Jean-Pierre Suc
email: jeanpierre.suc@gmail.com

Damien Do Couto

M C Melinte-Dobrinescu

Rodica Macalet

Frédéric Quillévéré

Georges Clauzon

Istvan Csato

Jean-Loup Rubino

Speranta-Maria Popescu

Carmen Melinte-Dobrinescu

Rodica Macaleţ

The Messinian Salinity Crisis in the Dacic Basin (SW Romania) and early Zanclean Mediterranean-Eastern Paratethys high sea-level connection

Keywords:

des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.

Introduction

Up to the late nineties, the research on the relationships between the Mediterranean and Paratethys during the Late Neogene focused on the building of stratigraphic correlations [START_REF] Seneš | Correlation hypotheses of the neogene Tethys and Paratethys[END_REF][START_REF] Marinescu | Tables with the correlations of the Neogene deposits in Romania[END_REF]. This matter became crucial when Late Miocene and Early Pliocene marine nannoplankton influxes were discovered in the Eastern Paratethys (Fig. 1a; [START_REF] Mǎrunţeanu | The connection between the Dacic and Mediterranean Basins based on calcareous nannoplankton assemblages[END_REF][START_REF] Semenenko | Stratigraphic correlation of the eastern Paratethys Kimmerian and Dacian stages by molluscs, dinocyst and nannoplankton data[END_REF][START_REF] Mǎrunţeanu | Mediterranean calcareous nannoplankton in the Dacic Basin[END_REF][START_REF] Drivaliari | A Pliocene climatic record at Ţicleni (Southwestern Romania)[END_REF][START_REF] Clauzon | Influence of Mediterranean sea-level changes on the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys) during the late Neogene: the Mediterranean Lago Mare facies deciphered[END_REF][START_REF] Snel | Late Miocene to Early Pliocene chronostratigraphic framework for the Dacic Basin, Romania[END_REF]. When compared to the already evidenced entrance of Paratethyan organisms into the Mediterranean known as the "Lago Mare" facies [START_REF] Gignoux | Géologie stratigraphique[END_REF][START_REF] Ruggieri | La serie marina pliocenica e quaternaria della Val Marecchia[END_REF]; see for recent syntheses: [START_REF] Orszag-Sperber | Changing perspectives in the concept of "Lago-Mare" in Mediterranean late Miocene evolution[END_REF][START_REF] Popescu | Galeacysta etrusca complex, dinoflagellate cyst marker of Paratethyan influxes into the Mediterranean Sea before and after the peak of the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF]; and references therein) such occurrences stimulated new research and the direction of water in-and outflows between the Paratethys and Mediterranean was intensely discussed [START_REF] Ciesm (antón | The Messinian Salinity crisis from mega-deposits to microbiology -A consensus report[END_REF]. In the area of Turnu Severin (Dacic Basin, SW Romania; Fig. 1), [START_REF] Clauzon | Influence of Mediterranean sea-level changes on the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys) during the late Neogene: the Mediterranean Lago Mare facies deciphered[END_REF] evidenced a Bosphorian Gilberttype fan delta, which was referred to the early Zanclean based upon Mediterranean nannofossils and magnetostratigraphy for its subaqueous portion and upon mammals and magnetostratigraphy for its subaerial portion (see also [START_REF] Popescu | Pollen record and integrated high-resolution chronology of the Early Pliocene Dacic Basin (Southwestern Romania)[END_REF]). An erosional contact was observed between such a fan delta and the older rocks which, as a consequence, was referred to the Messinian Erosional Surface [START_REF] Clauzon | Influence of Mediterranean sea-level changes on the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys) during the late Neogene: the Mediterranean Lago Mare facies deciphered[END_REF].

The interpretation of the Turnu Severin deposits by [START_REF] Clauzon | Influence of Mediterranean sea-level changes on the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys) during the late Neogene: the Mediterranean Lago Mare facies deciphered[END_REF] has been questioned based on two lines of reasoning. (1) [START_REF] Jipa | Late Neogene -Quaternary evolution of Dacian Basin (Romania). An analysis of sediment thickness pattern[END_REF] and [START_REF] Olteanu | Dacian Basin environmental evolution during Upper Neogene within the Paratethys domain[END_REF] interpreted them as a piedmont alluvial fan facies derived from the uplift of the Carpathians. (2) Krijsman et al.

(2010) dated the marine influx from the Mediterranean as early Odessian (Early Pontian) and considered the Turnu Gilbert-type fan delta as pre-Meotian (see Table 1 for the compared standard and Eastern Paratethys chronostratigraphic scales).

