A new early Miocene herpetofauna from Kilçak, Turkey

Abstract

The fauna of amphibians and reptiles (except turtles) from the early Miocene localities of the Kilçak section (Turkey) is described here. The herpetofaunal assemblage of the Kilçak localities is the best documented early Miocene herpetofauna in Anatolia. The following taxa are revealed: Salamandra sp., Latonia sp., Eopelobates sp., Crocodylia indet., Lacertidae indet. (morphotypes A and B), Ophisaurus sp., Anguinae indet., Eoanilius cf. oligocenicus , Bavarioboa sp., Falseryx sp., and Texasophis sp. Among them, Latonia represents the oldest published record of this frog in Anatolia. Its maxilla is sculptured, extending the occurrence of the Latonia lineage with ornamented maxillae to the earliest Miocene, and demonstrating the long coexistence of the Latonia lineages (with smooth and ornamented maxillae), for almost the entirety of the Late Cenozoic. The genera Eopelobates , Eoanilius , and Falseryx are described from Anatolia and Asia for the first time. The booid fauna, being poorly known from this time interval (i.e., the so called «Dark Period» of booid snakes), significantly adds to our knowledge of early Miocene snake assemblages. The snake material from Kilçak indicates a transition from «ancient» late Oligocene to «modern» early-middle Miocene fauna. The widely distributed European taxa recovered in Kilçak, indicate that Anatolia had close faunal links to Europe during the late Oligocene – early Miocene.