iberian micromammals show local extent of vallesian crisis abstract once perceived as a continent wide extinction event doubts have been raised as to the severity and extent of the vallesian crisis in this paper we use the high resolution late aragonian to middle turolian micromammal record from both the coastal valles penedes basin and inland calatayud teruel complex to determine geographic extent of this late miocene turnover event and its effects within the reaches of the iberian peninsula differences in faunal composition between the two regions confirm that the event was much less severe than previously thought surprisingly the diversity peaks in the two regions do not coincide whereas at the coast highest diversity is found in the early vallesian just before the turnover in the inland it peaks in the late vallesian several taxa never made it inland as reflected by the low similarity between both regions during the early vallesian suggesting that the valles penedes was indeed unique and consistently showed higher affinities with northern regions the large differences even at relatively short distances support the idea that the vallesian crisis was a local event

high resolution magnetic stratigraphy across the oligocene miocene boundary in an alluvial lacustrine succession ebro basin northeast spain abstract the study of a late oligocene early miocene 300 m thick section of alluvial and shallow lacustrine sediments in the ebro basin has allowed a high resolution magnetic polarity stratigraphy for the oligocene miocene boundary to be established the samples studied include alluvial sandstones and mudstones as well as shallow lacustrine and paludine micritic and microsparitic limestones two hundred and fifty specimens were stepwise thermally or magnetically demagnetized following standard procedures magnetic imprints of the distinct lithologies present sharp contrasts especially for the stability of the secondary components the vgp data show 18 reversal events defining a sequence of 16 polarity intervals lateral and vertical continuity of the sequences studied has enabled a correspondence between the local paleomastological biozones and the magnetostratigraphic succession to be established the high resolution chronology of this magnetostratigraphic succession provides valuable information that allows the non marine european biochronological scales to be correlated to the global polarity time scale gpts the magnetic polarity zonation of the section has been correlated to the gpts using the distinct sequence and pattern polarity reversals as well as by considering the fossil mammal assemblages as a preliminary result chrons 8 7a 7 and 6c have been identified

discrete plio pleistocene phases of tilting and counterclockwise rotation in the southeastern aegean arc rhodos greece early pliocene formation of the south aegean left lateral strike slip system the island of rhodos represents an uplifted block in the largely submerged southeastern aegean forearc it has a complex history of subsidence uplift and counterclockwise rotation during the plio pleistocene in response to the interplay between large scale geodynamic processes in this paper we present a new chronostratigraphic framework for the continental pliocene apolakkia basin of southwestern rhodos we combine these time constraints with recently published chronostratigraphic data from the marine plio pleistocene basins of northeastern rhodos to reconstruct rotational and vertical motions our palaeomagnetic results identify two rotation phases for rhodos c 10 9 6 counterclockwise ccw rotation between 3 8 and 3 6 ma and c 17 6 ccw rotation since 0 8 ma between these phases rhodos tilted to the se drowning the southeastern coast to a depth of 500 600 m between 2 5 and 1 8 ma then to the nw which resulted in the re emergence of the drowned relief between 1 5 and 1 1 ma we relate the rotations of rhodos to incipient formation of the south aegean sinistral strike slip system and the foundering of the rhodos basin the previously shown absence of messinian evaporites in the deep marine rhodos basin in combination with the 3 8 ma onset of ccw rotation of rhodos constrains the onset of the formation of the south aegean strike slip system between 5 3 and 3 8 ma the formation of this strike slip system is probably related to the interplay of oblique collision between the southeastern aegean region and the northward moving african plate the westward motion of anatolia gravitational spreading of the overthickened aegean lithosphere and the recently postulated southwestward retreat of the african subducted slab along a subduction transform edge propagator fault

a new quantitative biochronological ordination for the upper neogene mammalian localities of spain abstract the mn scale is the most widely used biochronological scale for the mammalian fossil record of europe but at the same time it has brought a high amount of criticism with it the fossil record of neogene macromammals from spain is one of the most complete of the world and provides an interesting test of the mn biochronology we used maximum likelihood appearance event ordination ml aeo a quantitative biochronological method to provide not only an ordination but also a numerical age estimate for each of the 90 macromammalian fossil faunas that constitute our data base originally only 13 of these localities were numerically dated mainly by means of paleomagnetism the ordination of macromammalian fossil faunas matches quite well with the mn chronology at least in the miocene the pattern of ordination is less coherent in the pliocene partly due to the relative poverty of macromammalian fossil sites of this age in spain the controversy on whether the age of the first appearance of hipparionine horses in the iberian peninsula hipparion dispersal event was around 10 8 10 7 ma or 11 1 ma is discussed our estimated mn7 8 mn9 boundary lies between 11 008 and 10 873 ma we conclude that the arrival of hipparionine horses in the iberian peninsula happened between these two ages and that the oldest record is found in the locality of nombrevilla 1 with an age of 10 873 ma

climate stability in central anatolia during the messinian salinity crisis abstract deposition of large amounts of evaporites and erosion of deep canyons within the mediterranean basin as a result of reduced basin connectivity with the atlantic ocean and the epicontinental paratethys sea characterized the messinian salinity crisis msc 5 97 5 33 ma the influence of the msc on mediterranean environmental conditions within the basin itself has been intensely studied from marine records but reconstructing the impact of the msc on circum mediterranean continental climate has been hampered by the absence of continuous sedimentary archives that span the duration of the event here we report results of a continental record of carbon 13c and oxygen 18o isotopes from lake carbonates framed by new magnetostratigraphic and 40ar 39ar dating as well as by existing mammal stratigraphy kangal basin central anatolia the sampled section records continuous fluvio lacustrine sedimentation from 6 6 ma to 4 9 ma which spans the msc and the miocene pliocene boundary this dataset so far represents the only continuous continental paleoenvironmental record of the msc in the circum mediterranean realm the kangal basin isotope record indicates a low degree of evaporation furthermore covariance between 13c and 18o suggests a coupling between lake water balance and biologic productivity variations in 13c and 18o therefore likely reflect changes in the amount of incoming precipitation rather than changes in 18o values of incoming precipitation the most prominent spike in 13c and 18o occurs during the acme of the msc and is therefore interpreted to have resulted from a decrease in the amount of incoming moisture correlative to a period of vigorous erosion and sea level lowering in the mediterranean basin major sea level lowering of mediterranean basin waters during the acme of the msc could have therefore led to slightly dryer conditions over anatolia which is also suggested by modeling studies overall changes in 13c and 18o values are small therefore we surmise that the msc had limited effects on the paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic conditions in the anatolian interior

causes of lineage decline in the aplodontidae testing for the influence of physical and biological change abstract this study documents diversity decline in a once speciose rodent clade the family aplodontidae and evaluates the potential influence of three commonly suggested controls on diversity climate change floral change and competitive interactions aplodontids first appeared in the late eocene diversified during the early oligocene declined precipitously at the end of the oligocene such that standing diversity was only about 5 species during the early miocene peaked again in the early middle miocene then declined through the late miocene and are entirely absent from the pliocene and early pleistocene fossil record this long term pattern culminated in the survival of a single extant species aplodontia rufa the mountain beaver the species richness and body size distribution through time were compared with the timing of climatic changes as inferred from global oxygen isotope curves with the rise of grasslands as inferred from phytolith and other stable isotope studies and with fluctuating diversity of potential competitors as inferred from published stratigraphic and geographic distributions the timing of global climate change is decoupled from the diversity fluctuations and seems not to have been a proximate cause rise of grasslands and the increasing dominance of c 4 vegetation correlates with diversity decline in the late oligocene and late miocene but data are sparse and more work will be required to determine the mechanism driving this relationship examination of potential mammalian competitors sciurids and castorids finds no evidence for competitive replacement of aplodontids it is difficult to ascribe the fluctuations in aplodontid diversity to a single cause the explanation likely involves vegetation changes associated with the spread of grasslands but there is some variation in diversity that cannot be explained by the vegetation at least using the proxies employed here climate and competition are less consistent with the available data the reasons for the decline of aplodontids in the late oligocene and the late miocene apparently involved the interaction of multiple physical and biological causes coupled with the chance events that underlie any evolutionary process

mass wasting and uplift on crete and karpathos during the early pliocene related to initiation of south aegean left lateral strike slip tectonics reconstruction of the vertical motion history of crete and karpathos southeastern aegean region greece from the messinian to recent revealed a previously poorly documented late messinian phase of strong subsidence with rates of 50 100 cm k y followed by stasis during the fi rst 250 k y of the pliocene and then by uplift of 500 700 m during the late early to early middle pliocene uplift continued up to recent albeit at a slower pace and at different rates in different areas the lower pliocene in crete and karpathos is characterized by widespread occurrences of mass wasting deposits which were emplaced over a period of time spanning the fi rst 1 35 m y of the pliocene the origin of these masswasting deposits has long been enigmatic but is here related to uplift which started in crete as early as ca 5 ma it is suggested that the beginning uplift following strong subsidence of various fault blocks until late in the messinian is related to the onset of south aegean strike slip faulting we postulate that small scale tilting of fault blocks by transtensional strike slip faulting and increased seismic activity generated slope failures and subsequent sliding of poorly cemented lower pliocene and uppermost messinian lago mare sediments overlying the terminal miocene erosional unconformity the absence of mass wasting deposits after 3 98 ma while uplift continued is most likely the result of progressive compaction and cementation of the increasingly deeper buried lago mare and lower pliocene sediments thereby preventing slope failure to a depth of the terminal miocene unconformity hiatuses in some places in crete and on karpathos however indicate that slope failures continued to occur although on a smaller scale and less frequent than before connecting the change from subsidence to uplift in the earliest pliocene with the onset of left lateral strike slip tectonics in the southeastern aegean arc would make this major strike slip system much older by 2 m y than the generally accepted age of middle to late pliocene a recently postulated scenario of subduction transform edge propagator step faulting to explain the south aegean strike slip system predicts rates distribution and amount of uplift as rebound to southwestward retreat of the subducted slab along a transform fault zone that is in line with our fi ndings on crete and karpathos and explains the absence of compressional structures associated with the uplift as well as the ongoing southwestward motion of crete

contributions of cretaceous quiet zone natural remanent magnetization to magsat anomalies in the southwest indian ocean the magsat magnetic anomalies over the southwest indian ocean are modeled using a combination of induced plus viscous remanent magnetization im vrm and natural remanent magnetization nrm two broad roughly parallel sw to ne trending triple peaked positive anomalies dominate the region one lying south of africa and the other north of antarctica although these anomaly peaks generally correspond with the agulhas plateau maud rise mozambique plateau astrid ridge and madagascar ridge conrad rise conjugate pairs the im vrm contribution from structural characteristics i e crustal thickness accounts for only about 20 of the anomaly amplitudes a spatially variable but observationally constrained nrm contribution in cretaceous quiet zone kqz crust is required to account for the location shape and amplitude contrast of these anomalies many crustal features in the southwest indian ocean near antarctica have little geophysical data to constrain their structure but do have tectonic conjugates near africa for which much more geophysical data are generally available using geophysical and geological constraints from one member to model the magnetization structure of its conjugate reproduces the observed magsat reduced to pole anomalies over both structures very well this suggests that no significant alteration in their magnetization structure has occurred since the features split models of these conjugate structures show that im vrm reproduces the magsat anomalies associated with non kqz crust but that both im vrm and a dominant nrm component are required to explain the anomalies associated with kqz crust