In this paper, we provide new data from this area (Fig. 2) in order to (1) better differentiate the Turnu Severin Gilbert-type fan delta from the Carpathian piedmont alluvial fans, and (2) clarify its age. [START_REF] Clauzon | Influence of Mediterranean sea-level changes on the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys) during the late Neogene: the Mediterranean Lago Mare facies deciphered[END_REF] proposed an early Zanclean age for the bottomset beds of the Turnu Severin Gilbert-type fan delta exposed at Hinova. The lowermost nannoflora from the thin coquina at Hinova (locality 7 in Figure 2, here called Hinova a) was studied in 1998 by M. [START_REF] Clauzon | Influence of Mediterranean sea-level changes on the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys) during the late Neogene: the Mediterranean Lago Mare facies deciphered[END_REF]. It contained Reticulofenestra minuta, R. pseudoumbilicus, R. minutula, R. doronicoides, Calcidiscus leptoporus, Coccolithus pelagicus, Helicosphaera kamptneri [START_REF] Clauzon | Influence of Mediterranean sea-level changes on the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys) during the late Neogene: the Mediterranean Lago Mare facies deciphered[END_REF]. Such an assemblage was considered to immediately postdate the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) with respect to [START_REF] Raffi | A review of calcareous nannofossil astrobiochronology encompassing the past 25 million years[END_REF], but we did not unambiguously demonstrate the proposed earliest Zanclean age [START_REF] Clauzon | Influence of Mediterranean sea-level changes on the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys) during the late Neogene: the Mediterranean Lago Mare facies deciphered[END_REF]. This coquina level immediately overlies an oxidized thin yellow sand [START_REF] Popescu | Végétation, climat et cyclostratigraphie en Paratéthys centrale au Miocène supérieur et au Pliocène inférieur d'après la palynologie[END_REF]. Respectively, 10 m and 15 m above, two additional samples provided a similar nannoflora associated with Sphenolithus abies, Amaurolithus primus and Nicklithus (ex. Amaurolithus) amplificus, the latter (highest occurrence at ca. 5.9 Ma; [START_REF] Raffi | A review of calcareous nannofossil astrobiochronology encompassing the past 25 million years[END_REF] being considered as reworked by [START_REF] Clauzon | Influence of Mediterranean sea-level changes on the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys) during the late Neogene: the Mediterranean Lago Mare facies deciphered[END_REF]. Palaeomagnetic analysis on four samples from the light grey sandy clays of the Hinova a section also yielded results consistent with the proposed earliest Zanclean age [START_REF] Popescu | Pollen record and integrated high-resolution chronology of the Early Pliocene Dacic Basin (Southwestern Romania)[END_REF]. Table 1 provides the presentday accepted standard chronostratigraphy for the last 15 Ma [START_REF] Lourens | The Neogene period[END_REF] and its equivalent in the Eastern Paratethys [START_REF] Vasiliev | Towards an astrochronological framework for the eastern Paratethys Mio-Pliocene sedimentary sequences of the Focşani basin (Romania)[END_REF][START_REF] Krijgsman | Rise and fall of the Paratethys Sea during the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF]. Krijgsman et al. (2010, p. 188) questioned this age on the basis of the geological maps of Turnu Severin [START_REF] Savu | Carte géologique de Roumanie au 1/200[END_REF] and Baia de Aramǎ [START_REF] Nǎstǎseanu | Carte géologique de Roumanie au 1/200[END_REF] where these deposits are considered as pre-Maeotian (i.e. older than at least 8 Ma; Table 1).

Previous information on the Turnu Severin series

Mǎrunţeanu and published in

However, the bottomset beds of the Turnu Severin Gilbert-type fan delta are mapped as Pontian deposits (Fig. 2; [START_REF] Savu | Carte géologique de Roumanie au 1/200[END_REF]. [START_REF] Savu | Carte géologique de Roumanie au 1/200[END_REF] specify that between Bistriţa and Pd. Stîrmina (Fig. 2), (1) these Pontian deposits are constituted of Lower Pontian 1 clays conformably overlain by Upper Pontian (Bosphorian) clays both with a typical mollusk fauna (Table 2), and (2) the Bosphorian clays are covered by thick whitish sands (80-100 m). However, according to [START_REF] Marinescu | Stratigrafia Neogenului superior din sectorul vestic al Bazinului Dacic[END_REF], only Bosphorian clays are exposed between Şimian and Bistriţa, i.e. very close to the Hinova a section (Fig. 2). Attribution by Krijsgman et al. (2010) of a Bosphorian age to the Hinova a section (Fig. 2) is challenged by the mollusk fauna identified by I. Papaionopol in 1998 with F. Marinescu and published in [START_REF] Clauzon | Influence of Mediterranean sea-level changes on the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys) during the late Neogene: the Mediterranean Lago Mare facies deciphered[END_REF] including the Bosphorian markers Limnocardium emarginatum, L. petersi, Dreissena rostriformis, Dreissenomya aperta, Phyllocardium planum planum (Table 2). At Hinova, [START_REF] Clauzon | Influence of Mediterranean sea-level changes on the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys) during the late Neogene: the Mediterranean Lago Mare facies deciphered[END_REF] showed that the whitish sands are the foreset beds of the Turnu Severin Gilbert-type fan delta. The marine-continental transition of such a fan delta 1 This Lower Pontian probably includes the Odessian and Portaferrian regional stages (Table 1) as the mollusk fauna listing shows both Paradacna abichi (running from Odessian to earliest Bosphorian) and Congeria rhomboidea rhomboidea (marker of Portaferrian) (Table 2).

occurs at an elevation of 220 m, marked by the lowermost lignite of the Late Neogene series, which is overlain by whitish sands of the topset beds. Northward, sandy foreset beds are replaced by alternating lignitesclayssands magnetostratigraphically dated as Early Pliocene [START_REF] Popescu | Pollen record and integrated high-resolution chronology of the Early Pliocene Dacic Basin (Southwestern Romania)[END_REF]. [START_REF] Savu | Carte géologique de Roumanie au 1/200[END_REF] did not extend the Bosphorian age of the Bistriţa -Pd. Stîrmina upper clays to the pebbly and sandy foreset beds exposed from Gura Văii to Turnu Severin probably because the concept of Gilbert-type fan deltas was not yet widely developed. They considered a pre-Maeotian age (Table 1) for the Gura Văii -Turnu Severin pebbly and sandy beds because they are similar to well-dated deposits northward in the region. [START_REF] Krijgsman | Rise and fall of the Paratethys Sea during the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF] rejected the Bosphorian age of the Hinova upper clays and preferred a pre-Maeotian age for the whole Gilbert-type fan delta of Turnu Severin. They concluded that there was no marine influx from the Mediterranean into the Dacic Basin during the Bosphorian (Table 1).

However, this conclusion is contradicted by the occurrence of Ceratolithus acutus (1) at 388 m depth in the Ţicleni well (area of Tîrgu Jiu; Fig. 1b) in clays overlying Portaferrian deposits [START_REF] Drivaliari | A Pliocene climatic record at Ţicleni (Southwestern Romania)[END_REF][START_REF] Popescu | Pollen record and integrated high-resolution chronology of the Early Pliocene Dacic Basin (Southwestern Romania)[END_REF] and belonging to the lateral extension of the bottomset beds of the Gilbert-type fan delta of Turnu Severin (Clauzon et al., 2005), and (2) similarly in other sections from the northern Dacic Basin (Bădislava close to Rîmnicu Vîlcea, Valea Vacii close to Buzău; Fig. 1b; [START_REF] Mǎrunţeanu | Mediterranean calcareous nannoplankton in the Dacic Basin[END_REF][START_REF] Snel | Late Miocene to Early Pliocene chronostratigraphic framework for the Dacic Basin, Romania[END_REF].

