliczka, and the productive seam discovered thereafter. The first material was described by Emanuel Bunzel in 1871[4] and then additional material was described by Harry Seeley in 1881.[5] Due to mining activity in the area ceasing at the end of the 19th century, no additional remains have been recovered since.
Referred to by the dubious name ‘Megalosaurus pannoniensis’[5] Nearly identical to teeth known from the Csehbánya Formation[10]
Flora[]
Most of these specimens were recovered from mining dumps near Grünbach am Schneeberg in lower Austria. The flora of the formation is considered to represent that of a high humidity subtropical climate, typical of the Euro-Sinian phytogeographic region[11][12][13]
A single specimen of the HorsetailEquisetites is known
^Sachs, Sven; Hornung, Jahn J. (May 2006). "Juvenile ornithopod (Dinosauria: Rhabdodontidae) remains from the Upper Cretaceous (Lower Campanian, Gosau Group) of Muthmannsdorf (Lower Austria)". Geobios. 39 (3): 415–425. doi:10.1016/j.geobios.2005.01.003. ISSN0016-6995.
^Bunzel, Emanuel (1871). "Die Reptilfauna der Gosau-Formation in der Neuen Welt bei Wiener-Neustadt". Abhandlungen der Kaiserlich-königlichen Geologischen Reichsanstalt. 5: 1–18.
^ abcSeeley, H. G. (1881-02-01). "The Reptile Fauna of the Gosau Formation preserved in the Geological Museum of the University of Vienna: With a Note on the Geological Horizon of the Fossils at Neue Welt, west of Wiener Neustadt, by Edw. Suess, Ph.D., F.M.G.S., &c., Professor of Geology in the University of Vienna, &c". Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society. 37 (1–4): 620–706. doi:10.1144/GSL.JGS.1881.037.01-04.49. ISSN0370-291X. S2CID219235284.
^Buffetaut, Eric (1979). "Revision der Crocodylia (Reptilia) aus den Gosau-Schichten (Ober-Kreide) von Österreich". Beiträge zur Paläontologie von Österreich. 6: 89–105.
^Buffetaut, Eric (1989). "Erster nachweis von Choristodera (Reptilia, Diapsida) in der Oberkreide Europas: Champsosaurierwirbel aus den Gosau-Schichten (Campan) Niederösterreichs". Sitzungsberichten der Österreichs Akademis der Wissenschaften Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Klasse, Abteilung. 197: 389–394.
^Rabi, Márton; Vremir, Mátyás; Tong, Haiyan (2012-09-01), "Preliminary Overview of Late Cretaceous Turtle Diversity in Eastern Central Europe (Austria, Hungary, and Romania)", Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology, Springer Netherlands, pp. 307–336, doi:10.1007/978-94-007-4309-0_19, ISBN9789400743083
^Buffetaut, Eric; Ősi, Attila; Prondvai, Edina (March 2011). "The pterosaurian remains from the Grünbach Formation (Campanian, Gosau Group) of Austria: a reappraisal of 'Ornithocheirus buenzeli'". Geological Magazine. 148 (2): 334–339. Bibcode:2011GeoM..148..334B. doi:10.1017/S0016756810000981. ISSN1469-5081. S2CID131376979.
Austria