Serdar Mayda

The stratigraphical position of Kemiklitepe fossil locality (Eşme, Uşsak) revised: Implications for the Late Cenozoic sedimentary basin development and extensional tectonics in western Turkey

Unlike earlier studies attributing the Kemiklitepe fossil locality to the İnay Group, the present study indicates that it is to be assigned to the Asartepe Formation that unconformably overlying the İnay Group. This seems to verify the early Middle Miocene age of the İnay Group, previously determined by isotopic dating and palynological analyses. However, the early Middle Miocene age and the overall undeformed nature of the İnay Group do not concur with the regional two-stage extension model proposing a compressional phase during the Miocene/Pliocene interval. The correlation of the Asartepe Formation bearing the Kemiklitepe fossil locality further to the north indicates that a NE-SW trending fault was active during the Late Miocene. Recent studies modelling the uplift history of the region are unconvincing because they ignore Late Miocene activity on the NE-SW trending faults and assume a timing of incision of the İnay Group after the Late Pliocene (~3Ma) in their calculations.

First record of fossil anguines (Squamata; Anguidae) from the Oligocene and Miocene of Turkey

Fossil anguine lizard specimens from several Turkish localities are described in this paper. The material comes from ten different localities, spanning a large geographic area consisting of both parts of the European Turkey and Anatolia, and ranging in age from the Oligocene to the Late Miocene. In certain cases, the generic determination was possible and, accordingly, members of Ophisaurus and Anguis were identified and described in detail. The specimens of Anguis, found in different, Middle and Late Miocene localities from Anatolia, represent two of only a few fossil occurrences of this taxon. Moreover, the material reported herein represents the oldest occurrences of anguine lizards, not only from Turkey, but from southeastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean basin as a whole. These rare records provide important information about the dispersal routes of anguines from Europe to Asia and significantly enhance our understanding of their biogeography.

First Fossil Find of the Blanus strauchi Complex (Amphisbaenia, Blanidae) from the Miocene of Anatolia

Citation for this article: Georgalis, G. L., K. Halaçlar, S. Mayda, T. Kaya, and D. Ayaz. 2018. First fossil find of the Blanus strauchi complex (Amphisbaenia, Blanidae) from the Miocene of Anatolia. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2018.1437044.

Gördes: a new early Miocene micromammal assemblage from western Anatolia

The mammal locality of Gördes is only known from its test sample, as it has been subsequently destroyed. This small sample yielded a surprisingly rich assemblage, with five rodent species, four species of insectivore and a bat. Based on the rodent contents, the assemblage is assigned to Anatolian mammal zone D, equivalent to MN 3. One of the rodent species, Eumyarion gordesensis nov. sp. is new. Both the cricetid Deperetomys and the glirid Glirudinus represent a hitherto unknown evolutionary stadium and have been assigned to D. aff. intermedius and G. aff. haramiensis, respectively. Based on the relatively high diversity of insectivores, the presence of a dimylid and the dominance of Eumyarion, the Gördes assemblage presumably represents a closed, humid environment.

New carnivoran remains from the Late Miocene of Turkey

A great number of carnivoran remains from various late Miocene localities of Turkey, housed in the Natural History Museum of Aegean University, Bornova-Izmir, are described and compared with those from Eurasian localities for their determination. Thirteen different taxa were determined and some of them are recognized for the first time in Turkey or in their localities. Noteworthy is the presence of Dinocrocuta gigantea, which was recognized for the first time in Turkey, found in the early Vallesian locality Bayraktepe II, and the presence of the otter Sivaonyx hessicus which is a rare taxon in Eurasia, known from Eppelsheim, Germany and from Küçükçekmece and Bayraktepe II, Turkey. The hyaenid Adcrocuta cf. eximia was recognized for the first time in the Vallesian of Middle Sinap. The new determined carnivoran taxa provided some biochronological information which helps to date the localities or confirm their age.KurzfassungEine Vielzahl von Carnivoren-Resten aus unterschiedlichen miozänen Lokalitäten der Türkei, aufbewahrt im Naturhistorischen Museum der Aegan-Universität in Bornova-Izmir, werden beschrieben und mit denen eurasischer Lokalitäten zur Bestimmung verglichen. 13 verschiedene Taxa werden bestimmt und einige davon können dabei erstmalig in der Türkei oder innerhalb der Lokalitäten nachgewiesen werden. Beachtenswert ist das Vorkommen von Dinocrocuta gigantea (aufgefunden in der früh-vallesischen Lokalität Bayraktepe II), das somit erstmalig in der Türkei nachgewiesen wurde. Ebenso besonders ist das Auftreten des Otters Sivaonyx hessicus – ein seltenes Taxon aus Eurasien, bekannt aus Eppelsheim (Deutschland) wie auch aus Küçükçekmece und Bayraktepe II (Türkei). Die Hyäne Adcrocuta cf. eximia konnte zum ersten Mal im Vallesium der mittleren Sinap-Region nachgewiesen werden. Die neu beschriebenen Carnivoren-Taxa lieferten einige biochronologische Informationen, die hilfreich zur Datierung der Lokalitäten waren oder aber deren Alter bestätigten.