a new chronology for the middle to late miocene continental record in spain abstract the first detailed chronology for the middle to late miocene continental record in spain is presented based on high resolution magnetostratigraphic data of mammal bearing sections which were studied in several basins calatayud daroca teruel valles penedes duero and jucar cabriel our results indicate that these sections compose an almost complete magnetostratigraphic succession from the lower aragonian mn4 to the middle turolian mn12 seven successive mammal neogene mn zone boundaries are directly dated in these sections which often contain faunas of two successive zones in superposition the three oldest boundaries are dated in the aragonian type area calatayud daroca basin the mn4 mn5 boundary vargas section occurs in chron c5cr o with a corresponding age of 17 26 0 01 ma the mn5 mn6 boundary aragon section in chron c5acn 0 8 with an age of 13 75 0 03 ma and the mn6 mn7 8 boundary aragon section in the interval c5ar 1n c5ar 3r with an age of 12 75 0 25 ma the mn7 8 mn9 aragonian vallesian boundary occurring in chron c5r 1n at 11 1 ma and the mn9 mn10 boundary in chron c4ar 3r at 9 7 0 1 ma are recorded in the valles penedes basin vallesian type area and are supported by the results from the duero basin torremormojon section in the turolian type area teruel basin the mn10 mn11 vallesian turolian boundary la gloria section occurs in chron c4an y at 8 7 0 1 ma taking into account the pre existing data from the jucar cabriel basin the mn11 mn12 boundary cabriel valley section is recalibrated to c4n 1n at an age of 7 5 0 1 ma

sr ca mg ca ratios and sr and stable isotopes of biogenic carbonates from the late miocene velona basin central apennines italy provide evidence of unusual non marine messinian conditions abstract the sr ca and mg ca ratios of fossil ostracod and mollusc shells from a late miocene early messinian lacustrine sequence in the velona basin central apennines italy were used to calculate the sr ca and mg ca of waters in which these taxa lived sr ca of these waters were always higher than the sr ca calculated for the messinian seawater despite the broad salinity ranges fresh water oligo mesohaline inferred from the paleontological analyses the estimated mg ca water from the velona samples are below the mg ca value for coeval seawater even though they represent relatively high values when compared with many non marine waters the salinity variations of the velona lacustrine system recorded by changes in faunal assemblages are linked to variable inputs of na cl from deep groundwaters and are not reflected in significant changes in sr ca and mg ca of the waters calculated from shell chemistry the combination of 18 o signatures and sr isotopic ratios from molluscs from the velona basin suggests a non marine environment during some episodes of the lake history given the saline inputs the waters in the lake would attain a large solute concentration oligo to mesohaline although they retained the meteoric 18 o signature we compare the paleohydrochemical inferences from the studied sequence with other messinian records and we show the importance of combining paleoecological and geochemical proxies to obtain consistent paleoenvironmental reconstructions

biogeographic provincialism in rodent faunas from the iberoccitanian region southwestern europe generates severe diachrony within the mammalian neogene mn biochronologic scale during the late miocene abstract in order to develop paleoecological studies involving many fossil sites there is a need to establish a consistent time framework which enables us to arrange the fossil associations according to a sequence of biotic events and subsequently to test a relationship with paleoenvironmental changes the nature of the continental fossil record has given rise to much controversy with regard to the establishment of general biostratigraphical scales additionally biochronological scales are sometimes all that can be proposed the primary goal of the present paper is to present a time arrangement for the iberoccitanian micromammalian fossil sites from the latest middle miocene to the mio pliocene boundary spanning around 7 million years approximately 12 61 4 95 ma herein we study over one hundred faunal lists of rodents from the iberoccitanian region compiled from the literature previous research has described two biogeographical provinces in our study area a northern one valles penedes and southeast france and a southern one all the iberian basins except the valles penedes we therefore conducted alroy s maximum likelihood appearance event ordination ml aeo methodology applying it to the database compiled for each province finally using available numerical dates for a quarter of the sites we obtained a calibrated ordination for all localities in each analysis the results obtained are roughly coherent with the mammalian neogene units mn and allow estimation of the numerical ages for the entire set of fossil sites included in the study nevertheless our results show severe diachrony between the two biogeographic provinces of the iberoccitanian region in relation to the mn boundaries which might be linked to the existence of a refuge area associated with more humid environments in the northern province

sarmatian biostratigraphy of a marginal sea in northern croatia based on calcareous nannofossils abstract calcareous nannofossils of the serravallian tortonian transition known as the sarmatian in the paratethys were obtained from northern croatia central paratethys the nannofossil biostratigraphy of the studied area included early sarmatian biohorizons the reliability of these and previous biohorizons was tested and the known biostratigraphic and magnetostratigraphic datums of the paratethys were compared with those from the adjacent mediterranean and beyond six out of sixteen bioevents were selected to define five subzones pnn6d pnn8b and crossover for the badenian sarmatian boundary variations in the index fossil datums between the paratethys and tethys provide a broad perspective on local versus regional and global impacts on the nannofloras the paratethys tethys gateways ptgs and their progressive geodynamical closure exerted a fundamental control on the salinity circulation patterns and climate of the area the global regression at the end of the badenian and the tectonic events associated with the badenian sarmatian transition also restricted the ptgs initiating acmes of calcidiscus pataecus and reticulofenestra pseudoumbilicus causing a small early sarmatian extinction event that occurred in coastal environments which are the most affected by short term environmental fluctuations stronger connections through the ptgs during the early mid sarmatian transition induced a transgression that brought deep dwelling discoaster species into the area the final closure of the ptg with the mediterranean which had been placed at the badenian sarmatian boundary actually occurred in the late sarmatian as a result of tectonic movements that caused shallowing and a drastic reduction in nannofossil biodiversity the ptg with the indian ocean existed until the early tortonian which allowed an early but brief occurrence of small warm water ceratoliths

magnetostratigraphy and small mammals of the late oligocene banovici basin in ne bosnia and herzegovina article i nfo a combined magnetostratigraphic and small mammal investigation was carried out to acquire better age control on the sedimentary infill of the banovici basin in bosnia and herzegovina although the dinarides occupy a crucial paleogeographic position bridging central europe and anatolia no detailed records of its small mammal fauna have been published until now a rich small mammal assemblage with over 500 molars was excavated from a section exposing marls and clays just underlying the basins main coal layer the fauna of this turija small mammal locality compares best with the uppermost oligocene to lowermost miocene localities from the european mp30 mn1 mammal zones and with anatolian zone b from central turkey a 160 m thick series of lacustrine sediments overlying the main coal layer in the nearby grivice section was sampled for paleomagnetic purposes the magnetostratigraphic pattern of the grivice section comprises a long reversed interval a subsequent short normal interval and another reversed interval the most logical correlation of this pattern to the late oligocene part of the geomagnetic polarity time scale gpts is to chrons c6cr c6cn 3n and c6cn 2r 24 to 23 2 ma this correlation implies a sedimentation rate of 20 cm kyr for the banovici basin and an age of approximately 24 ma for the turija mammal site the proposed correlation fits well with other magnetostratigraphically calibrated mammal records in western and central europe as well as anatolia and with the recalibrated ages of 24 95 0 05 ma and 24 72 0 04 ma for two basalt flows bracketing the enspel mp28 site in southern germany our results indicate that a limited exchange of fauna from central asia to western europe existed in late oligocene and miocene times

pliocene and early pleistocene paleoenvironmental conditions in the pannonian basin hungary slovakia stable isotope analyses of fossil proboscidean and perissodactyl teeth abstract stable carbon and oxygen isotope values of structural carbonate 13c 18oco3 and phosphate 18opo4 in bio apatite were measured for fossil mammalian teeth from slovakia and hungary oxygen isotope compositions of enamel provide new quantitative records of the pliocene and early pleistocene paleoclimate in the pannonian basin pb the 18opo4 values were used to study the temporal variations in the oxygen isotope compositions of precipitation and the changes in temperature over the pb the new o isotope data suggest that surface air temperatures between 4 5 and 2 0 ma were 1 to 4 c warmer with about 700 mm yr more precipitation compared to the present c isotope analyses of samples from proboscideans anancus sp mammut sp and perissodactyls stephanorhinus sp tapirus sp from the pliocene mn15 mn16 and early pleistocene mn17 suggest that they were primarily c3 browsers the mean 13c value is high at 4 5 to 3 7 ma mn14 15 during the pliocene warm period and decreases at about 3 5 to 3 0 ma mn16 mid pliocene warm period with the onset of more humid conditions in europe the 13c values return to higher values from 2 5 ma onwards mn17 most likely reflecting more arid conditions as a consequence of the onset of the northern hemisphere glaciation

pliocene early pleistocene climatic trends in the italian peninsula based on stable oxygen and carbon isotope compositions of rhinoceros and gomphothere tooth enamel abstract the pliocene and early pleistocene 5 2 1 ma palaeoclimate for localities in italy is evaluated using stable carbon and oxygen isotope compositions of tooth enamel of fossil specimens from rhinocerotidae stephanorhinus sp and gomphotheriidae anancus sp taxa carbon isotope composition was measured in the structural carbonate 13 c while oxygen isotope values were determined both in the structural carbonate 18 o co3 and the phosphate 18 o po4 of bioapatite the 13 c co3 values indicate that the taxa were grazers browsers of a pure c 3 vegetation low 13 c co3 values for central and north italy indicate a humid climate with woodlands and forest cover in the pliocene for northern localities the 13 c values increase between mn16a and mnq16b biozones most likely linked to the northern hemisphere glaciation at 2 7 ma after the mid pliocene warm period for central italy the values have a wide range with a long term increasing trend in the early pleistocene indicating more arid climate and or more open vegetation overall the 18 o po4 values in central italy change together with the 13 c co3 values and are taken to reflect the warmer wetter interglacials and cooler more arid glacial phases the 18 o po4 values in north italy are lower than those in central italy and show no clear temporal trend one explanation for the low values especially in mn14 15 biozone is that these 18 o po4 values do not reflect entirely the isotopic composition of local precipitation but river waters from the alps with 18 o depleted isotopic compositions or a n s directed rain shadow effect on the precipitation in general the new isotope data agree well with palaeoclimate reconstructions based on palynological and other proxies

palaeoecological and palaeoenviromental reconstruction of the upper miocene vertebrate karstic site of corral de lobato central eastern spain abstract we report stable isotopic analyses for dental enamel of fossil mammals from the miocene 7 1 ma mn13 middle turolian corral de lobato locality guadalajara spain and compare it with adjacent localities of the iberian range this multidisciplinary research allows the assessment of the palaeoenvironmental palaeoecological and palaeoclimatic conditions that were in place in the central eastern area of the iberian peninsula at this time herbivore tooth enamel 13c values point to the presence of two environments open woodland arid c3 grassland and woodland mesic c3 grassland we infer the most probable diets of the two carnivores analysed indicating a partition of resources and habitats tooth enamel 18o values from the obligate drinkers indicate that all of them would have drunk water with similar evaporation rates except for the suid hippopotamodon major although its distinct 18o values may be influenced by its omnivorous diet comparing corral de lobato taxa with those from other semi contemporaneous mn12 mn13 localities of the nearby teruel basin 13o values point to more arid conditions in corral de lobato while lower values of 18o are most likely related to the karst origin of water bodies possibly the difference between the isotopic compositions of corral de lobato and adjacent localities results from the combined effect of palaeotopography and a global climate pulse about 7 ma

