Micromammals from the late early Miocene of Çapak (western Anatolia) herald a time of change

Melike Bilgin,Lars W Van Den Hoek Ostende,Pablo Peláez-Campomanes,Peter Joniak,Serdar Mayda,Fikret Göktaş

doi:10.1017/jpa.2021.27

Abstract

AbstractThe new fossil micromammal assemblage of Çapak represents a mixture of both Anatolian and European faunal elements. The locality is very important for understanding faunal evolution in the less well-known time interval at the end of the early Miocene of western Anatolia. In Çapak, nine species of rodents and one species of ochotonid were encountered: the hamstersDemocricetodon gracilis,Megacricetodon primitivus,Eumyarionaff.E.montanus,Cricetodoncf.C.aliveriensis,Cricetodonsp., andKarydomyscf.K.strati, the mole-ratDebruijniasp., the squirrelAliveria luteyni, the dormouseMyomimus tanjuaen. sp., and the pikaAlbertona balkanica. The assemblage is referable to Anatolian local zone E or MN unit 4. The relative abundance of the various genera is markedly different from that of the older early Miocene assemblages, suggesting that the environment in Anatolia became drier and had a more open landscape.UUID:http://zoobank.org/75f3276c-dcd8-4090-b2f6-d8fc8d3c3f7c

Highlights

The late early Miocene was a period of major changes in the eastern Mediterranean
Earlier research showed that the hamster genera entering Europe at the end of the early Miocene were already present throughout that period in Anatolia (e.g., De Bruijn and Saraç, 1991; Theocharopoulos, 2000; De Bruijn et al, 2006; Wessels, 2009)
Eumyarion from Çapak is represented by just a few elements, and these are clearly different from any other species known so far, being most similar to E. montanus from Keseköy, but with more advanced characteristics

Summary

Introduction

The late early Miocene was a period of major changes in the eastern Mediterranean. The collision of the African plate with Eurasia altered both the topography of the region and its climates, offering new migration routes (Rögl, 1999). The lingual anteroloph is present in four molars; it is connected to the base of the protocone in two specimens. M3.—The lingual anterolophulid is short, and the labial anterolophid is long and connected with the protoconid in ten specimens. The posterior paracone spur is well developed and connects to the long mesoloph at the labial border of the molar. Karydomys strati López-Antoñanzas et al, 2018 from the Island of Chios resembles our specimen in having double protolophules and metalophules, a long mesoloph, and in the connections with the posterior paracone spur. It falls within the size range of the Chios species.

Findings

Discussion

Conclusions