Piedmont alluvial fan and Gilbert-type fan delta deposits

The studied region is at the foot of the southwestern part of the Carpathians Mountains where piedmont alluvial fans are frequent [START_REF] Jipa | Dacian Basin. Depositional architecture and sedimentary history of a Paratethys Sea[END_REF]. Here also, the MSC is at the origin of a Zanclean Gilbert-type fan delta [START_REF] Clauzon | Influence of Mediterranean sea-level changes on the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys) during the late Neogene: the Mediterranean Lago Mare facies deciphered[END_REF] as in many places around the Mediterranean. Accordingly, it is necessary to recall the respective characteristics of these nearby sedimentary constructions in order to establish their indisputable distinction.

An aggrading piedmont is a geomorphological entity which results from an alluvial fan made of subaerial deposits originating from erosion of a nearby, previously uplifted relief [START_REF] Harvey | Alluvial fans: geomorphology, sedimentology, dynamicsintroduction. A review of alluvial-fan research[END_REF]. It is cone-shaped and opens out away from the mountain. Sediments are constituted by relatively unorganized, mixed coarse to fine grained elements (Fig. 3a) which were solely forced by the repeated detritic discharges caused by torrential floods. Hence, rounded or angular pebbles may be juxtaposed with sands and clays, as shown in Figures 4ab.

A Gilbert-type fan delta [START_REF] Gilbert | The topographic features of lake shores[END_REF][START_REF] Gilbert | Lake Bonneville[END_REF] results from a strong subaerial erosion followed by a very fast rise in water-level then maintained by some stability. It is constituted by two superposed alluvial prisms (Fig. 3b): (1) the lower prism, downstream open, prograding in subaqueous conditions; and (2) the upper prism, upstream open, aggrading in subaerial conditions. Because of its subaqueous context of sedimentation, the lower prism is constituted by leached and sorted terrigenous elements: clayey particles are mostly deposited relatively far from the river mouth, whereas well-rounded pebbles concentrate just after the river outlet (Figs. 4c-d), gravels and sands being dominantly deposited in between (Figs. 4ef). The coarse to medium-size clastic material forms foreset beds (Fig. 3b), which are characterized by a sedimentary dip up to 25°. The reason for this characterization is the prograding process (often confused with a tectonic dip) with obvious sigmoid sedimentary patterns (Fig. 5), and which are constrained both by the available space and the river input.

The fine clayey terrigenous material constitutes the bottomset beds where micro-and macrofossils may accumulate (Fig. 3b). The upper prism is made of almost uniformly mixed detritic material (pebbles to sands and clays) showing from place to place cross-bedded stratifications (Fig. 3b). It corresponds to the alluvial coastal plain of the river.

Despite their clear differences in deposit composition and organization, piedmonts (alluvial fans) and Gilbert-type fan deltas are often confused, especially when sedimentary dips of foreset beds are misinterpreted as resulting from tectonic tilting. [START_REF] Martini | Standard Tertiary and Quaternary calcareous nannoplankton zonation[END_REF][START_REF] Raffi | A review of calcareous nannofossil astrobiochronology encompassing the past 25 million years[END_REF]. Accordingly, the alluvial fan of the Carpathians piedmont deposited between ca. 14 to 9 Ma with respect to the chronologies of [START_REF] Lourens | The Neogene period[END_REF] and [START_REF] Vasiliev | Towards an astrochronological framework for the eastern Paratethys Mio-Pliocene sedimentary sequences of the Focşani basin (Romania)[END_REF], for the Mediterranean and Eastern Paratethys, respectively (Table 1).

New data on the

The thick foreset beds (Fig. 5a) of the Gilbert-type fan delta described by [START_REF] Clauzon | Influence of Mediterranean sea-level changes on the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys) during the late Neogene: the Mediterranean Lago Mare facies deciphered[END_REF] are exposed along the Danube River, especially on its left bank and at Kladusnica near Kladovo (locality 3 in Figure 2) in Serbia. This sedimentary complex at Gura Văii has an erosional base (44°40'7.1"N, 22°33'42.2"E; Figs. 7,8) and shows a progressive passage from conglomeratic foreset beds to gravelly-sandy foreset beds (well-exposed at the abandoned swimming pool of Turnu Severin: 44°37'58.1"N, 22°35'49.9"E). The latter is followed by bottomset beds that we observed at Brezniţa-Ocol (44°40'44.9"N, 22°36'57.4"E; locality 5 in Figures 2 and7) and at Pd. Trestenic (44°40'36.2"N, 22°37'21.9"E; locality 6 in Figures 2 and7). In the area of Brezniţa-Ocol, the contact between the clayey bottomset beds and sandy forest beds is marked by water springs. Such a succession of facies indicates a Gilbert-type fan delta, which was necessarily built by a powerful river that had a similar course to the present Danube River downstream the Iron Gates. At Gura Văii (i.e. in the proximal part of the Gilbert-type fan delta) there is no doubt on the erosional contact between the pebbly foreset beds and a polygenic and heterometric breccia overlying the Cretaceous limestones (Fig. 8a,b). This breccia (Fig. 8c) is a coarse slope deposit of post-Sarmatian age as it overlies the Sarmatian fossiliferous limestones at Vărănic where it includes some reworked blocks of the Sarmatian carbonate. At Capătul Drumului (44°39'42.4"N, 22°34'34.9"E; locality 4 in Figure 2; Fig. 7), the pebbly foreset beds reach an altitude of 329 m and are nested within a series made of Cretaceous carbonates overlain by Sarmatian carbonates and the abovementioned breccias (highest altitude: 381 m). The Zanclean age of this Gilbert-type fan delta was deduced from the nannoflora found at Hinova a (locality 7 in Figure 2; [START_REF] Clauzon | Influence of Mediterranean sea-level changes on the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys) during the late Neogene: the Mediterranean Lago Mare facies deciphered[END_REF]. But the age of this locality was not robust enough because (1) the relatively long distance devoid of exposed Neogene deposits from Turnu Severin (15 km), and (2) the absence of unquestionable biostratigraphic marker. Sample 4 from the clayey bottomset beds exposed on a thickness of 4 m at Pd. Trestenic (Fig. 9a), i.e. fully within the Gilbert-type fan delta complex, yielded Discoaster brouweri, Reticulofenestra pseudoumbilicus, Sphenolithus abies, Coccolithus pelagicus, Ceratolithus larrymayeri, Calcidiscus leptoporus, C. macintyrei, Helicosphaera carteri, H. stalis and small reticulofenestrids. Ceratolithus larrymayeri (Plate 1, Fig. 34) has a very short range (5.34 -5.1 Ma: [START_REF] Raffi | Evolutionary trends of tropical calcareous nannofossils in the late Neogene[END_REF][START_REF] Raffi | A review of calcareous nannofossil astrobiochronology encompassing the past 25 million years[END_REF].

