Preliminary analysis of taxonomic diversity, turnover and provinciality in a subsample of large land mammals from the later Miocene of western Eurasia.

• We have recently reviewed the later Miocene (MN 6-13; ca 15-5 Ma ago) primates, hipparions, rhinocerotids, suoids and carnivores of Europe and the eastern Mediterranean. This work is still unpublished and analyses are underway, but a preliminary indication of some coarse patterns is given here for the sample consisting of the groups listed above: 1) There is a clear-cut difference between western and Central Europe on one hand and the eastern Mediterranean on the other. This is especially clear for species richness, which shows a rising trend throughout the Vallesian and earlier Turolian for the eastern regions and a falling trend for the western ones. 2) The major drops in species richness occurred between MN 6 and MN 7, between MN 9 and MN 10, and between MN 12 and MN 13. Of these, the "mid-Vallesian crisis" (MN 9-10) seems to have been entirely absent in the eastern Mediterranean, where species richness rose sharply during this interval. Correspondingly, the drop in MN 12-13, associated with the Messinian crisis, was predominantly an eastern phenomenon. 3) Taxon free analysis of body size and ecomorphology strongly supports the view that a diachronous opening up of the landscape from east to west took place in western Eurasia during the Astaracian and Vallesian. We postulate that the difference seen in faunal dynamics between east and west reflects habitat-related effects of this diachrony in response to the same global event of rapid physical change. 4) The early Turolian (MN 11) was characterized by high diversity and high faunal similarity, which both decreased during the later Turolian and ended with the Messinian crisis. 5) Despite highly uniform diversity and turnover patterns throughout the interval, western and Central Europe developed distinct ecological differences from about MN 10 onwards. These differences may have been associated with the persistence of closed habitats in Central Europe.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Zoologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Zoology (hsv//eng)

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)