The Late Miocene development of faunas and environments in western Eurasia is well known, but the climatic and environmental processes that controlled its details are incompletely understood. Here we map the rise and fall of the classic Pikermian fossil mammal chronofauna between 12 and 4.2 Ma, using genus-level faunal similarity between localities. To directly relate land mammal community evol...

This study presents results from the Community Climate System Model 3 (CCSM3) forced with early to middle Miocene (;20–14 Ma) vegetation, topography, bathymetry, and modern CO2. A decrease in the meridional temperature gradient of 6.58C and an increase in global mean temperature of 1.58C are modeled in comparison with a control simulation forced with modern boundary conditions. Seasonal polewar...

The >>Open Source<< Perspective deals with the spatio-temporal distribution pattern of Miocene hominids and suggests a pan-African perspective on the evolution of bipedalism. The shrinking of the rainforest from the Middle Miocene resulted in a selection pressure that was similar along its wide-stretched margin. The earliest hominids might represent co-existing geographic variants.

Jaws and dentition closely resembling those of the extant tuatara (Sphenodon) are described from the Manuherikia Group (Early Miocene; 19-16 million years ago, Mya) of Central Otago, New Zealand. This material is significant in bridging a gap of nearly 70 million years in the rhynchocephalian fossil record between the Late Pleistocene of New Zealand and the Late Cretaceous of Argentina. It prov...

We present a kinematic model for the Himalayan thrust belt that satisfies structural and metamorphic data and explains recently reported late Miocene–Pliocene geochronologic and thermochronologic ages from rocks in the Main Central thrust zone in central Nepal. At its current exposure level, the Main Central thrust juxtaposes a hanging-wall flat in Greater Himalayan rocks with a footwall flat i...

Jon E. Keeley and Philip W. Rundel US Geological Survey, Western Ecological Research Center, Sequoia-Kings Canyon Field Station, Three Rivers, CA 93271, USA Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1606, USA Center for Embedded Networked Sensing, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1606, USA *Correspondence: E-mail: jon_keeley@u...

To constrain the timing of rifting in the western, eastern, and northern parts of the Alboran Sea basin, seismic reflectors, corresponding to biostratigraphic boundaries and unconformities from the Miocene to Recent, are correlated using synthetic seismograms. Regions of adjacent coeval compression and extension are found in the Alboran Sea basin. Normal faulting continues in parts of the easte...

T h e fossil remains which will be described below are of exceptional interest for two reasons: ( I ) they are the first ant fossils to be reported from Africa south of the Sahara and (2) they comprise what appears to be a fragment of a colony preserved as a unit, thus constituting the first fossil insect colony ever recorded. From the sample we have been able to make measurements of the worker...

The status of Miocene ramamorphs has been the cause of continuous debate sine the early 19OOs. Both cladistic and molecular data has been applied to answer some of the questions that arise. However, both approaches present problems. A discussion of taxonomic nomenclature, cladistic and molecular data pertaining to middle to late Miocene ramamorphs, and six possible phyletic affinities are prese...

In this study, four well-exposed outcrops of the Asmari Fm in the southeastern part of the Izeh Zone of the Zagros Mountains were measured and sampled. In this region, the Asmari Fm is Oligocene to Early Miocene in age as determined by large benthic foraminifera. Based on depositional geometries, biogenic contents and lateral and vertical variations of facies, three depositional models are prop...