BACKGROUND Mammalian fossils from the Eppelsheim Formation (Dinotheriensande) have been a benchmark for Neogene vertebrate palaeontology since 200 years. Worldwide famous sites like Eppelsheim serve as key localities for biochronologic, palaeobiologic, environmental, and mammal community studies. So far the formation is considered to be of early Late Miocene age (~9.5 Ma, Vallesian), representi...

1 Department of Geography, Harran University, 63300 Şanlıurfa, Turkey 2 Isotope Geosciences Laboratory, Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307, USA 3 Department of Geology, Çukurova University, 01330 Adana, Turkey 4 Faculty of Mathematics and Computing, The Open University, Eldon House, Gosforth, Newcastle-upon-T...

Three independent methods: paleomagnetic investigation, analysis of reflection seismic sections and structural study of outcrops have been applied to MesozoicTertiary rocks of the Mecsek and Villány Mts (SW Hungary), which form inselbergs in the southern part of the Pannonian Basin. The structural history is marked by Late OligoceneEarly Miocene NW-SE shortening (in present cooridinates); late ...

Global and regional environmental changes have influenced the evolutionary processes of hominoid primates, particularly during the Miocene. Recently, a new Lufengpithecus cf. lufengensis hominoid fossil with a late Miocene age of ~6.2 Ma was discovered in the Shuitangba (STB) section of the Zhaotong Basin in Yunnan on the southeast margin of the Tibetan Plateau. To understand the relationship b...

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...

Progressive changes are observed in both the composition of mammal faunas and vegetation during the Miocene epoch [24-5 mega-annum (Ma)]. These changes are usually interpreted as a response to climatic changes. In the traditional view, forests or woodlands gradually gave way to more open habitats, with grazing (grass-eating) ungulate (hoofed) mammal species replacing the browsing (leafy-vegetat...

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...

The Sungun  copper  porphyry deposit is hosted by a Tertiary magmatic complex in  the  Azarbayjan province , northwestern Iran. The  Sungan mine  in its southern and eastern parts is limited  by early Miocene volcanic and by Late Cretaceous limestone rocks in northern and eastern parts respectively . The Sungun  deposit is associated with a suite of porphyritic granitoids and late dikes intrudi...

Although the permanently to seasonally ice-covered Arctic Ocean is a unique and sensitive component in the Earth's climate system, the knowledge of its long-term climate history remains very limited due to the restricted number of pre-Quaternary sedimentary records. During Polarstern Expedition PS87/2014, we discovered multiple submarine landslides along Lomonosov Ridge. Removal of younger sedi...

Dental microwear of Late Miocene artiodactyls from Afghanistan can yield information on paleodiet and thus inferences can be drawn about their paleoenvironment. The ‘‘Molayan’’ locality lies at the border between the Greek–Iranian and Siwalik bioprovinces. Knowledge of the paleoenvironment will further our understanding of the faunal exchanges between these two provinces during the Late Miocene...