THE KAYSERI HIPPARION HORSES: NEW INSIGHTS INTO EQUID EVOLUTION IN TÜRKIYE DURING THE EARLY AND MIDDLE TUROLIAN (MN11-12, LATE MIOCENE)

Le résumé fourni par la source

The Yamula Reservoir shores have yielded a series of vertebrate localities rich in diverse ungulates and carnivores which we refer to the Kayseri faunas, Türkiye. We report herein the geological context and hipparion horses excavated from fluvial and lake deposits Çevril, Taşhan, and Hırka sites. Published 40Ar/39Ar geochronologies place the deposits within the late Tortonian, respectively the late European Mammal Neogene (MN) Units late MN11– early MN12 (early to middle Turolian). These localities can therefore be correlated with others of the Greek–Türkish–Iranian region, as Pikermi and Samos (Greece) and Maragheh (Iran). We undertake both morphologic and morphometric analyses in identifying taxa and comparing them to a broad suite of taxa from Western Eurasian localities. Hipparion horses identified in this study include Hippotherium brachypus, Hipparion dietrichi, Cremohipparion moldavicum, Cremohipparion aff. proboscideum and Plesiohipparion longipes. Our paleoclimate reconstruction of Upper Miocene Western Eurasian faunas based on the mean ordinated hypsodonty analysis of fossil mammal assemblages from MN10–12 shows a substantial climate shift, expressed in the expansion and diversification of the classic Pikermian ungulate and carnivore “savanna-like” chronofauna.

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