late miocene turnover in the spanish mammal record in relation to palaeoclimate and the messinian salinity crisis abstract the latest miocene and earliest pliocene is a period of marked changes in geography and climate in the circum mediterranean area its geographical situation gives spain a key position and its fossil mammal record reflects these important geographical and climatic changes particularly well the spanish mammal record shows a gradual change of composition towards the typical pleistocene and recent fauna marked by several extinction and dispersal events these events have the effect that northern eurasian elements increase while taxa that locally go extinct may live on in tropical areas superposed on this large scale trend there are some events of short lived incursions of animals of african or south asian origins which seem to reflect a short reversal of this tendency and temporary geographical changes related to the messinian crisis these latter incursions are detected very well in spain but also in other parts of southern europe the messinian salinity crisis is caused by interplay of tectonics and global sea level variations which in turn depend on climate while some of these changes were permanent causing the replacement of central italian insular faunas by mainland faunas others were temporary probably allowing the short lived incursions of african mammals into sw europe and certainly allowing for mammals to reach the balearics corsica and sardinia we document an important event around 6 1 ma of mammals adapted to dry or open environments dispersing from africa and se europe to sw europe during the messinian desiccation phase animals adapted to more humid environments reached some of the west mediterranean islands suggesting that at least during part of the desiccation phase a part of the former sea bottom was not desertic between 6 3 and 5 3 ma tectonics united the island of toscany to the european mainland thereby closing a seaway of some 10 km wide and 100 m deep

late miocene and pliocene large land mammals and climatic changes in eurasia the fossil teeth of land mammals offer a powerful tool to map the regional details of past climate change in the terrestrial realm we use meanplant eaterhypsodonty molarcrownheight oflateneogenemammallocalitiestomaplatemioceneandpliocenepalaeoprecipitation on the eurasian continent and with higher temporal resolution in europe the results show that the mid latitude drying in eurasia affected thecentral parts ofthecontinentfirst and thatthedrying of western europeafter about7 8maseemstohavecoincidedroughlyintimewith a return to more humid conditions in eastern asia with a return to a drier east and more humid west in the pliocene within europe the hypsodonty based palaeoprecipitation maps suggest that the sequence from mn 9 to mn 12 ca 11 1 6 8 ma was dominated by an east west continental marine humidity gradient which gradually intensified and with a shift of dryer conditions eastwards in mn 12 ca 7 5ma thiswaspartlyoverlainfrommn13onwardsbyanorth southorientedgradient whichpersistedatleasttotheendofthepliocene the maps for both the earliest late miocene mn 9 ca 11 1 9 7 ma and the earliest pliocene mn 14 ca 4 9 4 2 ma show very low regional differentiation possibly suggesting perturbed phases in the evolution of the mammal communities analysis of hypsodonty and dietary structure of the mammalian plant eater community in europe during the entire interval shows that the miocene pliocene boundary was marked by a strong decrease in mesodont species and mixed feeders and an increase in brachydont species and omnivores in this view the shift in the latest miocene from east west to partly north south polarised hypsodonty patterns corresponds mainly to an increase in hypsodont species and grazers it seems probable that the east west gradient was primarily driven by precipitation while the north south gradient would also have been strongly influenced by temperature related effects of humidity

the miocene climatic optimum evidence from ectothermic vertebrates of central europe abstract data sets of central european temporal distributions of thermophilic ectothermic vertebrates channidae varanidae chamaeleonidae cordylidae tomistomidae alligatoridae giant turtles and of north alpine foreland basin nafb distributions of ectothermic vertebrates adapted to dryer habitats albanerpeton inexpectatum salamandra sansaniensis bufo cf viridis chamaeleo caroliquarti gekkonidae varanus hofmanni bransateryx sp are analysed two main migration events of thermophilic ectotherms at 20 ma and 18 ma in the lower miocene are discerned they indicate the beginning of the miocene climatic optimum in central europe 42 45 n palaeolatitude with a lower limit of the mean annual temperature mat of 17 4 c derived from the minimal mat of their extant relatives furthermore additional palaeobotanical data and records of bauxite point to a mat of 22 c this warm and humid optimum peaked at 18 16 5 ma ottnangian karpatian and is confirmed by the coexistence of all investigated thermophilic taxa the following period early badenian is characterised by probably unchanged temperatures but a seasonality in precipitation with dry periods up to six months two major seasonal phases between 16 3 and 15 7 ma earliest early badenian and between 14 7 and 14 5 ma early middle badenian transition are indicated by an immigration of dry adapted taxa from the surrounding karst plateau to the nafb it is presumed that the tectonical reorganisation of the central paratethys realm had considerable influence on this regional humidity pattern the warm period ended abruptly between 14 0 and 13 5 ma middle late badenian transition with major regional extinction events of most of the thermophilic groups in central europe and a drop of the mat of probably more than 7 c to temperatures around 14 8 15 7 c this drop can be attributed predominantly to a decrease of more than 11 c of the minimum cold months temperature this temperature decrease marked the beginning of a climatic zonation of the european continent and is also evidenced by a progressively southward disappearance of the crocodile diplocynodon from 38 45 n palaeolatitude to 30 37 n during the middle and earliest late miocene the results correlate well with palaeobotanical data from the mid latitudes of europe and north america and the deep sea temperature curve generated from oxygen isotope ratios

new magnetostratigraphic and numerical age of the fuente nueva 3 site guadix baza basin spain abstract sediments of the plio pleistocene guadix baza basin have provided a wealth of information on the first hominin populations in western europe to better constrain the age of the fuente nueva 3 archaeological site within the basin and to complement previous magnetostratigraphic studies two vertical boreholes were taken that provide a continuous record of the lower part of the sequence results indicate that the sequence is dominated by negative inclinations but some additional intervals with positive inclination are also identified in the lower part of the sequence a new cosmogenic nuclide burial age of 1 50 0 31 ma helps constrain the magnetostratigraphic record the abundance of normal polarity directions at the bottom of a borehole may indicate proximity to the olduvai subchron however further analyses are required to confirm this hypothesis

going south latitudinal change in mammalian biodiversity in miocene eurasia for palaeontologists the challenge is to reconstruct biodiversity patterns of the past mammal richness in grids is used to assess the stability of biodiversity hotspots and document changes over time in europe for mammal neogene units 3 to 11 19 5 to 7 6 ma early to late miocene the maps clearly show the patchiness of the fossil record as the miocene was an eventful epoch with severe environmental changes europe slowly became drier and more seasonal both in temperature and precipitation from the early to middle miocene an area of high biodiversity moved from higher to lower latitudes culminating in one of the most remarkable hotspots in the history of mammals the early late miocene vallesian mammal stage faunas from the valles penedes catalonia spain remarkably the surrounding areas did not exhibit similar richness during the subsequent vallesian turnover event 9 7 ma the large and small mammal distribution became more equitable and the hotspots less prominent the richest area was found in the periphery of the humid miocene ecosystem which experienced species influx from the drier south the southward shift was a result of the expansion of the humid area with subsequent closed environments and related mixing of ecosystems coming to a halt in the late miocene when all of europe became equally open

the lower palaeolithic site alto de las picarazas andilla chelva valencia abstract this paper describes the alto de las picarazas site andilla chelva valencia which is made up of a group of karst cavities that contains lower and middle pleistocene deposits in cavity i a wide early pleistocene sequence under a middle pleistocene deposit has been preserved in stratum iv evidence of human presence such as lithic industry and mammal bones with butchery marks has been found remains of allophaiomys ruffoi and soergelia minor in this stratum give the site a early pleistocene chronology

late miocene to early pliocene sedimentary environments and climatic changes in the alpine carpathian pannonian junction area a case study from the danube basin northern margin slovakia abstract the danube basin situated at the alpine carpathian pannonian junction represents a region of the central paratethys strongly influenced by orogen building processes and climatic changes the geodynamic development mirrors gentle docking of the carpathians into the european platform margin associated with synrift and later postrift subsidence of the back arc area onset of the basin inversion characterized the pliocene evolution the aquatic environments gradually changed from marine brackish to caspibrackish and to freshwater within the lake pannon due to isolation followed by development of ephemeral lakes and alluvial plains the terrestrial record documents the extinction of the middle miocene fauna and the retreat of vegetation with subtropical floral elements at the beginning of the late miocene due to changes in paleogeography and climate between 11 5 and 7 1 ma the immigration of a new hipparion fauna as well as the replacement of swamp vegetation by coniferous forest of the temperate zone can be interpreted as the first appearance of seasonality with lowered humidity at the pannonian pontian boundary the late pontian to early pliocene fauna and flora as well as sedimentary environments support the increase of humidity in warm temperate climate between 7 1 and 5 4 ma

the use of pollen floras as a tool to estimate palaeoaltitude of mountains the eastern pyrenees in the late neogene a case study northern hemisphere vegetation is generally zoned as a consequence of latitudinal and altitudinal gradients temperature reconstruction from three successive pollen floral assemblages of tortonian messinian and zanclean age from the eastern pyrenees has been used to estimate the altitudinal evolution of the uplifted cerdanya basin and its surrounding massifs a new method has been developed for the uplifted basins which completes that already applied to pollen floras from coastal marine deposits close to mountains in contrast to previous hypotheses it seems that the eastern pyrenees occurred at a lower altitude in the late miocene before continuous uplift began 10 ma ago the rate of this uplift ranged between 0 06 and 0 12 mm yr

continental deposits magnetostratigraphy and vertebrate paleontology late neogene of eastern spain abstract eleven sections have been sampled for magnetostratigraphy in the fossil mammal productive late neogene basins of eastern spain the characteristic direction of magnetization was determined through progressive thermal and alternating field demagnetization it was possible to correlate the magnetozones from the various sections to the gpts as well as to the fossil mn zones within the sediment the mn zone boundaries based on this correlation are as follows mn 11 12 8 1 my mn 12 13 6 my mn 13 14 4 9 my mn 14 15 4 18 my mn 15 16 3 58 my new fossil lists are presented for the fuente del viso and loma del castillo faunas in the cabriel basin

late pliocene continental magnetochronology in the guadix baza basin betic ranges spain abstract the late pliocene shallow lacustrine sequences in the guadix baza basin betic ranges southeast spain are a suitable setting for mammal chronology because of the abundance of rich mammal bearing sites stratigraphic superposition of late ruscinian and villanyian vertebrate fossils makes the galera section very appropriate for magnetostratigraphic dating sediments are characterized by a weak but measurable magnetization predominantly carried by magnetite other remanence carriers such as iron sulphides and hematite may be significant only in some particular lithologies such as dark palustrine organic silts and red alluvial beds respectively direct correlation of the galera section to the geomagnetic polarity time scale provides a reliable dating of the late ruscinian and villanyian mammal units the ruscinian villanyian boundary mn15 mn16 is found to occur in the lower gauss chron and approximately correlates to the 3 3 ma cooling event observed in stable isotope and planktonic foraminifera deep sea records the earliest occurrence of late villanyian assemblages mn17 in the lower part of the matuyama chron allows dating of the early late villanyian boundary mn6 mn17 to approximately 2 4 2 6 ma based on the presence of late villanyian assemblages underlying the base of the olduvai chron a maximum age of 1 95 ma top of c2r is attributed to the villanyian biharian mn17 mmq boundary a 300 kyr sedimentary gap in the galera section is suggested to correlate with a probable early villanyian hiatus an hypothesis that agrees with the absence of fossils of this age elsewherein the baza formation

