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| 2. |
- Georgalis, Georgios L., et al.
(författare)
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New material of Laophis crotaloides, an enigmatic giant snake from Greece, with an overview of the largest fossil European vipers
- 2016
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Ingår i: Swiss Journal of Geosciences. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1661-8726 .- 1661-8734. ; 109:1, s. 103-116
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Laophis crotaloides was described by Richard Owen as a new and very large fossil viperid snake species from Greece. The type material is apparently lost and the taxon was mostly neglected for more than a century. We here describe a new partial viperid vertebra, collected from the same locality and of equivalent size to the type material. This vertebra indicates that at least one of the three morphological characters that could be used to diagnose L. crotaloides is probably an artifact of the lithographer who prepared the illustration supporting the original description. A revised diagnosis of L. crotaloides is provided on the basis of the new specimen. Despite the fragmentary nature of the new vertebra, it confirms the validity of L. crotaloides, although its exact relationships within Viperidae remain unknown. The new find supports the presence of a large viperid snake in the early Pliocene of northern Greece, adding further data to the diversity of giant vipers from Europe.
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| 3. |
- Georgalis, Georgios L., et al.
(författare)
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Nostimochelone lampra gen. et sp. nov., an EnigmaticNew Podocnemidoidean Turtle from the Early Mioceneof Northern Greece
- 2012
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Ingår i: Morphology and Evolution of Turtles. - Dordrecht : Springer. - 9789400743090 - 9789400743083 ; , s. 277-287
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A new podocnemidoidean turtle, Nostimochelonelampra gen. et sp. nov., was recently recovered fromlittoral marine-estuarine sediments of the lower MioceneZeugostasion Formation, near the village of Nostimo innorthwestern Macedonia, Greece. This new taxon is characterizedby a mosaic of primitive and derived features mostnotably the presence of a broad embayment on the anteriorcarapace margin, which involves both the nuchal (whosewidth[length) and first pair of peripherals, a continuousseries of six markedly elongate and very narrowed hexagonalneural bones, extension of the axillary buttress onto themidline of the anteroposteriorly elongate costal I (leavinga concave scar) and also laterally across the peripheralII-peripheral III suture, medial contact of the humeral scutes(implying a small intergular), and extensive overlap of thepectoral scutes on the entoplastron, probably extending tothe epiplastral-hyoplastral suture. Conclusive phylogeneticplacement of Nostimochelone is difficult to establishbecause the remains are incompletely preserved. Nevertheless,its discovery is significant because it represents boththe first record of a pleurodiran turtle from Greece and alsoone of only a handful of fossil podocnemidoidean occurrencesthus far documented from the Neogene of Europe.
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| 4. |
- Georgalis, Georgios L., et al.
(författare)
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The fossil turtles of Greece : An overview of taxonomy and distribution
- 2013
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Ingår i: Geobios. - : Elsevier BV. - 0016-6995 .- 1777-5728. ; 46:4, s. 299-311
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Turtle remains are common in the Miocene-Holocene deposits of Greece, and are a key focus of the growing research interest in Neogene. herpetofaunas from the Aegean region. Some of the most important finds include one of Europe's stratigraphically youngest pleurodiran taxa, Nostimochelone lampra, from the Early Miocene of Macedonia, together with arguably the richest record of fossil tortoises from the Eastern Mediterranean. This incorporates the presently oldest definitive representatives of the quintessential genus Testudo sensu stricto from the Late Miocene of Attica and Macedonia, and numerous specimens of the colossal (carapace similar to 2 m-length) testudinid Cheirogaster from Late Miocene-Late Pliocene sediments in southern and northern Greece, as well as on the eastern Aegean islands of Samos and Lesvos. Tantalising, but as yet unconfirmed Miocene accounts of the geoemydid Mauremys in Macedonia, and indeterminate emydid-like remains from Euboea, also provide potentially significant range extensions. Although hampered by a historically sparse documentation, the fossil turtles of Greece are a significant resource that record both assemblage changes and the origin of modern lineages.
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| 5. |
- Kear, Benjamin P., et al.
(författare)
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Turonian marine amniotes from the Bohemian Cretaceous Basin, Czech Republic
- 2014
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Ingår i: Geological Magazine. - 0016-7568 .- 1469-5081. ; 151:1, s. 183-198
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Despite being known for over 155 years, the Late Cretaceous marine amniotes of the Bohemian Cretaceous Basin in the Czech Republic have received little recent attention. These fossils are however significant because they record a diverse range of taxa from an incompletely known geological interval: the Turonian. The presently identifiable remains include isolated bones and teeth, together with a few disarticulated skeletons. The most productive stratigraphical unit is the Lower-Middle Turonian Bila Hora Formation, which has yielded small dermochelyoid sea turtles, a possible polycotylid plesiosaur and elements compatible with the giant predatory pliosauromorph Polyptychodon. A huge protostegid, together with an enigmatic cheloniid-like turtle, Polyptychodon-like dentigerous components, an elasmosaurid and a tethysaurine mosasauroid have also been found in strata corresponding to the Middle-Upper Turonian Jizera Formation and Upper Turonian - Coniacian Teplice Formation. The compositional character of the Bohemian Cretaceous Basin fauna is compatible with coeval assemblages from elsewhere along the peri-Tethyan shelf of Europe, and incorporates the globally terminal Middle-Upper Turonian occurrence of pliosauromorph megacarnivores, which were seemingly replaced by mosasauroids later in the Cretaceous.
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| 6. |
- Vlachos, Evangelos, et al.
(författare)
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Late Miocene tortoises from Samos, Greece : implications for European Neogene testudinid systematics and distributions
- 2019
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Ingår i: Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. - : Taylor & Francis. - 0272-4634 .- 1937-2809. ; 39:6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The world-famous upper Miocene fossil localities on the Aegean island of Samos in Greece have produced a rich fossil record that sheds light on the evolution of eastern Mediterranean terrestrial faunas over a one-million-year interval of the late Neogene. Fossils have been discovered on Samos since antiquity, although a succession of paleontological and commercial collecting expeditions over the last 130 years has resulted in specimens now being distributed throughout museums all over the world. Here, we survey the fossil tortoise remains from Samos, which are significant because they include early antecedents of the modern Testudo lineage, together with spectacular examples of the European Neogene gigantic testudinid †Titanochelon, which represents one of the largest-bodied terrestrial turtle taxa documented to date. All of the Samos fossils derive from the Mytilinii Formation, which spans the late MN11–early MN13 Neogene land mammal zones. The small-bodied tortoise remains include two incomplete shells that are morphologically consistent with basal testudonans and phylogenetically distinct from the coeval species Testudo marmorum found on mainland Greece. The Samos gigantic tortoise †‘Testudo’ schafferi was based on a spectacularly large skull and femur. However, we describe new plastron fragments, limb elements, and osteoderms that are compatible with †Titanochelon specimens from southern Greece and Anatolia. This could imply faunal links with the distinctive ‘Pikermian’ local assemblages from Asia Minor and concurs with the proposed late Miocene–Pliocene biogeographic segregation of large mammals from the eastern Aegean margin and Turkey relative to those occurring in northwestern Greece and the Balkan Peninsula.
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