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Journal article

Fossil lizards and snakes from Ano Metochi – a diverse squamate fauna from the latest Miocene of northern Greece

  • Georgalis, Georgios L. Department of Geosciences, University of Fribourg, Switzerland - Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Torino, Italy
  • Villa, Andrea Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Torino, Italy
  • Delfino, Massimo Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Torino, Italy - Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain
    18.08.2017
Published in:
  • Historical Biology. - 2017, vol. 29, no. 6, p. 730–742
Squamata
Miocene
Extinction
Taxonomy
Biogeography
English We here describe a new squamate fauna from the late Miocene (Messinian, MN 13) of Ano Metochi, northern Greece. The lizard fauna of Ano Metochi is here shown to be rather diverse, consisting of lacertids, anguids, and potential cordylids, while snakes are also abundant, consisting of scolecophidians, natricines and at least two different colubrines. If our identification is correct, the Ano Metochi cordylids are the first ones identified from Greece and they are also the youngest representatives of this group in Europe. A previously described scincoid from the adjacent locality of Maramena is here tentatively also referred to cordylids, strengthening a long term survival of this group until at least the latest Miocene. The scolecophidian from Ano Metochi cannot be attributed with certainty to either typhlopids or leptotyphlopids, which still inhabit the Mediterranean region. The find nevertheless adds further to the poor fossil record of these snakes. Comparison of the Ano Metochi herpetofauna with that of the adjacent locality of Maramena reveals similarities, but also striking differences among their squamate compositions.
Faculty
Faculté des sciences et de médecine
Department
Département de Géosciences
Language
  • English
Classification
Palaeontology
License
License undefined
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/306185
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