Early Miocene herpetofaunas from the Greek localities of Aliveri and Karydia – bridging a gap in the knowledge of amphibians and reptiles from the early Neogene of southeastern Europe

Georgalis, Georgios L.; Villa, Andrea; Ivanov, Martin; Roussiakis, Socrates; Skandalos, Panagiotis; Delfino, Massimo

doi:10.1080/08912963.2017.1417404

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Journal article

Early Miocene herpetofaunas from the Greek localities of Aliveri and Karydia – bridging a gap in the knowledge of amphibians and reptiles from the early Neogene of southeastern Europe

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
Ivanov, Martin Faculty of Science, Department of Geological Sciences, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
Roussiakis, Socrates Faculty of Geology and Geoenvironment, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
Skandalos, Panagiotis Faculty of Geology and Geoenvironment, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
Delfino, Massimo Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Torino, Italy - Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

14.09.2019

Published in:

Historical Biology. - 2019, vol. 31, no. 8, p. 1045–1064

English We here describe new remains of amphibians and reptiles from the early Miocene (MN 4) of two different Greek localities, Aliveri and Karydia. The newly described material consists of urodelans, alytids, indeterminate anurans, turtles, crocodylians, lacertids, indeterminate scincomorphs, anguids, colubrids, viperids, and indeterminate snakes. The presence of the frog Latonia cf. gigantea in Greece is documented for the first time. Additionally, the presence of viperids in Aliveri implies a much wider distribution for these snakes during the early Miocene of Europe. Of special interest is the presence of a peculiar colubrid that seems to possess a hitherto unknown vertebral structure, which is herein defined as the ‘paracentral ridge’. Although incomplete, the new material has important taxonomic and biogeographic implications, as it enhances our understanding of southeastern European herpetofaunas from the early Miocene, a time period that was characterised by major dispersal and extinction events and climatic change that affected the whole continent.

Faculty

Faculté des sciences et de médecine

Department

Département de Géosciences

Language