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.