The paleoecology and taphonomy of a Santonian-Campanian (Upper Cretaceous) dinosaur-bearing vertebrate locality from Bulgaria: a window into an underexplored part of the Late Cretaceous European Archipelago.

Unlabelled: The Upper Cretaceous European vertebrate fossil record has improved significantly in the past three decades but there still remain chronostratigraphic and geographic gaps, which obscure our understanding of the paleobiogeography and evolution within the insular environments of the Late Cretaceous European Archipelago. Recently, a new vertebrate locality of late Santonian-early Campanian age was discovered in westernmost Bulgaria, promising to fill some of these gaps. Here, we use a multidisciplinary approach involving palynology, paleontology and paleohistology to investigate aspects of the paleoecology and taphonomy of this new locality and to provide preliminary information on its taxonomic contents.