u pb and 40ar 39ar dating of the miocene fossil track site at ipolytarnoc hungary and its implications abstract abundant early miocene mammal and bird tracks and a rich plant assemblage is preserved by the emplacement of an ignimbrite sheet of the gyulakeszi rhyolite tuff formation grtf near ipolytarnoc in northern hungary the tuff that overlies the track bearing sandstone yielded a single crystal zircon u pb total isochron age of 17 42 0 04 ma and a single crystal laser fusion plagioclase 40 ar 39 ar age of 17 02 0 14 ma uncertainties are quoted at the 2 level an additional 40 ar 39 ar age of 16 99 0 16 ma was obtained from the equivalent rhyolite tuff near nemti where the underlying terrestrial clay yielded early proboscidean remains assigned to the mn4 mammal zone the new high precision dates allow revision of the numeric age and correlation of the ipolytarnoc fossil site and the grtf previously based on an average k ar age of 19 6 1 4 ma the difference of 0 40 0 15 ma between the u pb and 40 ar 39 ar ages support the growing evidence for a systematic bias between the two isotopic systems due to the inaccurately known 40 k decay constant but likely also includes an undetermined pre eruptive residence time of zircon published biostratigraphic data from under and overlying marine strata establish correlation with the nn3 nannoplankton zone and together with the new radioisotopic ages suggest assignment of the fossils and the tuff to the ottnangian regional stage of the central paratethys a global correlation lends support to the recently suggested astronomical calibration of the early miocene time scale that revised the previous scales towards younger ages the 40 ar 39 ar age from nemti provides a reliable correlation of the mn4 mammal zone in central europe with the numeric time scale and places a minimum constraint on the age of the regional proboscidean datum the migration event of proboscideans from africa to europe through the emerging gomphotherium landbridge contrary to suggestions for a significantly earlier european proboscidean datum it appears that the originally suggested age of c 17 5 ma is realistic but it is significantly younger than the south asian proboscidean datum

a calibrated mammal scale for the neogene of western europe state of the art abstract a magnetobiostratigraphically calibrated mammal scale for the neogene of western europe is presented in this paper the mammal neogene mn units originally proposed by mein report on activity rcmns working groups 1975 have been re defined here on the basis of first appearances of selected small and large mammal taxa the chronology of the lower boundaries of each unit had been established mostly after the significant magnetobiostratigraphic framework developed in the last decade in a number of spanish basins ebro calatayud daroca valles penedes teruel fortuna cabriel and guadix baza in the case of the early and middle miocene particularly mn 1 mn 2 and mn 3 the authors have also taken into account the magnetobiostratigraphic framework developed in the north alpine foreland basin some alternative correlations of the magnetostratigraphic data from this last basin are proposed in order to achieve a higher degree of consistence with the data from the iberian basins a quite well established magnetostratigraphic calibration of the mn boundaries can be proposed for most of the neogene from middle miocene to late pliocene on the other hand the chronological boundaries of the early miocene mn units are still poorly constrained due to 1 scarcity of well studied continuous thick magnetostratigraphic sections 2 the difficulty in defining the boundaries of the mn zones for this time span due to the relative homogeneity and persistence of the fossil rodent faunas and the absence of significant large mammal dispersal events some of the troubles which arise with the application of the mn units strengthen the need to take into account the palaeobiogeographical meaning of these units and their real suitability to date and correlate through extensive geographic areas

magnetobiochronology of lower miocene ramblian continental sediments from the tudela formation western ebro basin spain abstract the calibration of european lower miocene continental stages is poorly constrained due to the lack of robust magnetostratigraphic data from continental sediments of this age in this paper we present the first magnetostratigraphic results from the mammal fossil bearing continental sediments of the lower middle miocene tudela formation western ebro basin spain the study is based on 331 paleomagnetic sites distributed along a 790 m thick composite section the resulting magnetostratigraphy provides an independent correlation to the geomagnetic polarity time scale and allows accurate dating of previously known and new ramblian upper lower miocene fossil localities of the tudela formation the new age constraints derived for the tudela formation fossil localities provide together with a revaluation of other iberian faunas the first magnetochronology for the ramblian continental stage the lower boundary of the ramblian is placed at the lower part of chron c6r ca 20 4 ma and the boundary between the lower and upper ramblian is located at the middle of chron c6n ca 19 6 ma the upper boundary of the ramblian and hence the base of the aragonian is placed at the upper middle part of chron c5cr 16 8 17 ma our results also provide the first magnetostratigraphically dated mn3 faunas in spain which together with a revaluation of other iberian and european faunas provide a revised calibration of european mammal zone mn3 the lower boundary of zone mn3 is placed at the boundary between chrons c6r and c6n ca 20 1 ma and its upper boundary is located at the upper middle part of chron c5cr 16 8 17 ma

palaeoenvironments of the late miocene pruedo basin implications for the uplift of the central pyrenees the nature structure and extent of a palaeo basin sedimentary infill exposed in the aran valley central pyrenees was studied by combining stratigraphical and biostratigraphical analyses and an audio magnetotelluric survey the basin developed on top of a pre existing peneplain and was formed by the north maladeta fault activity the fluvio palustrine sequence filling the basin was at least 100 m thick specimens of the taxon hippuris cf parvicarpa nikitin were identified for the first time in a european palaeoflora the palynological and carpological analyses allowed us to 1 constrain the age of the basin infill as vallesian 11 1 8 7 ma 2 characterize the vegetation of the belt surrounding the basin as a mainly temperate to warm temperate assemblage and 3 estimate the palaeoaltitude of the site at between 700 and 1000 m which leads to an altitude change of 900 1200 m for the north maladeta fault downthrown block and 1640 1640 m for the upthrown block these data allowed us to estimate the regional uplift of the area at between 0 08 and 0 19 mm a 1 the different exhumation values obtained by other researchers for sites located at both sides of the north maladeta fault are in agreement with its activity as a normal fault since the late miocene supplementary materials details of the data acquisition processing and modelling for the porera profile are available at www geolsoc org uk sup18551

magnetostratigraphy of the vallesian late miocene in the valles penedes basin northeast spain the magnetostratigraphic analysis of the late miocene continental deposits from the valles penedes basin combined with its well documented fossil mammal record has provided a well resolved chronology for the upper basin infill the study is based on the biostratigraphic and magnetostratigraphic cross correlation of 12 sections throughout the alluvial sequences in the western valles area the biostratigraphic framework consists of 21 mammal localities corresponding to the mammal neogene mn9 and mn10 units the composite magnetic polarity sequence is based on 400 paleomagnetic sites correlation with the geomagnetic polarity time scale gpts has led to an absolute dating of the faunal events and a precise chronostratigraphy of the vallesian mammal stage in its type area the hipparion first appearance datum fad at the mn8mn9 boundary is dated at 11 1 ma in the valles penedes basin this age compared to other radiometrically dated localities in europe north africa and turkey is consistent with an isochronous dispersal of this equid through the mediterranean region a possible isochrony at a larger geographical scale old world mesogea must await more reliable ages of the hipparion fad in asia and africa the cricetulodon fad mn9amn9b boundary is dated to 10 4 ma in chron c5n the progonomys fad mn9mn10 boundary corresponding to the intra vallesian faunal crisis is dated at 9 7 ma c4ar 3r the vallesian spans 2 4 myr from 11 1 ma c5r 1n to 8 7 ma c4an and correlates to the early tortonian

karst sediments in slovenia plio quaternary multi proxy records abstract we synthesize information on results and age of cave sediments from slovenia the studied sites were mostly from the classical karst which is situated in the nw part of dinarides and some from the slovenian southern alps protected in caves sediments are generally well preserved and reveal an exceptionally good multi proxy record of surface environmental conditions at the time of their deposition here we describe results of the systematic acquisition of palaeomagnetic data within individual segments of studied sediment sections with special focus on relict and unroofed caves in intervals with polarity change the frequency of sampling was so high that almost continuous records of rockmagnetic and palaeomagnetic parameters were obtained the construction of high resolution magnetostratigraphic profile supported magnetostratigraphy correlations among profiles palaeomagnetic and magnetostratigraphy results were calibrated by relative numerical calibrated and correlated dating methods where possible age sequences were compiled from spatially and temporally highly discontinuous sediment records covering different ages within the cenozoic era the robust chronology was constructed calibrated data contributed to the interpretation of speleogenesis deposition mechanism in caves and indirectly to the time of karst evolution and the succession of tectonic phases and climate changes the research indicated that most of sediments in relict and unroofed caves are up to 5 ma old which contrasts to the traditional concept of pleistocene age of cave sediments and that caves themselves are not much older cave sediments have proven to be an important source of information on depositional style in caves which indirectly reflected the evolution of the surrounding landscape especially the evolution of catchment areas i e climatic changes with flood events or and changes of the tectonic regimes during cenozoic

revised isotopic 40ar 39ar age for the lamproite volcano of cabezos negros fortuna basin eastern betics se spain abstract a new isotopic age of 7 71 0 11 ma 1 has been obtained with the 40ar 39ar incremental heating technique on phlogopites from the miocene volcanic rocks lamproites of the fortuna basin in southeast spain this age is significantly older than earlier reported k ar ages but confirms recent magnetostratigraphic ages on the sedimentary sequences of the eastern betics because the volcanic rocks are intercalated in the stratigraphic sequence of the fortuna basin directly above the transition from evaporitic to continental sediments it implies that the fortuna evaporites are older than 7 71 ma and thus of tortonian age in addition it shows that the volcanism in the fortuna basin must be attributed to a late tortonian deformation phase and not to messinian tectonics consequently these results form an important step towards a consistent chronological framework for the sedimentary tectonic and paleogeographic evolution of the fortuna basin during the late miocene

stable isotope ecology of hippotherium from the late miocene pannonian basin system abstract the retreat of the paratethys sea in the middle to late miocene left behind a series of intermontane lakes across central europe ancient lake pannon which existed in present day hungary and surrounding countries was gradually filled in by fluvial sedimentation from 10 to 4 ma this infilling allowed for the migration of mammals such as the horse hippotherium into the pannonian basin system pbs stable carbon and oxygen isotope records from hippotherium are used here to reconstruct changing environmental conditions of the late miocene in this region our emphasis is on understanding the vegetation and surface water of the basin because these in turn affected the isotopic composition of lake pannon we analyzed the enamel of 68 hippotherium teeth from 23 localities in the pbs for carbon and oxygen isotope composition carbon isotope records indicate that hippotherium in the central regions of the basin were feeding in more open habitats than those in the northwest we find no evidence of the expansion of c4 grasses into the pbs oxygen and carbon isotope values from the vienna basin nw part of the pbs generally covary whereas those from more central regions do not the oxygen values of the central pbs are generally lower than those of the vienna basin these data suggest that the interior of the pbs was generally dry which forced hippotherium to use water sources that were not strongly evaporated such as rivers originating from outside the basin the dry interior was likely caused by a rain shadow east of the alps and north of the dinarides consequently much of the surface inflow into lake pannon would have been influenced by runoff from high elevations around or outside the basin by understanding the terrestrial environment better constraints can be placed on lake conditions in future work