Its occurrence is therefore an unquestionable argument for dating the Gilbert-type fan delta from the early Zanclean (Table 1). Hence, the erosional surface which separates the Gilberttype fan delta from older sediments, observed at Gura Văii and Capătul Drumului, is undoubtedly the Messinian Erosional Surface as proposed by [START_REF] Clauzon | Influence of Mediterranean sea-level changes on the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys) during the late Neogene: the Mediterranean Lago Mare facies deciphered[END_REF].

A new field investigation in the area allowed us to discover another Gilbert-type fan delta along the Topolnhiţa River, the foreset beds of which (Fig. 5b) are well-exposed on both banks between Baloteşti (locality 10; Figs. 2,7) and Izvoru Bîrzii (locality 9; Figs. 2,7). This Gilbert-type fan delta has also an early Zanclean age according to the nannoflora of Pd.

Trestenic. The bottomset beds exposed in the area of Pd. Trestenic belong to the two coalescing Gilbert-type fan deltas. At Baloteşti, the Topolniţa Gilbert-type fan delta is clearly nested within the piedmont alluvial fan fed by the nearby metamorphic basement (Figs. 10a,b,c,d). Here, the distinct light grey sandy foreset beds of the Topolniţa Gilbert-type fan delta are pinned against the piedmont reddish heterogenous deposits through a clearly erosional contact (Figs. 10e), which is therefore considered as the Messinian Erosional Surface (Fig. 10b).

The associated power of two rivers springing from the Carpathians Mountains explains the long distance transport of clays and sands. South of Hinova, a second clayey section has been sampled (Hinova b: 44°31'45"N, 22°46'40.3"E; i.e. locality 8 in Figure 2). Three of the four samples yielded Reticulofenestra pseudoumbilicus, Amaurolithus sp., Coccolithus pelagicus, Calcidiscus leptoporus, C. macintyrei and small reticulofenestrids. Among these samples, sample 3 originates from the coquina level shown in Figure 9f. Sample 4 (Fig. 9f) yielded in addition Sphenolithus abies, Triquetrorhabdulus rugosus and Ceratolithus acutus (Plate 1, Figs. 1-2), which together indicate an age comprised between 5.345 and 5.279 Ma [START_REF] Raffi | A review of calcareous nannofossil astrobiochronology encompassing the past 25 million years[END_REF] for these bottomset beds. The early Zanclean age of the two Gilbert-type fan deltas is thus reinforced. Constituted by Phyllocardium sp., Pontalmyra drobetica, P. sabbae and Congeria sp. (Fig. 9h), the mollusk macrofauna observed in this section (Fig. 9g) is characteristic of the Bosphorian regional Substage (Table 2), which is in agreement with the early Zanclean age indicated by nannofossils (Table 1). The influx of early Zanclean Mediterranean marine waters into the Dacic Basin, already evidenced by nannofossils and dinoflagellate cysts at Hivona a [START_REF] Clauzon | Influence of Mediterranean sea-level changes on the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys) during the late Neogene: the Mediterranean Lago Mare facies deciphered[END_REF] On the basis of all the available data in the area of Turnu Severin, it is now possible to propose a reconstruction of its evolution during the time-interval 12 -5 Ma (Fig. 12). The uplift of the Carpathians Mountains caused the development of the piedmont alluvial fans by local rivers (Fig. 12a), the residual expansion of which is mapped on Figure 11. The Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) caused a huge erosion of the previously built piedmont alluvial fan and older rocks (Fig. 12b). In particular, the Carpathians Mountains were severely cut by two rivers especially one at the origin of the Iron Gates gorge (Fig. 12b). Then, the sudden return to marine conditions related to the reconnection of the Dacic Basin with the Mediterranean Sea [START_REF] Popescu | Galeacysta etrusca complex, dinoflagellate cyst marker of Paratethyan influxes into the Mediterranean Sea before and after the peak of the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF] forced the building of two coalescing Gilbert-type fan deltas (Fig. 12c). The seismic data published by [START_REF] Leever | Messinian sea level fall in the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys): palaeogeographical implications from seismic sequence stratigraphy[END_REF] confirm the erosional surface which impacted the Pontian deposits as a response to the Mediterranean Messinian drawdown. The ensuing Bosphorian sea-level rise was comparatively fast and resulted in a prograding sedimentary system manifested in the exposed sections (Gilbert-type fan deltas). It was unambiguously illustrated by Leever et al. (2010: fig. 3) as exactly the opposite of the "transgressive system track" evoked by Krijgsman et al. (2010, p. 188 since the Bosphorian sediments are downlapping and not onlapping.

It is necessary to question again the Pontian stratigraphic continuity (including Portaferrian or not: see footnote 1) described by [START_REF] Savu | Carte géologique de Roumanie au 1/200[END_REF] in the area of Bistriţa -Pd. Stîrmina. At Hinova, within the concerned area, the clays observed in two localities (Hinova a and b) belong to the Bosphorian regional Substage. However, at Hinova a (locality 7 on Figures 2 and11), the lowermost nannoflora provided by a coquina layer was reported to the Bosphorian [START_REF] Clauzon | Influence of Mediterranean sea-level changes on the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys) during the late Neogene: the Mediterranean Lago Mare facies deciphered[END_REF], which overlies a yellow oxidized sand (20 cm thick; Fig. 9d). We suggest here that this Bosphorian layer may have been deposited just after the peak of the MSC. Because of emersion, the MSC could be expressed by the thin yellow sand and probably some gap in sedimentation. Such a superposition of apparently conformable deposits where the Messinian desiccation phase is only expressed by a sedimentary gap and some detritic thin layers has been already evidenced: (1) in interfluvial palaeoconditions such as at Intepe (Dardanelles Strait; [START_REF] Melinte-Dobrinescu | The Messinian Salinity Crisis in the Dardanelles region: Chronostratigraphic constraints[END_REF]; and

(2) in bottomset beds of Gilbert-type fan delta deposited in axial conditions such as at Cuevas de Almanzora (Vera, Andalusia; [START_REF] Clauzon | New insights from the Andalusian Sorbas and Vera basins. 13ème Congrès RCMNS Naples[END_REF]. This latter context is in agreement with the observations and data from the Hinova area where the peak of the MSC is expressed by a gap corresponding to this slight sedimentological discontinuity (Fig. 9d), which might separate the Bosphorian sediments from the older (Odessian or Portaferrian) ones.

