Cluj-Napoca, 2nd February 2022
The oldest sea bass fossil in Europe was discovered by a team of Romanian researchers from Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca (BBU), which included Dr. Ionuț Grădianu (BBU and the Museum of Natural Sciences in Piatra Neamț), Ph.D. candidate Marian Bordeianu (BBU), and Prof. Vlad Codrea (BBU).
The Dicentrarchus oligocenicus species, approx. 33 mil. years old (Oligocene) was presented in January 2022 in the prestigious scientific journal “Historical Biology” (Taylor & Francis Group), after being discovered in South-Eastern Romania (Vrancea county), on the banks of the Coza river, by Marian Bordeianu.
“The respective area is both geologically informative and deserted, man rarely setting foot here. The name of the species indicates the age of the original geological formations. The discovery includes an almost completed skeleton that is morphologically different from all already-known Oligocene or older species, but which greatly resembles the sea bass we know today. The fossil is part of the collection of BBU’s Museum of Paleontology and Stratification”, according to researchers.
In 2018, the three experts from the Laboratory of Paleoteriology and Geology of the Quarternary of Babeș-Bolyai University, together with Dr. Nicolae Trif (from the Brukenthal National Museum of Sibiu) presented a fauna of fossil fish from the same region, including seven species (one shark and six bony fish), but neither has the systematic value of the new form – new to science. This discovery not only enriches the national and international paleontological patrimony, but it also constitutes an eloquent example showing that geological and paleontological research in Romania can reach high standards when based on passion.
The great European sea bass is one of the most economically important sea fish to be found in fisheries across Europe. This migrating fish lives in estuaries, lagoons and coastal areas around the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and on the East coast of the Atlantic Ocean. Along the years, it has been intensely studied in order to increase its population for commercial reasons, but, so far, little has been known about tis ancestors.