the vallesian mammal succession in the valles penedes basin northeast spain paleomagnetic calibration and correlation with global events abstract the integrated lithostratigraphic biostratigraphic and magnetostratigraphic study of new and classical alluvial fan sequences in the valles penedes basin northeast spain western mediterranean enabled a considerable refinement of the vallesian mammalian succession in this basin and its correlation with the magnetic polarity time scale up to 12 new sections were logged and sampled in a search of mammal remains and a paleomagnetic analysis was carried out the correlation among these sections was based on the small mammal content and the succession of magnetozones enabling the establishment of four main composite sections les fonts montagut terrassa and viladecavalls as a result the vallesian in the valles penedes basin appears punctuated by four main mammalian events which coincide with the appearance of the genera hipparion cricetulodon progonomys and rotundomys the hipparion event did not coincide with any further change in the associations of small and large mammals the dispersal of the cricetid cricetulodon in its turn involved the first set of extinctions in the vallesian affecting the rodent and carnivore and artiodactyl associations the main break during the vallesian coincided with the dispersal of the murids of the genus progonomys and implied a sudden drop in the diversity of the rodent and artiodactyl species of warm wet forested affinities this phase is characterized by the association of the murid progonomys and the cricetid cricetulodon and includes the last record of hominoids in the basin the replacement of cricetulodon by the sigmodont cricetid rotundomys was associated with the entry of some typical early turolian species according to the correlation established it is concluded that the fad of hipparion in the valles penedes basin is dated at 11 1 ma at the base of chron c5r 1n this data is congruent with other datings in northern africa and eastern europe suggesting the isochrony of this event in the mediterranean regions the cricetulodon fad is dated to 10 4 ma in chron c5n the progonomys dispersal coincident with the late vallesian crisis is dated at 9 7 ma in chron c4ar 3r the rotundomys fad is dated at 9 2 9 3 ma in the upper part of chron c4ar 1n the vallesian mammal bioevents affected the peri mediterranean zones including northern africa and other regions in northern and western eurasia these paleofaunistic changes were caused by temperature descent from subtropical to warm temperate conditions as well as by changes in the aridity balance and seasonality this climatic evolution was the result of the interplay of diverse global events cooling of the high latitude regions growing of the antarctica ice sheet and enhancement of the thermohaline oceanic circulation and of large scale tectonic and paleogeographic processes surface uplift of the himalayas the tibetan plateau and other tectonic reliefs closing of gateways between the mediterranean marine regions and the world ocean the magnetobiochronology resulting from the study of the western valles sequences suggests a close chronological correlation between some of these global and regional processes and the vallesian bioevents recorded

the pikermian event temporal and spatial resolution of the turolian large mammal fauna in se europe abstract during the turolian late miocene the eastern mediterranean region is considered to have been part of a single major ecological area supporting a particular savanna type large mammal community referred to as the pikermian biome analysis of the timing turnover patterns biogeographic relations and palaeoecological profile of the turolian large mammal faunas from either sides of the aegean sea failed however to confirm the presence of a homogeneous mammal community isotropically behaving through time for most of the turolian the large mammal assemblages from southern balkans and anatolia appear to have existed under different environmental conditions partly isolated by natural barriers overall climatic changes and regional physico geographic factors around 7 2 my allowed the southern balkan biogeographic region to be temporarily part of the sub paratethyan bioprovince as a result significant faunal reorganizations and interchanges triggered the emergence and expansion of the pikermian mammal fauna which collapsed soon after 7 0 my as a consequence of the early messinian global changes the pikermian large mammal event seems to follow known procedures related with contemporaneous marine and land faunal episodes across the mediterranean

the messinian terrestrial record in the pyrenees the case of can vilella cerdanya basin in this paper a survey on the messinian section of can vilella in the intramontane basin of la cerdanya pyrenees is presented the mammalian association composed of insectivores rodents and lagomorphs is a very atypical one compared to other late turolian messinian assemblages from spain and western europe including central european taxa such as epimeriones aff austriacus which are very rare or absent in the late miocene from spain and even from western europe the palynological record indicates a riparian forest with abundance of marshy herbs a magnetostratigraphic study reveals a reverse polarity span for most of the section whereas in the upper part normal polarities are found according to the magnetobiostratigraphic correlation established in other basins the normal geomagnetic episode at the top of the section should correspond either to chron c3an 2n or c3an 1n in any case the can vilella association clearly predates the onset of the messinian salinity crisis msc in the mediterranean this means that the set of climatic and palaeogeographic events associated with the msc cannot account for the anomalous association from can vilella a discussion as to whether an altitudinal component could be responsible for such an anomaly is undertaken

old world first appearance datum of hipparion horses late miocene large mammal dispersal and global events the magnetobiochronological dating of the late miocene hipparionine horses hipparion in the western mediterranean places its first appearance datum fad in the circum mediterranean region at the chron c5r at a minimum age of 11 1 ma this date challenges some of the widely accepted datings of this bioevent in western eurasia and is relevant to the discussion of the mode and tempo of hipparion dispersal the migration of the hipparion north american ancestor is related to the glacioeustatic sea level lowstand of the supercycle tb3 1 early tortonian and to the concurrent deep sea hiatus nh4 and oceanic 18 o isotopic event mi5 the hipparion dispersal was a conspicuous worldwide on land bioevent that was coeval with major late miocene oceanic and high latitude paleoclimatic global changes

high frequency rhythmicity in a mixed siliciclastic carbonate shelf late miocene guadix basin spain a model of interplay between climatic oscillations subsidence and sediment dispersal abstract rhythmites in pelagic sediments can include information on paleoclimate and with orbital cycles this paper documents and interprets an unusual rhythmic succession from a cool water shallow marine shelf that includes features of mediterranean type ramps and open ocean type ramps in the subsiding southwestern margin of the guadix basin southern spain betic cordillera during the late tortonian a 640 m thick succession was deposited over a short period 7 8 7 2 ma this succession contains 30 sedimentary packages or rhythmites each defined by two facies associations a mixed cross stratified siliciclastic skeletal sandstone and a homogeneous marl rich in planktonic foraminifera sandstones ranging in thickness from 3 m to 20 m contain coralline algae bivalves bryozoans benthic foraminifera echinoids and brachiopods typical temperate water shelf biofacies these units exhibit cross strata sets up to four meters high interpreted to have been produced by strong unidirectional currents the marly deposits range in thickness from 2 to 17 m and contain an association of cold water planktonic foraminifera as well as thin sandstone layers that exhibit normal grading corresponding to typical incomplete bouma sequences or a lower division with planar lamination and an upper division of very fine to fine grained sandstone with hummocky and swaly cross stratification on the basis of the sedimentary structures the sandstone layers are interpreted as sporadic turbidity flows and storm ebb surge deposits on the basis of the sedimentary structures the hydrodynamic conditions during deposition of the mixed siliciclastic carbonate interval were high energy based on sedimentary and biogenic features of the rhythmites and their temporal durations ca 20 ka rhythmicity is interpreted to reflect alternating cool wet and cold dry climate episodes driven by precession orbital cycles this occurrence of alternating mixed carbonate siliciclastic sedimentation and pelagic sediments represents a unique occurrence in the geologic record

magnetostratigraphy of the late miocene baccinello cinigiano basin tuscany italy and the age of oreopithecus bambolii faunal assemblages abstract this study has the aim of dating the latest miocene hominoid oreopithecus bambolii bearing succession of the baccinello cinigiano basin bcb in southern tuscany italy since the 1960s biochronology has been the source for rough age estimations geochronological techniques have started to provide significant time constraints after the absolute dating obtained from a single point in the bcb where a relatively thick and continuous lithostratigraphic record is found together with a succession of several mammal sites chronological control of the sedimentary succession and age range of oreopithecus faunal assemblage has nowadays only been possible with the characterization of the magnetostratigraphy of the bcb sedimentary succession this study demonstrates that i the oldest oreopithecus bearing sediments in bcb v1 has an age older than 8 1 ma ii the igf 4883v oreopithecus from trasubbie creek has an age of 8 1 7 7 ma iii the youngest oreopithecus remains from the so called v2 assemblages have an age between 7 1 and 6 7 ma iv the oreopithecus chronologic range within the bcb is about 1 5 ma long bracketed between 8 3 and 6 7 ma v the post oreopithecus faunal complex v3 bearing deposits likely to have an age between 6 7 and 6 4 ma belonging to the very early mn13 unit early messinian and finally vi oreopithecus is confirmed to be the youngest dryopithecine record from eurasia extending his last occurrence into the early messinian

on the late miocene closure of the mediterranean atlantic gateway through the guadix basin southern spain abstract the late miocene mediterranean atlantic connection through southern spain is generally thought to have closed during the late tortonian but accurate constraints on palaeobathymetry shallowing rates and closure age are still lacking we present integrated biostratigraphic planktonic benthonic foraminifera and mammals and magnetostratigraphic results from the marine to continental la lancha section of the guadix basin refining the chronology for the miocene pliocene sedimentary sequences of this basin that occupied a central position in the marine gateway in addition we perform palaeobathymetric analyses on the marine sedimentary sequence to reconstruct sea level fluctuations and vertical motions deposition of the lower marine unit took place between 8 1 and 7 85 ma with accumulation rates of 1 m kyr a rapid shallowing from palaeodepths of 500 300 m to a depth of 300 200 m took place at 8 0 ma coinciding with a decrease in downslope transport surprisingly no shallowing trend has been observed towards the unconformable contact with the transitional unit which was deposited in a shallow 90 m marine environment the youngest open marine marls are still indicative for a palaeodepth of 200 m this leads to the conclusion that fully marine environments in guadix persisted until at least 7 85 ma the palaeomagnetic polarity pattern of the upper continental unit in combination with the presence of the murid paraethomys meini in the basal part of this sequence indicates that the entire continental unit at la lancha is attributed to the latest messinian zanclean time this age is in strong contradiction with previous correlations to the late tortonian consequently we conclude that a major hiatus of at least 2 myr comprising most of the messinian stage is present in the guadix basin therefore a late tortonian closure age of the mediterranean atlantic gateway through guadix has not been confirmed by our results so that the possibility of a messinian gateway through southern spain cannot be completely ruled out

late oligocene early miocene paleosols of distal fluvial systems ebro basin spain abstract the study of paleosols can be a vital tool in the paleoenvironmental interpretation of continental deposits because their physical and chemical characteristics are a reflection of variations in aspects of soil formation changes in paleosol characteristics can be used to determine the architecture and nature of parent material paleosol maturity topography climate and soil forming organisms including vegetation cover on the ancient floodplain and can be utilized to recreate a palaeocatena furthermore paleosols can provide quantitative data on paleoclimate where other sources such as organic matter and pedogenic carbonate are absent late oligocene early miocene strata exposed in the ebro basin spain have been identified as proximal alluvial fan fluvial and lacustrine continental facies in parts of the distal fluvial system pedogenically altered channel and overbank deposits interfinger with ephemeral lacustrine facies three main paleosol types developed in these sediments and have been described and compared to modern soils entisol like early successional soils inceptisol like young soils and alfisol like open woodland soils paleoenvironmental reconstructions suggest a mosaic of ecotypes with areas of open woodland composed of shrubs herbs and small trees and other plants of low stature and with each ecotype being controlled primarily by fluctuating paleohydrological conditions from field observations and geochemical analysis the climate was found to be humid continental mean annual temperature mat 10 14 c 4 c mean annual precipitation map 450 830 mm yr 1 200 mm yr 1 these results indicate that climatic conditions were wetter than the present day ebro basin mat 14 c map 320 mm yr 1 and differ from previous interpretations of an arid to semi arid environment based on sedimentological criteria alone

geographic and temporal patterns in the late neogene 12 3 ma aridification of europe the use of small mammals as paleoprecipitation proxies abstract present day relations between small mammal community structure and rainfall are used to predict late neogene 12 3 ma precipitation patterns in europe and anatolia new proxy methods are developed which include regressions of mean annual and minimum monthly precipitation on diet invertivory index and locomotion habitat arboreality index a series of precipitation maps and a set of regional precipitation curves through time at 1 myr resolution are presented precipitation curves at a higher temporal resolution are constructed for the region of central spain the miocene results show the existence between 12 and 9 ma of a large wet 800 1200 mm yr zone extending from northern spain to the ukraine and characterized by the whole year penetration of large amounts of moisture far into the continent between 10 9 and 5 ma this european temperate wet zone etwz shrinks and or moves northward resulting in diachronous aridification a coeval northward migration of the subtropical high pressure zone shpz is hypothesized which is also consistent with the predicted onset of seasonal summer dryness between 10 and 8 ma the maximum extension of the etwz at 12 9 ma temporally correlates with northern hemisphere cooling suggesting that climate zonation rather than the global amount of atmospheric moisture controlled european climate at this time the main aridification at 9 8 ma could best be explained by a northward extension shifting of the subtropical high pressure zone and a transition towards less zonal circulation processes which ultimately could have been triggered by uplift of the tibetan plateau a temporary increase of precipitation at 7 6 ma is associated with renewed global cooling the lowest precipitation values less than 400 mm yr occur during the pliocene in southern and eastern europe uplift in eastern europe carpathians shrinking of the paratethys could well explain the aridification in this area and the associated sharpening of east west precipitation gradients across the continent