Magneto-and cyclostratigraphy based on the pollen record yielded an age of ca. 5.38 Ma for the base of the Hinova a section, which contains Mediterranean nannofossils [START_REF] Popescu | Late Miocene and early Pliocene environments in the southwestern Black Sea region from high-resolution palynology of DSDP Site 380A (Leg 42B)[END_REF]. This age, consistent with the proposed age for the Bosphorian regional Substage (5.5 -4.7 Ma: [START_REF] Krijgsman | Rise and fall of the Paratethys Sea during the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF]; Table 1), is in agreement with a reflooding of the Mediterranean Sea anticipating the base of the Zanclean Stage [START_REF] Popescu | Earliest Zanclean age for the Colombacci and uppermost Di tetto formations of the "latest Messinian" northern Apennines: New palaeoenvironmental data from the Maccarone section (Marche Province, Italy)[END_REF][START_REF] Popescu | Galeacysta etrusca complex, dinoflagellate cyst marker of Paratethyan influxes into the Mediterranean Sea before and after the peak of the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF][START_REF] Melinte-Dobrinescu | The Messinian Salinity Crisis in the Dardanelles region: Chronostratigraphic constraints[END_REF]Bache et al., accepted) as defined by its GSSP [START_REF] Van Couvering | The base of the Zanclean Stage and of the Pliocene Series[END_REF].

Palaeogeographic inferences

These results, which specify and complement those by [START_REF] Clauzon | Influence of Mediterranean sea-level changes on the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys) during the late Neogene: the Mediterranean Lago Mare facies deciphered[END_REF], provide new evidences for a more accurate palaeogeographic reconstruction of the Dacic Basin and nearby areas just before and after the MSC (i.e. for the time-interval 6 -5 Ma; Fig. 13).

Mediterranean marine waters transiently entered the Dacic Basin before and just after the peak of the MSC (5.60 -5.46 Ma). The influx of Mediterranean waters during the Portaferrain regional Substage is characterized by the presence of the calcareous coccolith taxa Discoaster quinqueramus, Nicklithus amplificus and Triquetrorhabdulus rugosus among others (Subzone NN11b: ca. 6.9 -5.9 Ma; [START_REF] Raffi | A review of calcareous nannofossil astrobiochronology encompassing the past 25 million years[END_REF] as shown at Valea Vacii (region of Buzău) at the foot of the southeastern Carpathians [START_REF] Mǎrunţeanu | Mediterranean calcareous nannoplankton in the Dacic Basin[END_REF][START_REF] Snel | Late Miocene to Early Pliocene chronostratigraphic framework for the Dacic Basin, Romania[END_REF]). An almost similar nannoflora was found at Bădislava (region of Rîmnicu Vîlcea) [START_REF] Snel | Late Miocene to Early Pliocene chronostratigraphic framework for the Dacic Basin, Romania[END_REF]. The influx of Mediterranean waters during the Bosphorian regional Substage is characterized in the same sections by the presence of Ceratolithus acutus (Subzone NN12b; [START_REF] Mǎrunţeanu | Mediterranean calcareous nannoplankton in the Dacic Basin[END_REF][START_REF] Snel | Late Miocene to Early Pliocene chronostratigraphic framework for the Dacic Basin, Romania[END_REF]. If one also considers the areas of Turnu Severin [START_REF] Clauzon | Influence of Mediterranean sea-level changes on the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys) during the late Neogene: the Mediterranean Lago Mare facies deciphered[END_REF] this paper) and Tîrgu Jiu [START_REF] Drivaliari | A Pliocene climatic record at Ţicleni (Southwestern Romania)[END_REF][START_REF] Popescu | Pollen record and integrated high-resolution chronology of the Early Pliocene Dacic Basin (Southwestern Romania)[END_REF], these two successive influxes should be considered to have impacted the entire Dacic Basin. [START_REF] Leever | Messinian sea level fall in the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys): palaeogeographical implications from seismic sequence stratigraphy[END_REF] considered that the early Zanclean re-connection between the Dacic Basin and the Mediterranean Sea was forced by the sea-level rise of the Black Sea over the Scythian sill (i.e. the Reni sill: [START_REF] Semenenko | Stratigraphic correlation of the eastern Paratethys Kimmerian and Dacian stages by molluscs, dinocyst and nannoplankton data[END_REF] north of the Dobrogea horst area. And yet, the oldest records of Mediterranean marine micro-organisms in the deep Black Sea at DSDP Site 380 (diatoms [START_REF] Schrader | Quaternary through Neogene history of the Black Sea, deduced from the paleoecology of diatoms, silicoflagellates, ebridians, and chrysomonads[END_REF]dinoflagellate cysts: Popescu, 2006;calcareous coccoliths: Popescu et al., 2010) have been dated at 5.31 Ma [START_REF] Popescu | Pliocene and Lower Pleistocene vegetation and climate changes at the European scale: Long pollen records and climatostratigraphy[END_REF], an age significantly younger than their record in the Dacic Basin (5.38 Ma at Hinova).

