Updated Early Miocene biochronology of Anatolia
Conference paper > Summary Text · 2022
Authors: Melike Bilgin, Peter Joniak, Serdar MAYDA, Pablo Peláez-Campomanes, Fikret Göktaş, Lars W. van den Hoek Ostende
NOW 25th Anniversary Meeting, Spain, Barcelona, International, Verbal, Summary Text, 2022-2022, pp 20-21
Summary
<p>Fossil small mammals, especially rodents, are known as a very useful tool for dating terrestrial sediments,</p><p>biogeographical studies, and paleoenvironmental reconstructions. Anatolia, the Asian part of Turkey, is rich</p><p>in small mammal localities, including many fossils from the Early Miocene. During that time period, Anatolia</p><p>formed, with the Balkans, a bioprovince separated from western Europe, leading to correlation problems</p><p>between the two areas. Therefore, creating a local zonation system was an important step to monitor faunal</p><p>development in the region.</p><p>Ünay et al. (2003) constructed a preliminary zonation system of the Anatolian Neogene based on Muroidea,</p><p>which are the best stratigraphic markers because of their rich and continuous record. This allowed them</p><p>to provide accurate relative age estimates based on changes in the Anatolian rodent assemblages. For the</p><p>correlation with the Mammal Neogene (MN) system, Ünay et al. (2003) took a straightforward approach,</p><p>correlating the regional zones almost completely one on one to the MN units (Zone B = MN 1, Zone C = MN</p><p>2, etc.). However, MN units, as well as Anatolian local zones are biochronologic systems that are based on</p><p>faunal content. As such, they can be diachronous in time, as has been shown for the MN system based on</p><p>late Early and Middle Miocene sections in Western Europe (Van der Meulen et al., 2011).</p><p>Since 2003, several new localities have been discovered. A taxonomic description of the small mammal faunas</p><p>of the new localities allows us to present an updated biostratigraphy and chronology of the Early Miocene</p><p>of Anatolia. The new studies in the area focus on the correlation with the time scale using old radiometric</p><p>and magnetostratigraphic studies (Krijgsman et al., 1996) combined with the new data from Gökler section,</p><p>Belenyenice section, and Beydere 3 locality (Lüdecke et al., 2013; Bilgin et al., 2022). This implies that, if</p><p>we follow the correlation to the MN units by Ünay et al. (2003), these units are clearly diachronic. This is in</p><p>line with earlier studies, such as the assessment that the MN4 locality of Aliveri should be dated between</p><p>17.5 and 18 Ma.</p>