the upper boundary of the philippine sea plate beneath the western kanto region estimated from s p converted wave abstract in the kanto tokai district of central japan the configuration of the subducting philippine sea plate has been estimated using three dimensional velocity inversions of the seismic wave velocity structure and the distribution of microearthquakes however it is difficult to show the configuration of the philippine sea plate from the distribution of microearthquakes beneath the western kanto region i e the yamanashi and nagano prefectures because seismic activity is quite low there a clear x phase between p and s phases on seismograms from an earthquake is observed at temporary seismological stations located in this area this x phase is identified as the s to p converted wave at the upper boundary of the subducting philippine sea plate thus we have been able to deduce the shape of the philippine sea plate and to show that it dips northwest

biostratigraphy paleomagnetism and geology of the orce ravine southern spain comment on the paper by gibert et al 2006

plio quaternary extensional seismotectonics and drainage network development in the central sector of the iberian chain ne spain abstract westward propagation of postorogenic rifting in the central sector of the iberian chain generated the teruel and calatayud mio pliocene grabens and the jiloca daroca and munebrega plio quaternary half grabens partially superimposed on the western margins of the pre existing basins the progressive capture and transformation from endorheic aggradational to exorheic incisional drainage of the active grabens resulted in the development of a drainage network dominated by axial streams controlled by neotectonic activity and the distribution of basin fill lithofacies this paper reviews the geomorphic and stratigraphic evidence of plio quaternary extensional tectonics and provides new chronological data radiocarbon and osl dating on offset deposits and the associated paleoseismic record the daroca fault offsets mantled pediment deposits dated at 113 119 ka based on a radiocarbon age of the colluvial sequence 43 ka affected by the rubielos de la cerida fault a vertical slip rate of 0 05 0 07 mm yr has been estimated for this fault four paleoearthquakes subsequent to 72 ka have been inferred from the classic exposure of the concud fault indicating a recurrence interval of less than 18 ka a gravitational origin related to the dissolution of subjacent evaporites is attributed to two faults affecting an upper pleistocene terrace 15 ka in the alfambra valley close to the concud fault these structures have recently been interpreted as evidence of coseismic deformation on the concud fault although the faults have a low slip rate and a long seismic cycle their length

global aridity during the early miocene a terrestrial paleoclimate record from the ebro basin spain abstract paleosols are an important tool in the paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental interpretation of continental deposits and can provide a high resolution proxy for paleoclimate results from geochemical climofunctions applied to early miocene strata exposed in the ebro basin spain demonstrate that mean annual precipitation was the dominant control on paleosol type and indicate that the paleoclimate was considerably wetter during the early miocene by up to 1150 mm yr 1 in comparison to modern values placing it in a subhumid climatic regime rather than an arid semiarid regime as previously suggested by sedimentological and paleontological approaches by making comparisons with published data on paleoclimate during the early miocene this article stresses the importance of regional climatic changes in global paleoclimatic interpretation

magnetostratigraphy and revised chronology of the late miocene mammal localities of samos greece the late miocene mammalian record in samos island greece is extremely important for the eurasian neogene mammalian history and chronology however due to the mixed nature of old fossil collections and controversies on the stratigraphic position of fossil quarries great confusion has arisen concerning the recognition of distinct faunal assemblages their age s and biostratigraphic significance this paper presents the magnetostratigraphy of the late miocene continental deposits of the fossiliferous mytilinii basin samos island greece old and new sites are stratigraphically controlled with accuracy and correlated with each other the magnetostratigraphy of seven individual sections covering the entire mytilinii formation provides good correlation with the geomagnetic polarity time scale gpts these results as well as the relocation and precise litho and magnetostratigraphic correlation of the old and new mammal localities combined with new and reviewed paleontological data and thorough studying of the numerous radiometric dates allowed us to define five biostratigraphic horizons their correlation with and implications to the european neogene mammal chronology ages and zones make up the following discussion and provides a modified determination of the middle turolian mn 12 boundaries

temporal aspects of genetic stratigraphic units in continental sedimentary basins examples from the ebro basin spain abstract the utility of genetic stratigraphy lies with the fundamental relationship between genetic stratigraphic units and correlative intervals of geologic time while high resolution studies may reveal varying degrees of diachroneity that are associated with their bounding surfaces genetic stratigraphic units are generally viewed as chronostratigraphic in nature representing specific periods of basin fill despite the vast literature on basin analysis an evaluation of the temporal character of the boundaries between genetic stratigraphic units particularly in cases where they are conformable has not yet been undertaken the cenozoic ebro basin is a foreland basin on the north eastern iberian peninsula that provides a case for assessing the temporal character of the boundaries between genetic stratigraphic units these units are termed tecto sedimentary units following the method of tecto sedimentary analysis that is used in some continental basins in the ebro basin tecto sedimentary analysis is based on direct field observations in this work magnetostratigraphic data from four tecto sedimentary units units t4 to t7 that span rocks of lower and middle miocene age ca 1000 m thick in the central and western areas of the basin are analysed the study area contains alluvial fluvial and lacustrine deposits that were sourced from pyrenean and iberian areas whose catchments were structured during the collision of iberia and eurasia new magnetostratigraphic data from this study and previously published magnetostratigraphic data enable us to determine the ages of these tecto sedimentary unit boundaries throughout a 200 km long east west transect that extends from the basin centre to the southwestern margin the results indicate that the diachrony of the three boundaries between the miocene tecto sedimentary units through the central ebro basin is less than 0 3 ma where they are conformable this low degree of diachroneity may be attributed to the effects of allogenic largely tectonic processes that operate in the catchment areas and methodological inaccuracies these results provide empirical support to the idea that genetic stratigraphic units are bounded by surfaces that exhibit low amounts of diachroneity where they are conformities

astronomically forced teleconnection between paratethyan and mediterranean sediments during the middle and late miocene abstract a high resolution correlation between an orbital tuned middle and early late miocene record of the central paratethys and an astronomically calibrated mediterranean deep marine composite record is proposed the astronomical tuning of the sarmatian and pannonian sedimentary record in the vienna basin confirms that the beginning of the pannonian regional stage lower tortonian dated in this work at 11 42 my is very close to the miller event mi5 it coincides with a period of minimum amplitude in the 1 2 myr obliquity cycle which in the mediterranean marine record corresponds with a drastic change in the planktonic foraminiferal fauna in addition the warmer period between mi5 and mi6 corresponding to a maximum in the long term 2 3 myr eccentricity cycle coincides with a long interval of lignite deposition in the paratethyan realm the sedimentation pattern shown by high frequency cyclicity between lignite and normal sediments reflects a primary influence of 100 kyr eccentricity cycles on the sedimentation system of the central paratethys which corresponds with small and large scale sapropel clusters hierarchical organization in the mediterranean record the badenian sarmatian boundary astronomically dated at 13 32 myr does not coincide with a low amplitude variation in the 1 2 myr obliquity cycle and any mi events this orbital configuration is supported by the paleoclimatic and paleoecologic data of the late badenian and early sarmatian which both represent a warm temperate system with stagnant bottom water conditions finally the transitional phase from a temperate early sarmatian to a warmer late sarmatian associated with predominant carbonate sedimentation coincides with the glacio eustatic isotope event mi4 while the entire late sarmatian spans a complete 1 2 myr obliquity cycle

the north maladeta fault spanish central pyrenees as the vielha 1923 earthquake seismic source recent activity revealed by geomorphological and geophysical research abstract the spanish central pyrenees have been the scenario of at least two damaging earthquakes in the last 800 years analysis of macroseismic data of the most recent one the vielha earthquake 19 november 1923 has led to the identification of the north maladeta fault nmf as the seismic source of the event this e w trending fault defines the northern boundary of the maladeta batholith and corresponds to a segment of the alpine gavarnie thrust fault our study shows that the nmf offsets a reference neogene peneplain the maximum observed vertical displacement is 730 m with the northern downthrown sector slightly tilting towards the south this offset provides evidence of normal faulting and together with the presence of tectonic faceted spurs allowed us to geomorphically identify a fault trace of 17 5 km this length suggests that a maximum earthquake of mw 6 5 0 66 could occur in the area the geomorphological study was improved with a resistivity model obtained at pruedo where a unique detritic late miocene sequence crops out adjacent to the nmf the section is made up of 13 audiomagnetotelluric soundings along a 1 5 km transect perpendicular to the fault trace at pruedo and reveals the structure in depth allowing us to interpret the late miocene deposits as tectonically trapped basin deposits associated with normal faulting of the nmf the indirect age of these deposits has been constrained between 11 1 and 8 7 ma which represents a minimum age for the elevated pyrenean peneplain in this part of the pyrenees therefore we propose the maximum vertical dip slip rate for the nmf to be between 0 06 and 0 08 mm a normal faulting in this area is attributed to the vertical lithospheric stress associated with the thickened pyrenean crust

quaternary time scales for the pontocaspian domain interbasinal connectivity and faunal evolution the pontocaspian black sea caspian sea region has a very dynamic history of basin development and biotic evolution the region is the remnant of a once vast paratethys sea it contains some of the best eurasian geological records of tectonic climatic and paleoenvironmental change the pliocene quaternary co evolution of the black sea caspian sea is dominated by major changes in water lake and sea levels resulting in a pulsating system of connected and isolated basins understanding the history of the region including the drivers of lake level and faunal evolution is hampered by indistinct stratigraphic nomenclature and contradicting time constraints for regional sedimentary successions in this paper we review and update the late pliocene to quaternary stratigraphic framework of the pontocaspian domain focusing on the black sea basin caspian basin marmara sea and the terrestrial environments surrounding these large mostly endorheic lake sea systems

the late neogene early quaternary small vertebrate succession from the almenara casablanca karst complex castellon eastern spain chronologic and paleoclimatic context abstract although discontinuous because of their karst nature the almenara casablanca complex records a very complete small vertebrate succession amphibians squamates insectivores bats rodents and lagomorphs characterized by the richness of their sites a richness which cannot be expected in sites of fluvio lacustrine origin this late neogene early quaternary succession includes the sites of almenara casablanca m miocene pliocene boundary almenara casablanca 4 late pliocene almenara casablanca 1 earliest pleistocene and almenara casablanca 3 late early pleistocene in this way the almenara casablanca succession complements the data from other well know terrestrial pliocene pleistocene sequences in the iberian peninsula most notably that of the guadix baza basin the complementation between the almost continuous pliocene pleistocene sequence of the guadix baza basin and the discontinuous but very rich succession from the almenara casablanca complex enables accurate dating of some of the faunal events that punctuate the pliocene early pleistocene time interval furthermore the assemblages from the almenara casablanca complex contain the evidence of the earliest occurrences of several taxa as well as the persistence of other that had already disappeared from other european regions therefore it provides new evidence for the particular role which the iberian peninsula played during the late neogene and early quaternary acting at certain moments as a bridge for the entry of african taxa or alternatively as a refuge for other european taxa this paper provides an updated review of the small vertebrate succession from this complex