Additional arguments contradict the often suggested presence of an almost continuous exchange gateway between the Mediterranean and Eastern Paratethys in the Istanbul region before and after the MSC [START_REF] Popov | Late Miocene to Pliocene palaeogeography of the Paratethys and its relation to the Mediterranean[END_REF], but support the presence of such a corridor in the Balkans [START_REF] Clauzon | Influence of Mediterranean sea-level changes on the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys) during the late Neogene: the Mediterranean Lago Mare facies deciphered[END_REF][START_REF] Popescu | Galeacysta etrusca complex, dinoflagellate cyst marker of Paratethyan influxes into the Mediterranean Sea before and after the peak of the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF]Bache et al., accepted):

-the absence of Paratethyan dinoflagellate cysts denoting surface-water exchanges in the early Zanclean in the Marmara Sea region [START_REF] Melinte-Dobrinescu | The Messinian Salinity Crisis in the Dardanelles region: Chronostratigraphic constraints[END_REF]; -the pre-Zanclean GSSP reflooding of the Aegean Sea (Melinte-Dorbinescu et al., 2009) significantly before the entrance of Mediterranean microplankton into the Black Sea [START_REF] Popescu | Pliocene and Lower Pleistocene vegetation and climate changes at the European scale: Long pollen records and climatostratigraphy[END_REF]; -the presence in the Thrace and Marmara region of two facing fluvial networks driving early Zanclean Gilbert-type fan deltas towards the Black Sea and the Marmara-Mediterranean realm, respectively [START_REF] Suc | The Messinian Salinity Crisis in the Northeastern Aegean -Black Sea region. 13ème Congrès RCMNS Naples[END_REF]; -and the presence of well-dated early Zanclean Gilbert-type fan deltas in the regions of Skopje and Niš (Bache et al., accepted).

The Zanclean Gilbert-type fan deltas in the area of Turnu Severin filled Messinian fluvial valleys, establishing the development of a very active erosional fluvial network as the result of the MSC. Northward, the palaeo-Topolniţa River probably drained the southeast side of the southern Carpathians Mountains. Southward of this area, due to the thick deposits at the outlet of the Iron Gates (revealed by the work done in building the Iron Gates Dam 1) [START_REF] Clauzon | Influence of Mediterranean sea-level changes on the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys) during the late Neogene: the Mediterranean Lago Mare facies deciphered[END_REF], a Messinian river probably cut a large part of this gorge. It was a powerful river which drained only the southwestern side of the southern Carpathians Mountains (Fig. 13b) because the modern Alpine Danube did not exist at that time. Indeed, the Danube River reached the Vienna Basin in the Late Pliocene (Pfleiderer, 2008), which is consistent with its appearance in the Dacic Basin at the early Romanian (Table 1) as reported by [START_REF] Jipa | Danube paleo-river appearance and the Messinian Crisis. 13 th Congress RCMNS, Naples[END_REF]. We propose a new two-step onset of the southern Romania fluvial network: (1) in the late Messinian, a peri-Carpathians river amplified and cut the Iron Gates as a consequence of the Mediterranean sea-level drop; and (2) in the early Romanian, this river was joined by the Alpine Danube.

The development of an ancestor of the modern fluvial network in the Dacic Basin is consistent with the formation of a major erosional unconformity in the Pannonian Basin as a response to the MSC [START_REF] Csato | The Messinian problem in the Pannonian Basin, Eastern Hungary -Insights from stratigraphic simulations[END_REF]. The unconformity is evidenced on regional seismic profiles (Fig. 14); contrary to the proposal of Magyar and Sztano (2008), this unconformity was not controlled by faults but was generated by a major drop of the lake level. The Messinian erosion in the Pannonian Basin must have intensified the drainage by a fluvial network that we call paleo-Tisza. A connection from the Pannonian Basin toward the Dacic Basin may have been easily facilitated through two subbasins, the Makó Trough and Békés Basin (Fig. 14a). The palaeo-Tisza coming from the Pannonian Basin also contributed to cut the Iron Gates and to drain the partly desiccated Dacic Basin (Fig. 13b).

The Messinian base level fall in the Pannonian Basin induced forced regression and subsequent normal regression by lowstand prograding units (Fig. 14b) that filled the basin fast. Seismic and well log data clearly indicate a dramatic basinward shift of facies. The Pannonian Basin also underwent a tectonic inversion, which uplifted the basin margins and caused a basinward tilting as demonstrated by the seismic sections. However, this was a relatively long process up to the present, and it probably started well after the Messinian (e.g. [START_REF] Hámor | Paleogeographic/structural evolutionary stages and related volcanism of the Carpathian-Pannonian region[END_REF][START_REF] Horváth | Formation and deformation of the Pannonian Basin: constraints from observational data[END_REF]. Therefore, this process could not create the sudden and drastic event represented by the Messinan unconformity. The Messinian erosion is also clear in the Dacic Basin (i) along the seismic profiles published by [START_REF] Leever | Messinian sea level fall in the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys): palaeogeographical implications from seismic sequence stratigraphy[END_REF] and (ii) in wells showing a Maeotian hiatus, which roughly superposes the modern fluvial network (Clauzon et al., 2005: fig. 11).

According to seismic data in the northwestern Black Sea, the palaeo-Tisza River did not flow into the Black Sea [START_REF] Gillet | Messinian event in the black sea : Evidence of a Messinian erosional surface[END_REF] but probably into a remnant perched lake [START_REF] Clauzon | Influence of Mediterranean sea-level changes on the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys) during the late Neogene: the Mediterranean Lago Mare facies deciphered[END_REF][START_REF] Leever | Messinian sea level fall in the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys): palaeogeographical implications from seismic sequence stratigraphy[END_REF]Bache et al., accepted;Fig. 13). The sea-level fall in the Dacic Basin was directly driven by the Mediterranean sea-level drop which disrupted connection through the Balkans gateway during the time-window 5.60 -5.46 Ma [START_REF] Clauzon | Influence of Mediterranean sea-level changes on the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys) during the late Neogene: the Mediterranean Lago Mare facies deciphered[END_REF][START_REF] Popescu | Galeacysta etrusca complex, dinoflagellate cyst marker of Paratethyan influxes into the Mediterranean Sea before and after the peak of the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF]Bache et al., accepted). As a consequence, the Messinian Tisza River, the ancestor of the main tributary of the present-day Danube, provided the isolated Dacic Basin some water supply from the Pannonian Basin through the gorge of the Iron Gates (Fig. 13b).

