Reconsidering the Equids from the Early Pleistocene Fauna of Apollonia 1 (Mygdonia Basin, Greece)

Anastasia G Gkeme,Dimitris S Kostopoulos,George D Koufos

doi:10.3390/quat4020012

Anastasia G Gkeme, Dimitris S Kostopoulos + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/quat4020012

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Journal: Quaternary	Publication Date: Apr 9, 2021
Citations: 7	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Abstract

The remains of equids are abundant in the Early Pleistocene faunas of Greece. “Apollonia-1” is one of the richest localities from the latest Villafranchian, providing eight skulls, mandibular remains and plenty of postcranial material during several field campaigns. This study focuses mainly on the skulls, mandibular remains and metapodials from the old and new collection described in detail. The specimens are compared with equids from several Greek and European fossiliferous localities dating from the late Villafranchian to the middle Galerian. The systematic position of Equus apolloniensis is also discussed. Based on its basicranial proportions, E. apolloniensis is considered a true Equus. A second species has also been identified recently, here referred to as Equus sp.; it is poorly represented, and it is even larger and more robust than E. apolloniensis based on a single metacarpal and third phalanges. The presence of two equid species in Apollonia 1 validates its Epivillafranchian (=latest Villafranchian) age.

Highlights

Since the beginning of the 1980s, little has been known about the Pleistocene faunas of Greece
Authors disagree regarding the phylogeny of the Early and Middle Pleistocene equids (E. granatensis, E. altidens, E. suessenbornensis, E. wuesti, E. apolloniensis) and whether these species originated from America, Asia, and/or Africa
E. suessenbornensis, E. granatensis and E. altidens are included in the sussemione-group due to their peculiar dental features; this group is supposed to originate from North America, and it is not linked with stenonoid equids (e.g., Allohippus)

Summary

Introduction

Since the beginning of the 1980s, little has been known about the Pleistocene faunas of Greece. Sporadic articles describing or reporting the presence of some equid remains were known from northern Greece (e.g., [6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13]). Several articles have been published, studying these faunas, and providing significant paleontological and biochronological data for Greece and Eastern Mediterranean region (e.g., [21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43])

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Discussion

Conclusion