paleomagnetic ages of miocene fluvio lacustrine sediments in the tianshui basin western china abstract long and continuous terrestrial paleoclimate records are important in understanding forcing mechanisms of cenozoic climate however such records are rare sediments in basins near the edges of the tibetan plateau are potential paleoclimate archives but dating them is a challenge here we report a successful application of paleomagnetism to a set of fluvio lacustrine sediments in the tianshui basin ne tibet and found that this set of sediments spans 17 1 6 1 ma preliminary biomarker studies found that this set of sediments has climatically important organic components and thus these sediments are perfect paleoclimatic archives generating high resolution biomarker records will be able to cast light on climatic history in ne tibet during the miocene

early pliocene continental vertebrate fauna at puerto de la cadena se spain and its bearing on the marine continental correlation of the late neogene of eastern betics in this paper we synthesize sedimentological magnetostratigraphic and paleontological data from the continental vertebrate site of puerto de la cadena murcia se spain in order to clarify its age the study site is located on the northern edge of the carrascoy mountain range in the upper part of the cigarron unit the end messinian discontinuity has been detected at the base of this unit which indicates it has an early pliocene age abundant remains of small and large vertebrates including rodents lagomorphs primates carnivorans perissodactyls artiodactyls proboscideans testudines squamats and crocodiles have been found in this area some of these elements are of african origin such as debruijnimys sp macaca sp and sivatherium cf hendeyi and their presence is related to the messinian salinity crisis in addition remains found at this site verify the persistence of crocodylia in the european record beyond the late miocene the association includes typical elements of the early ruscinian terrestrial record mn14 like apocricetus cf barrierei sivatherium gazella aff baturra and hipparion fissurae the puerto de la cadena site is located in a reversed geomagnetic chron that has been correlated with c3n 3r from 4 997 to 4 896 ma according to this correlation the mn13 mn14 boundary has a minimum age of 4 9 ma

late cenozoic micromammal biochronology of northwestern africa abstract this synthesis aims to integrate former recent and unpublished data on fossil micromammals rodentia erinaceomorpha soricomorpha chiroptera from moroccan algerian and tunisian archeological and paleontological sites an updated biochronology of these taxa is established from the middle miocene to the holocene ten main biozones are defined they are characterized by specific faunal assemblages whose evolution and migrations were influenced by geologic and climatic events throughout the studied period during the miocene myocricetodontinae were dominant this period was followed by a progressive diversification among murinae gerbillinae and crocidurinae from the plio pleistocene onwards along with sporadic occurrences of european asian and sub saharan taxa before a decrease in small mammal diversity at the beginning of the late pleistocene while modern faunas stabilized overall the new biochronology matches well with the former ones however some slight discrepancies emerge notably because the former biochronologies were based on more sporadic data and often did not consider the whole small mammal faunas the present work represents the first complete biochronological synthesis of north african small faunas for the whole late cenozoic which should be useful for paleontologists and archeologists in providing an up to date framework into which future discoveries will easily find their place

the neogene origin adoption evolution and controversy abstract some stratigraphers have recently insisted that for historical reasons the neogene miocene pliocene should be extended to the present however despite some ambiguity in its application by moriz hornes in the 1850s the neogene was widely adopted by european geologists to refer to the miocene and pliocene of lyell but excluding the diluvium later to become the pleistocene and alluvium later to become the holocene during the late 19th and early 20th centuries the ends of the neogene tertiary and pliocene evolved in response to the progressive lowering of the beginnings of the quaternary and pleistocene this evolution was a logical result of the widespread views that the most recent ice ages were worthy of recognition as a formal unit of the standard geologic time scale and that the structure of this time scale must be strictly hierarchical motivations for the extension of the neogene to the present include the desire to establish a monopoly for marine biochronology in the definition of standard global chronostratigraphic boundaries this agenda would also eliminate the tertiary quaternary and holocene these changes are unnecessary there is every reason to retain the traditional hierarchical structure of the cenozoic time scale

predictable structure of miocene insectivore lipotyphla faunas in western europe along a latitudinal gradient abstract the insectivores grandorder lipotyphla have been seldom used in mammal based paleoenvironmental inferences because this group is generally considered insufficiently represented or studied nevertheless a recent compilation on the insectivore record of western europe has shown that this is not the case from the insectivore occurrences themselves a major paleobiogeographical pattern seems to be present the faunas of the mediterranean regions of western europe are poorer and seem to be a subset of those occurring at higher latitudes this kind of pattern where smaller assemblages seem to be a nested subset of the richer ones is known as nestedness in this work we analyze the prevalence of nestedness in the miocene insectivore record of western europe the calculations are carried separately for each mn mammal neogene zone and a measure of nestedness or order is given the probability that a similarly nested pattern could be obtained at random for each mn is assessed by permutation our results show the prevalence of nestedness in all the mn zones except the mn 1 in the second step we study the causes of nestedness a significant correlation of the nested structure with latitude is found in 8 out of 12 matrices thus confirming that the southern assemblages are a subset of the northern ones this must be related to some underlying latitudinal gradient that already existed during the miocene latitudinal gradients in temperature seem to have been unimportant until the late miocene yet the nested pattern existed as early as the early miocene a precipitation gradient which was already present by the early miocene seems to be the most important structuring factor independent evidence has confirmed that the central european regions were more humid than the mediterranean ones thus explaining the higher diversity of insectivores in that area as this group is more diverse in humid climates the structure of the southern assemblages is a highly predictable subset of that of the northern ones in the south the species that seem to have required higher levels of environmental moisture are missing this applies for instance to many talpids and dimylids which never reached the iberian peninsula

magnetostratigraphy of the orce region baza basin se spain new chronologies for early pleistocene faunas and hominid occupation sites abstract the orce fossil quarries in the baza basin of southeastern spain are a rich source of early pleistocene palaeolithic tools and vertebrate remains geologic fieldwork during the last decade has placed these fossiliferous strata within the context of a thick neogene continental sequence detailed lithostratigraphic and magnetostratigraphic results indicate that at least the upper 60 m of this sequence are of early pleistocene age the quarried strata venta micena barranco leon and fuentenueva 3 are from a narrow time span gazella borbonica equus stenonis and the beginning of more characteristic pleistocene fauna in the venta micena site with hippopotamus antiquus equus granatensis homo sp thus far no evidence for human occupation has been found within the earlier fuentenueva 1 quarry although many of the same terminal mn17 species have been found with hominids on the other side of europe at the dmanisi site earliest pleistocene in the republic of georgia

the pliocene pleistocene succession of kvabebi georgia and the background to the early human occupation of southern caucasus abstract this article analyzes and discusses the chronological and zoogeographic context of the pliocene site of kvabebi in order to shed light into the background of the early human occupation of eurasia as evidenced by the early pleistocene site of dmanisi new paleontological and paleomagnetic research has allowed this site to be placed in a reverse interval which can be identified as chron 2an 1r the age of this site is therefore close to 3 07 ma coeval to the hadar beds of the afar depression and slightly older than the last hipparionine faunas in europe such as villarroya in spain the fauna of kvabebi is composed of a number of species common to europe and asia but also includes others with african affinities such as kvabebihyrax kachethicus protoryx heinrichi parastrepsiceros sokolovi and gazella postmitilinii however the presence these species cannot be explained as the result of a pliocene dispersal from africa but rather as the last remnants of the so called greek iranian province

geology and chronology of the continental pleistocene archeological and paleontological sites of the orce area baza basin spain abstract the guadix baza basin hosts a continuous continental record of paleoenvironmental paleobiological and geological changes from around 8 ma to 205 ka a remarkable succession of pleistocene mammal sites is found in the lower and upper members of the baza formation in the orce area the upper member contains the early pleistocene paleontological and archeological sites of barranco leon 5 and fuente nueva 3 both sites belong to the early pleistocene zone defined by allophaiomys aff lavocati and a small mimomys savini this zone can be correlated with that of central europe containing mimomys savini and microtus praehintoni these sites are located in the marginal lacustrine deposits of the baza lake system and originated in expanded phases of the main lake when meteoric surface and shallow groundwater inputs were predominant the barranco leon 5 site is related to a sudden event of high energy currents entering a lacustrine palustrine domain these currents transported gravels bones and lithic industries from a short distance maximum hundreds of meters in contrast the diverse levels in fuente nueva 3 do not show evidence of noticeable transport by traction currents the age of the mammal succession and sites is based on magnetostratigraphy in the middle and upper members of the baza formation only reversed polarities are found matuyama epoch the location of the olduvai chron is still unclear and could have not been recorded due to the common hiatuses observed in the sedimentary successions in the lower member normal and reverse polarities gauss epoch are found in the galera and velez salar sections the later contains the site of fuente nueva 1 which is pre olduvai chron in age according to paleontological data and biostratigraphic correlation

chronology of the late turolian deposits of the fortuna basin se spain implications for the messinian evolution of the eastern betics the magnetostratigraphy of the mammal bearing alluvial fan fan delta sequences of the fortuna basin se spain has yielded an accurate chronology for the late turolian messinian basin infill from early to late messinian at least between 6 8 and 5 7 ma the fortuna basin records the sedimentation of alluvial palustrine deposits over a confined shallow basin changing environmental conditions in the latest messinian are illustrated by the retreat of palustrine facies a rapid progradation of the marginal clastic wedges and the initiation of an efficient basin drainage at5 8 ma lower part of chron c3r most likely represents the onshore response to the drastic drop of base level taking place during the messinian salinity crisis this study further provides improved age estimates for the late turolian land mammal events in southern spain the oldest mn 13 locality in the studied sections is correlated to chron c3ar at an age of 6 8 ma the entry of camels and the murid paraethomys in southern spain occurs in chron c3an 1n at 6 1 ma and gives further support for land mammal exchange between africa and the iberian peninsula prior to the salinity crisis in good agreement with

refinements of the european mammal biochronology from the magnetic polarity record of the plio pleistocene zujar section guadix baza basin se spain abstract the magnetobiostratigraphy study of the 130 m thick zujar section negratin clays unit guadix baza basin spain provides a remarkable opportunity to improve the correlation of european mammal biostratigraphy to the geomagnetic polarity time scale the occurrence of 12 well defined magnetozones and four paleontological sites with diagnostic faunas ranging from the mn 15 biozone ruscinian to the mn 17 biozone villanyian leads to an unambiguous correlation to chrons spanning from the gilbert to the matuyama epochs this provides two new time constraints 1 the boundary between mn 15 ruscinian and mn 16 villanyian biozones is recorded between chron c2an 3n and the base of chron c2an 2n and 2 the boundary between the upper and lower mn 16 subzones villanyian is located between chron c2an 2n and the base of chron c2an 1n the correlation between the ruscinian villanyian boundary and the 3 3 myr b p cooling event seems to be confirmed while the early late villanyian boundary could be tentatively correlated to the glacial event at 2 6 myr b p furthermore mn 15 faunas are found in the lowermost part of chron c2ar which is in agreement with and reinforces the emplacement of the mn 14 mn 15 ruscinian zones boundary at the reversal from chron 3n 1n to chron c2ar

new data on the early villafranchian fauna from vialette haute loire france based on the collection of the crozatier museum le puy en velay haute loire france abstract vialette 3 14 ma like seneze chilhac sainzelles ceyssaguet or soleilhac is one of the historical sites located in haute loire france the lacustrine sediments of vialette are the result of a dammed lake formed by a basalt flow above oligocene layers and show a geological setting typical for this area where many localities are connected with maar structures that have allowed intra crateric lacustrine deposits to accumulate based on previous studies and this work a faunal list of 17 species of large mammals has been established eight species typical of this time period and well known occur in the collection of the crozatier museum of le puy en velay pliocrocuta perrieri lynx issiodorensis mammut borsoni anancus arvernensis stephanorhinus jeanvireti tapirus arvernensis cervus pardinensis and croizetoceros ramosus the presence of gazella cf g borbonica is newly established in addition to which the oldest known occurrences of canis sp cf eucladoceros sp and of the genus equus in western europe are also described these are the new data which pushed back the age of the arrival of the genus equus cf eucladoceros and canis in western europe five taxa are not found in the crozatier collection primates indet agriotherium sp ursus gr minimus thibetanus bovidae middle sized pliotragus ardei or gallogoral meneghinii procapreolus cf cusanus