Very drastic environmental changes occurred in the region as a consequence of the almost complete desiccation of the Mediterranean Sea:

-The Dacic and Pannonian basins, previously connected to the Mediterranean through the Balkans gateway (Fig. 13a; [START_REF] Popescu | Galeacysta etrusca complex, dinoflagellate cyst marker of Paratethyan influxes into the Mediterranean Sea before and after the peak of the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF], were impacted by a sea-level fall, the intensity of which was controlled by the altitude of the palaeo-sill probably located in the region of Skopje (Bache et al., revised). At that time, the Dacic Basin was disconnected from the Black Sea when its water-level fell below the altitude of the Scythian sill (Fig. 13a,b). The huge sea-level drop which impacted the Black Sea was probably forced by the climatic increase in dryness resulting from the Mediterranean desiccation (Fig. 13b; [START_REF] Favre | Messinian vegetation maps of the Mediterranean region using models and interpolated pollen data[END_REF][START_REF] Popescu | Pliocene and Lower Pleistocene vegetation and climate changes at the European scale: Long pollen records and climatostratigraphy[END_REF] 2 . In the southernmost part of the Balkans corridor, the palaeo-Strymon River cut a deep canyon towards the Aegean Sea (Fig. 13b). At that time, another important river (probably the palaeo-Maritsa River) crossed the entire Thrace Plain and cut a canyon toward the Black Sea in the area of Karacaköy (Fig. 13b;[START_REF] Gillet | La stratigraphie tertiaire et la surface d'érosion messinienne sur les marges occidentales de la Mer Noire: Stratigraphie sismique haute résolution[END_REF][START_REF] Suc | The Messinian Salinity Crisis in the Northeastern Aegean -Black Sea region. 13ème Congrès RCMNS Naples[END_REF]). This fluvial canyon and its sedimentary filling by an early Zanclean Gilbert-type fan delta [START_REF] Gillet | La stratigraphie tertiaire et la surface d'érosion messinienne sur les marges occidentales de la Mer Noire: Stratigraphie sismique haute résolution[END_REF][START_REF] Suc | The Messinian Salinity Crisis in the Northeastern Aegean -Black Sea region. 13ème Congrès RCMNS Naples[END_REF]) are inconsistent with the idea expressed by Krijgsman et al. (2010: p. 189) of a Mediterranean -Paratethys marine gateway at this place.

-When the Mediterranean reflooding occurred at 5.46 Ma (Bache et al., accepted), refilling of the Balkans gateway by Mediterranean marine waters caused the waterlevel rise of the Dacic Basin without immediately passing the Scythian sill (Bache et al., accepted). Simultaneously, the Tisza, Topolniţa, Strymon and Maritsa palaeorivers developed Gilbert-type fan deltas (Fig. 13c).

-Finally, when the continuously rising global sea-level driven by the ice melting passed over the Scythian sill (5.31 Ma), the connection was re-established with the Black Sea and the marine micro-organisms entered again the Black Sea (Fig. 13d; [START_REF] Popescu | Pliocene and Lower Pleistocene vegetation and climate changes at the European scale: Long pollen records and climatostratigraphy[END_REF]Bache et al., accepted). This scenario is inconsistent with that proposed by [START_REF] Leever | Messinian sea level fall in the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys): palaeogeographical implications from seismic sequence stratigraphy[END_REF] in which the sealevel changes of the Black Sea controlled the water-level of the Dacic Basin and the Pannonian Basin overflowed into the latter because of the difference in their altitude. On the contrary, we propose a scenario controlled by the sea-level changes in the Mediterranean Basin through its direct connection with the Dacic Basin via the Balkans gateway (Fig. 13).

Conclusion

which existed in the Mediterranean region before the MSC and persisted during the Pliocene [START_REF] Suc | Pérennité d'un climat thermo-xérique en Sicile, avant, pendant, après la crise de salinité messinienne[END_REF][START_REF] Fauquette | How much did climate force the Messinian salinity crisis? Quantified climatic conditions from pollen records in the Mediterranean region[END_REF]. In conclusion, this study emphasizes once more how difficult it is to decipher the multiple aspects of the MSC. This difficulty results from an imprecise chronology due to such a short period of time and an insufficiently known palaeogeography, and persists despite recent significant advances. One of the most crucial aspects to be handled is the stratigraphic succession of channeled sedimentary complexes which are not controlled by the usual superposition of deposits. The high-resolution study of long sedimentary sections is essential, but it cannot alone elucidate the MSC, one of the core issues of the Cenozoic in the Mediterranean region. [START_REF] Savu | Carte géologique de Roumanie au 1/200[END_REF][START_REF] Milovanoviš | Carte géologique de la R.S. de Serbie. 3, Vrs ac Oršava[END_REF] Localities: 1, Gura Văii;2,Capătul Drumului;3,Kladusnica;4,Vărănic ;5,6,Pd. Trestenic;7,Hinova a;8,Hinova b;9,Izvoru Bîrzii;10,Baloteşti;11,Dîlbociţa (Ilovăţ). For the piedmont deposits, see details in Figures 4a-b a, From ca. 12 to ca. 6 Ma (late Serravallian to early Messinian; Table 1), continuous building of the South Carpathians piedmont alluvial fan as a response to the uplifted relief; b, At 5.6 Ma (late Messinian; Table 1), huge fluvial erosion by the palaeo-Tisza River (first cutting of the Iron Gates) and the Topolniţa River as a response to the desiccation of the Mediterranean Sea at the peak of the MSC; c, At 5.3 -5 Ma (early Zanclean; Table 1), fast progradation of two coalescing Gilbert-type fan deltas, nested within the previously deposited piedmont alluvial fan, as a response to the recovered connection of the Dacic Basin with the Mediterranean Sea. Table 2. Detailed Pontian mollusk fauna described by [START_REF] Papaianopol | Upper Neogene from the Dacic Basin[END_REF] in the region of Turnu Severin compared to records reported by [START_REF] Savu | Carte géologique de Roumanie au 1/200[END_REF]

Figure captions

  Middle Miocene piedmont alluvial fans and Zanclean Gilbert-type fan deltas in the Turnu Severin area Piedmont alluvial fans stretch at the foot of the Carpathians Mountains. They are considered to be pre-Maeotian since beyond the Turnu Severin region and according to Savu and Ghenea (1967) they are directly overlain by Maeotian sediments. The age of the early development of such alluvial fans can be specified thanks to a Mediterranean nannoflora identified by M. Mărunţeanu in five clayey horizons that we sampled in 1998 at Dîlbociţa (locality 11 in Figure 2: 44°49'50.2"N, 22°44'41.3"E) close to Ilovăţ (i.e. just below the piedmont alluvial fan deposits; Figs. 6, 7). These samples yielded Calcidiscus leptoporus, Sphenolithus heteromorphus, S. moriformis, Discoaster deflandrei, Calcidiscus macintyrei, Reticulofenestra minuta, R. pseudoumbilicus, Helicosphaera kamptneri, and Coccolithus pelagicus, among other taxa. Co-occurring S. heteromorphus, C. macintyrei and D. deflandrei indicate a late Langhianearly Serravallian age (Zone NN5;

  , is then confirmed by the presence of marker nannofossils at Hinova b. It is also reinforced by the presence of small (<125 m) specimens of microperforate trochospiral planktonic foraminifera (Tenuitella-Tenuitellinata sp.; Plate 1, Figs. 5-6) in Hinova b samples. The co-occurrence of these small Globigerinitidae with the calcareous nannoplankton species S. abies, T. rugosus and C. acutus in sample 4 of the Hinova b section indicates that their presence in situ can be considered as normal and indicative of marine connections with the Mediterranean during the early Zanclean.

