Magnetostratigraphy and paleoecology of the hominid-bearing locality Çorakyerler, Tuglu Formation (Çankiri Basin, Central Anatolia)

Abstract

Ouranopithecus turkae, from the late Miocene ofÇorakyerler in Central Anatolia, is considered one of the last known occurrences of great ape in the eastern Mediterranean. TheÇorakyerler fauna has previously been correlated with MN 11 to early MN 12 on the basis of biochronology, and its faunal composition has been found to contrast with those from contemporaneous sites. In this paper, we present the magnetostratigraphy of theÇorakyerler site and an expanded interpretation of its paleobiogeographical and paleoecological contexts. The paleomagnetic results reveal two intervals of normal polarity and an intervening interval of reversed polarity in the main fossiliferous section. Of the three likely age correlations spanning 8.13-7.15 Ma (MN 11-MN 12), we favor correlation with chron 4n, with a possible age range of the fossiliferous deposit between 8.11 and 7.64 Ma (late MN 11). The geographic distribution of genus-level faunal similarity and mean hypsodonty show thatÇorakyerler is a typical representative of the Pikermian chronofauna with a wide range of faunal similarity, including late Miocene localities from the eastern Mediterranean, eastern Asia, and eastern Africa. Lithological and sedimentological characteristics of the fossiliferous horizon, however, indicate a lacustrine depositional environment and relatively humid local conditions within the more arid regional context. This special setting could explain the unexpected occurrence of a hominid primate atÇorakyerler.

The rise and fall of the Old World savannah fauna and the origins of the African savannah biome

“…long given rise to several (competing) biogeographic and phylogenetic hypotheses, particularly in the primate literature, including "Out of Europe/Back to Africa", "Intra-African", "filter", and "stepping stone" scenarios (38)(39)(40)(41)(42)(43). While dispersal scenarios might be invoked among biomes with disjunct distributions, our results indicate that the OWSP should be viewed as a single cohesive paleobiome, in which faunas evolved together.…”

The nature of the Old World savannah palaeobiome

“…These localities have all been previously identified as representatives of woodlanddominated or mixed woodland-grassland ecosystems [8][9][10][11] through methods independent of mean ordinated hypsodonty. The evidence includes microwear, mesowear, stable isotope, phytolith, sedimentological and that from functional morphological approaches, and covers Late Miocene sites from Turkey, Hungary, Bulgaria, Greece, Iran and China [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] . The critique by Denk et al of our interpretations therefore stands against an extensive multiproxy literature that repeatedly confirms the dominance of woodland and grassy woodland environments across a wide swath of Eurasia and Africa during the late Miocene.…”

New Material of the Hominoid Ouranopithecus macedoniensis from the Late Miocene of the Axios Valley (Macedonia, Greece) with Some Remarks on Its Sexual Dimorphism

“…The hominoid O. turkae is known from the Turkish locality Çorakyerler correlated to the early Turolian, MN 11 [Güleç et al, 2007;Kaya et al, 2016]. The main differences from O. macedoniensis are the presence of a honing facet in the P 3 , the presence of cingulum in the molars [Güleç et al, 2007] and the larger size ( fig.…”