L., 2018. First re port of a Plio cene pike (Esocidae: Esox) in Transylvania, Ro ma nia. Geo log i cal Quar terly, 62 (3): 644-652, doi: 10.7306/gq.1428 Plio cene fish spe cies based on skel e ton re mains and as so ci ated teeth ever re ported from the in ner Carpathian area in Roma nia in the Braºov Ba sin (Baraolt sub-ba sin), which re fers to a pike (Esox sp.). The fish fos sils il lus trat ing a large-sized spec i men orig i nate from the South Racoº coal open pit (Racoºu de Sus, Covasna

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... unty), in the so-called "For ma tion with Limnocardium" (Dacian, Lower Plio cene). Com par i sons with osteological ma te rial of re cent pikes orig i nat ing from var i ous local i ties in Ro ma nia are pre sented. The as so ci ated mol lusc fauna known from the for ma tion that yielded the pike re mains sug gests the pres ence of a lake with a strat i fied wa ter col umn in the Baraolt sub-ba sin. The Plio cene fish re mains are ex tremely scarcely doc umented in Ro ma nia, how ever, in Transylvania, they are even rarer, as long as the Plio cene ex po sures are not nu mer ous in this re gion. Ac knowl edge ments. We would like to thank both re viewers (Mr. D. Vasilyan and one anon y mous re viewer) for their insight ful com ments on the pa per, as their com ments al lowed us to im prove the work. We also thank M. Èech for clar i fy ing the issues re gard ing the size re con struc tion for mula, O. Kovalchuk for the ref er ences he sent to us, and to our col league A. Sol omon for his kind help for tak ing and pro cess ing the pho tos of den ta ries. Our late col league and friend J. Gaudant helped one of us (V.A.C) much with ref er ences and advices at the early stage of re search. This study is a trib ute to his mem ory.