  Sedimentological, morphological, and palaeontological arguments point to the existence of both piedmont alluvial fans of pre-Maeotian (Serravallian -Tortonian) age and Gilbert-type fan deltas of Bosphorian (Zanclean) age in the region of Turnu Severin. This study confirms that the MSC severely affected the Eastern Paratethys during the Bosphorian regional Substage. Mediterranean marine waters entered the Dacic Basin and the Black Sea twice: just before and just after the peak of the MSC. Two Zanclean Gilbert-type fan deltas were coalescing upstream Turnu Severin. The most developed Gilbert-type fan delta was constructed by a Carpathians river which, as a response to the MSC, cut the Iron Gates and catched the residual Pannonian Basin and the ancestor of the Tisza River. The water-level changes in the Pannonian and Dacic basins were not forced by those of the Black Sea but directly by those of the Mediterranean Sea through the Balkans gateway. The Mediterranean Zanclean marine waters entered the Dacic Basin ca. 70 kyrs earlier than the Black Sea. The fluvial network of the Balkans region was significantly influenced by the sea-level drop of both the Mediterranean and Black seas during the peak of the MSC.

Fig. 1 .

 1 Fig. 1. Location map of the Turnu Severin studied area in the Dacic Basin. The map has been

Fig. 2 .

 2 Fig. 2. Geological map of the area of Turnu Severin (from: Năstăseanu and Bercia, 1968;

  at scale 1/200,000. Main geological units: a, Metamorphic basement; b, Jurassic (J) and Cretaceous (K); c, Middle Miocene; d, Late Miocene and Pliocene (Serbia: mpi, lower Congeria beds; pit, Pliocene gravels, sands and clays; Romania: p, Pontian clays; dc, Dacian sands and lignites); e, Pleistocene to Holocene (Serbia: qt, loess).

Fig. 3 .

 3 Fig. 3. Compared organizations and sediments of a piedmont alluvial fan (from: Cojan and

Fig. 4 .

 4 Fig. 4. Sedimentary facies of piedmont and Gilbert-type fan delta deposits in the study area.

Fig. 5 .

 5 Fig. 5. Foreset beds of the Gilbert-type fan deltas in the area of Turnu Severin.

Fig. 6 .

 6 Fig. 6. Dîlbociţa Neogene succession overlying the metamorphic basement.

  .

Fig. 7 .

 7 Fig. 7. GoogleEarth three-dimensional representation of the region westward Turnu Severin

Fig. 8 .

 8 Fig. 8. Cross-section in the quarry overhanging Gura Văii.

Fig. 9 .

 9 Fig. 9. Bottomset beds and their relationship with foreset beds.

Fig. 10 .

 10 Fig. 10. Cross-section at Baloteşti

Fig. 11 .

 11 Fig. 11. Cartographic relationship between the piedmont deposits and prograding sediments of

Fig. 12 .

 12 Fig. 12. Three-dimensional reconstructed evolution of the Turnu Severin area for the time-

Fig. 13 .

 13 Fig. 13. Block-diagrams illustrating palaeogeographic changes considered in the Balkans -

  in the Turnu Severin geological map, to the Hinova a macrofauna from Papaianopol (in: Clauzon et al., 2005) and to that recently collected at Hinova b (this paper). Strictly Bosphorian common taxa in bold characters. Plate 1. Figs. 1-4. Microphotographs of significant biostratigraphic nannoplankton species (light microscope, crossed nicols, scale bar = 10 m).

Figs. 1

 1 Figs. 1, 2. Ceratolithus acutus Gartner & Bukry 1974; Hinova b (sample 4).

Fig. 3 .

 3 Fig. 3. Ceratolithus cf. larrymayeri Backman & Raffi 1998; Pd. Tristenic

Figs. 4 .

 4 Figs. 4. Ceratolithus larrymayeri[START_REF] Raffi | Evolutionary trends of tropical calcareous nannofossils in the late Neogene[END_REF] Pd. Tristenic

Although discussion of climate evolution is not within the scope of this paper, we must precise that such an increase in dryness during the peak of the MSC, both suggested by mammals[START_REF] Agusti | Evidence for African-Iberian exchanges during the Messinian in the Spanish mammalian record[END_REF], pollen floras[START_REF] Fauquette | How much did climate force the Messinian salinity crisis? Quantified climatic conditions from pollen records in the Mediterranean region[END_REF] and model simulations[START_REF] Favre | Messinian vegetation maps of the Mediterranean region using models and interpolated pollen data[END_REF][START_REF] Murphy | A numerical study of the climate response to lowered Mediterranean Sea level during the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF][START_REF] Schneck | Climate modelling sensitivity experiments for the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF], amplified the xeric context

Acknowledgements

This paper is dedicated to the late F. Marinescu who invited one of us (J.-P.S.) since 1982 to collaborate for clarifying stratigraphic and palaeogeographic relationships between the Dacic Basin and the Mediterranean. The study of the Dîlbociţa nannoflora was done by M. Mărunţeanu in 1998. We acknowledge two anonymous reviewers for their recommendations in improving the manuscript. This paper is a contribution to the ANR "EGEO" Project and to the Project "Bassins néogènes et manteau en Méditerranée" (TerMEx CNRS/INSU).

post-5.31 Ma). Regional palaeogeographic maps from [START_REF] Popescu | Galeacysta etrusca complex, dinoflagellate cyst marker of Paratethyan influxes into the Mediterranean Sea before and after the peak of the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF] In blue, marine water environments; in green, brackish to fresh water environments.