Ericek, a new Pliocene vertebrate locality in the Çameli Basin (southwestern Anatolia, Turkey)

Abstract

The Çameli Basin in southwestern Anatolia preserves a sequence of fossiliferous sediments that record the Pliocene and early Pleistocene faunal development in the area. Here, we present the fauna of Ericek, a locality near the bottom of the sequence. The locality is rich in fish remains, particularly pharyngeal teeth of the cyprinids Barbus, Carassius and Capoeta, but also includes rare tooth-bearing bones of a possible cobitid and gobiid. The abundant fish remains agree with the geological interpretation that the Ericek sediments were deposited in a palaeolake. That interpretation is further supported by the abundance of mollusc fossils. The gastropod fauna is dominated by Pseudamnicola, Valvata and other freshwater prosobranch taxa. The dominance of prosobranch taxa over freshwater pulmonate species indicates a welloxygenated lake environment. A range of aquatic, swamp and terrestrial tetrapod taxa are also represented. The amphibian fauna, documented mainly by anuran skull and postcranial bones and by a single salamander jaw, is consistent with a lacustrine setting for Ericek. Notable among the amphibian fossils are two jaws that may document the second record of palaeobatrachid frogs from Anatolia. Reptiles are represented by a few, incomplete vertebrae of colubroid and indeterminate snakes. Micromammal molars suggest the presence of a forested environment surrounding the palaeolake. Muridae are represented by three species, of which Apodemus cf. dominans is the most abundant. The shrew Asoriculus is the second most abundant species, which argues for a humid palaeoenvironment. The co-occurrences of the vole This article is a contribution to the special issue BOld worlds, new ideas. A tribute to Albert van der Meulen*

Reconciling the stratigraphy and depositional history of the Lycian orogen-top basins, SW Anatolia

“…In the basin centre, these tripartite facies grade into each other and reach up to 500 m in thickness. The age of the basin-fill was determined to be Turolian to Villanyian based on the mammal fauna and radiometric dating (Şenel 1997a, b, c;Alçiçek et al 2005;Van den Hoek Ostende et al 2015a, 2015bElitez et al 2017). The biostratigraphical studies by Van den Hoek Ostende et al (2015a, b) have contributed to accurately define the timing of major changes in the sedimentation mode within the basin.…”

A multiproxy study of the early Pleistocene palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic conditions of an anastomosed fluvial sequence from the Çameli Basin (SW Anatolia, Turkey)

“…The Lycian hinterland contains a series of late Miocene-early Pleistocene aged NE-SW oriented extensional basins including Çal, Sandıklı, Karacasu, Yatağan, Baklan, Acıgöl, Burdur, Çameli and Eşen basins (Cihan et al, 2003;Alçiçek et al, 2005Alçiçek et al, , 2006Alçiçek, 2007;Alçiçek and Ten Veen, 2008;Ten Veen et al, 2009;Alçiçek et al, 2012;Kaya et al, 2012;Alçiçek and Jiménez-Moreno, 2013;Helvacı et al, 2013;Alçiçek et al, 2013aAlçiçek et al, , 2013bSulpizio et al, 2013;Alçiçek and Alçiçek, 2014;Van den Hoek Ostende, 2015a, 2015bJiménez-Moreno et al, 2015Alçiçek, 2015;Alçiçek et al, 2015;Alçiçek et al, 2016). These late Miocene-early Pleistocene aged sub-parallel graben-type depressions are considered as "orogen-top basins" with a synchronic tripartite fill of alluvial, fluvial and lacustrine depositional settings (Alçiçek, 2007;Alçiçek et al, 2015;Alçiçek et al, 2016).…”

“…The age of basin-fill succession has been well articulated as late Miocene (mammal units MN9-12; Vallesian-Turolian chronozones) to early Pleistocene (mammal unit MN17; latest Villanyian chronozone) based on terrestrial macro-and micro-mammal associations (Şenel, 1997a, 1997b, 1997cAlçiçek, 2001;Saraç, 2003;Alçiçek et al, 2005;Akdeniz, 2011;Van den Hoek Ostende et al, 2015a, 2015b.…”

“…et al, 1995Saraç, 2003;Demirel and Mayda, 2014;Van den Hoek Ostende et al, 2015a, 2015bJiménez-Moreno et al, 2015). This record allows us to assess the evolutionary and ecological responses of fauna and flora to habitat and climate change over millions of years, providing a better understanding of the drivers of biotic change from the ecological to the evolutionary scales including ecosystem processes (Van Dam et al, 2006).…”

“…The tectonic development and palaeogeographic evolution of the basin were introduced by Alçiçek (2001) and Alçiçek et al (2005Alçiçek et al ( , 2006. The first detailed study on the fossil faunal and floral assemblages of the Bıçakçı succession has been done by Van den Hoek Ostende et al (2015a, 2015b and Jiménez-Moreno et al (2015). However, an integrated approach including combining sedimentology, floral and faunal evidence as well as stable isotope geochemistry is hitherto lacking.…”