biochronology and biochron boundaries a real dilemma or a false problem an example based on the pleistocene large mammalian faunas from italy abstract reconstructing the neogene quaternary biostratigraphy in continental environments and recognising boundaries between successive mammalian faunal complexes is a problematic task the definition and application of biochronology has been often tainted by references to and inferences from biostratigraphy actually the discontinuities in the continental sedimentary record environmental conditions taphonomic and sampling biases are responsible for the fact that the stratigraphical order of the lowest and highest occurrences of fossil remains stratigraphic datum does not necessarily reflect the temporal order of actual first last appearances of taxa palaeobiological events in time nonetheless the first last appearance bioevents recorded by lowest highest occurrences of fossil remains in fossiliferous levels of different continental stratigraphical successions have been the principal foundation for establishing the biochronological setting of continental mammal faunas therefore from a theoretical point of view boundaries should be defined by the oldest and or youngest historical occurrence of one or more taxa what about an operational approach some examples of the italian faunas are presented focusing on the transition from the villafranchian to the galerian and from the galerian to the aurelian land mammal ages the results obtained indicate the difficulty of defining a stable scheme that can be applied for correlation by the international scientific community

a new magnetostratigraphic framework for late neogene hipparion red clay in the eastern loess plateau of china abstract mammalian fossils especially the hipparion fauna found in the red clay of the loess plateau are of immense value for reconstructing late neogene paleoecology and paleoclimatology in northern china the lack of a precise chronological framework for these fossil sites has impeded our understanding of the evolution of the chinese mammalian fauna their correlation with european mammalian units and the retrieval of paleoclimatic information in this study a field survey of regional stratigraphy in the baode area of shanxi was carried out and three profiles tanyugou yangjiagou i and yangjiagou ii of late neogene deposits were selected for detailed investigation a new chronological framework of the late neogene sequences in the baode area is established by means of paleomagnetism our results show that the red clay accumulation in the baode area began at least 7 23 ma ago deposition continued to the superposed jingle formation the most continuous and complete exposure of the jingle formation known to date was identified and dated to 2 72 5 34 ma a lithological distinction between the jingle formation and the underlying baode formation forms a clear boundary in the red clay that is not coincident with the miocene pliocene boundary documented elsewhere three rich fossil layers are found in the yangjiagou ii profile and dated to 6 43 6 54 ma 6 83 6 86 ma and 7 15 7 18 ma respectively with the application of three different demagnetization techniques the matuyama gauss geomagnetic reversal boundary was identified in a transitional unit between loess and typical red clay deposits a lock in depth of as large as 6 8 m corresponding to ca 65 ka was inferred but remains unexplained

iberian mastodonts geographic and stratigraphic distribution abstract the iberian peninsula has a complete mio pliocene fossil record in which all biostratigraphic units are represented as a consequence there is an exceptional proboscidean record including deinotheres mastodonts and elephants which has increased significantly in recent years many of the older localities are not known in the common paleontological literature because only or mainly proboscidean remains were collected this paper presents an overview of the localities yielding mastodont remains gomphotherium angustidens dispersed into europe during late mn3 the oldest spanish record is possibly from early mn4 zone b of the aragonian there are over 125 iberian localities the material includes skulls and more or less complete skeletons the youngest localities are from the lower part of mn7 8 tetralophodon longirostris replaced gomphotherium during the latest aragonian this event is well reflected in the spanish record and the first tetralophodon appears in localities that belong to the upper part of mn7 8 together with other faunal changes this event strengthens the idea that mn7 and mn8 can be recognized as separate units the species is known from over 70 iberian localities some of which yielded complete skulls and relatively complete skeletons at crevillente ii mn11 a tetralophodont form is found with morphometric similarities to stegotetrabelodon anancus arvernensis replaced tetralophodon during the latest miocene mn12 this event is well documented in the iberian peninsula this species is found at over 20 localities and is particularly well represented at las higueruelas mn 16 3 1 2 9 ma with many skulls and abundant remains of the different parts of the skeleton the last iberian record is in villarroya mn 16 and la florida e pleistocene zygolophodon turicensis dispersed late in mn3 into europe but in spain it is known from few localities from the middle miocene mn5 7 it evolved into mammut borsoni which in spain is known from some upper miocene to lower pliocene localities overall the iberian mastodont record is similar to that of the rest of europe the bunodont and zygodont mastodonts overlapped during many millions of years but at any moment the zygodont species were much less abundant in the iberian record proboscidean dispersals from africa towards western and central europe show a peculiar pattern several dispersals occurred during the mid miocene climatic optimum and again during the pleistocene but not during the long time interval between after the optimum came the mid miocene crisis when global temperatures dropped which probably did not favor northward proboscidean dispersals when during the late miocene c4 grasslands spread at low latitudes most proboscideans adapted to grazing and may have become pre adapted for living in the seasonal climates of the higher latitudes and dispersed again to the north this mirrors the hominoid dispersals from africa to europe which occurred also during the mid miocene and pleistocene

magnetostratigraphy and radio isotope dating of upper miocene lower pliocene sedimentary successions of the black sea basin taman peninsula russia abstract we present a new chronology for the upper miocene to pliocene deposits of the black sea basin based on high resolution magnetostratigraphic data coupled with 40 ar 39 ar dating from the 475 m long zheleznyi rog section on the taman peninsula russia this section comprises the stratigraphic interval of the khersonian to kimmerian regional stages of the eastern paratethys our magnetostratigraphic record is based on biogenic and early diagenetic greigite components and yields a magnetostratigraphic sequence of 8 polarity zones a volcaniclastic ash layer at the upper part of the khersonian is radio isotopically dated at 8 69 0 18 ma the age of the khersonian meotian transition arrives at 8 6 or 8 2 ma which is significantly younger than earlier estimates the new age has important consequences for the hipparion datum in the eastern paratethys and implies that all vallesian fossil sites are younger than 11 2 ma the meotian stage has a total duration of 2 2 to maximum 2 6 myr and is marked by multiple erosional events the end of the paratethys sea is dated at 5 5 ma when the black sea becomes isolated from the caspian sea the dacian basin and the mediterranean

long plio pleistocene terrestrial record of climate change and mammal turnover in southern spain abstract cyclostratigraphic analysis of the pliocene zujar section guadix baza basin southeastern spain has enabled the recognition of a number of climatically forced cycles reflecting alternating dry and wet periods peaks of aridity are recorded at ca 3 95 3 55 3 2 2 8 and 1 8 myr b p the first dry period at about 4 0 myr b p corresponds to the early ruscinian mammal age while the second arid interval at about 3 6 myr b p corresponds to the establishment of the mediterranean double seasonality the significant mammal turnover between the late ruscinian and early villanyian stages is placed between chron 2an 2n and the very base of chron 2an 1n coincident with the dry phase recognized at about 3 2 myr b p the fourth aridity maximum at 2 8 myr b p roughly coincides with the equus event in western europe and is probably related to the beginning of the glacial interglacial dynamics in the northern hemisphere finally the last dry peak at about 1 8 myr b p is probably related to the set of mammalian events characterizing the transition from the late pliocene faunas to those of the early pleistocene

mid neogene mediterranean marine continental correlations an alternative interpretation recent revised magnetostratigraphic and astrochronologic calibrations of several calcareous planktonic microfossil datum events in particular coccolithus miopelagicus and neogloboquadrina acostaensis combined with our magnetobiostratigraphic investigation of a 10 m thick section at ecotet near lyon france in which terrestrial micromammals vallesian zone mn9 are intercalated with calcareous nannoplankton and planktonic foraminifera belonging to zones nn6 nn8 and n14 15 m11 and m12 respectively lead us to question the recent recalibration by krijgsman et al 1996 eart planet sci lett 142 367 380 of the aragonian vallesian mn7 8 mn9 boundary with chron c5r 1r v11 1 ma and the lower upper vallesian mn9 10 boundary with chron c4ar 2n v9 6 9 7 ma ecotet with a uniform reverse polarity is shown to be assignable uniquely to chron c5r interregional correlation of ecotet with mediterranean terrestrial stratigraphies indicates that progonomys whose first occurrence fo has been traditionally placed in mediterranean mammal zone mn10 was already present in mediterranean zone mn9 at v11 4 ma and did not experience a 2 million year delay in its putative prochoresis from asia

the challenge of dating early pleistocene fossil teeth by the combined uranium series electron spin resonance method the venta micena palaeontological site orce spain the palaeontological site of venta micena orce andalusia spain lies in the eastern sector of the guadix baza basin one of the best documented areas in europe for plio pleistocene biostratigraphy the combination of biochronological and palaeomagnetic results combined with the radiometric data obtained for atapuerca sima del elefante indicated that the venta micena stratum was formed between the jaramillo and olduvai palaeomagnetic events most likely between 1 22 and 1 77 ma five fossil teeth from two outcrops sites a and b were selected to assess the potential of combined uranium series electron spin resonance us esr dating of early pleistocene sites although the us esr results of the first outcrop showed a large scatter between the three teeth the mean age of 1 37 0 24 ma can be considered a reasonable age estimate for venta micena the mean esr age of 0 62 0 03 ma obtained for site b seems to be a severe underestimation when compared with the independent age control this underestimation is attributed to a relative recent u mobilization event that led to some u leaching the results show that any esr age calculations of old samples are extremely sensitive to variations in the measured 230th 234u ratios in dental tissues although the results demonstrate that esr can in principle be applied to early pleistocene sites they also reveal the complexity of dating such old teeth it is necessary to continue research in several directions such as study of the behaviour of esr signals in old teeth and understanding recent u mobilization processes to improve the reliability of the combined us esr dating method applied to early pleistocene times a period for which the number of available numerical dating techniques is very limited copyright 2011 john wiley sons ltd

paleomagnetic and geochronologic constraints on the geodynamic evolution of the central dinarides the geodynamic evolution of the dinaride mountains of southeastern europe is relatively poorly understood especially in comparison with the neighboring alps and carpathians here we construct a new chronostratigraphy for the post orogenic intra montane basins of the central dinarides based on paleomagnetic and 40ar 39ar age data a first phase of basin formation occurred in the late oligocene a second phase of basin formation took place between 18 and 13 ma concurrent with profound extension in the neighboring pannonian basin our paleomagnetic results further indicate that the dinarides have not experienced any significant tectonic rotation since the late oligocene this implies that the dinarides were decoupled from the adjacent adria and the tisza dacia mega units that both underwent major rotation during the miocene the dinaride orogen must consequently have accommodated significant shortening this is corroborated by our ams data that indicate post middle miocene shortening in the frontal zone wrenching in the central part of the orogen and compression in the hinterland a review of paleomagnetic data from the adria plate which plays a major role in the evolution of the dinarides as well as the alps constrains rotation since the early cretaceous to 48 10 counterclockwise and indicates 20 of this rotation took place since the miocene it also shows that adria behaved as an independent plate from the late jurassic to the eocene from the eocene onwards coupling between adria and africa was stronger than between adria and europe adria continued to behave as an independent plate the amount of rotation within the adria dinarides collision zone increases with age and proximity of the sampled sediments to undeformed adria these results significantly improve our insight in the post orogenic evolution of the dinarides and resolve an apparent controversy between structural geological and paleomagnetic rotation estimates for the dinarides as well as adria