Neogene vegetation changes in West European and West circum-Mediterranean areas

Suc, Jean‐Pierre; Fauquette, Séverine; Bessedik, Mostefa; Bertini, Adèle; Zheng, Zhuo; Clauzon, Georges; Subally, Danica; Diniz, Filomena; Quézel, Pierre; Feddi, Najat; Clet, Martine; Bessais, E.; Taoufiq, Naïma Bachiri; Méon, Henriette; Combourieu-Nebout, Nathalie

doi:10.1017/cbo9780511542329.018

Cited by 43 publications

(32 citation statements)

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“…The pattern of the fossil record of plants (KovarEder et al, 1996(KovarEder et al, , 2008Suc et al, 1999) and especially reefbuilding z-corals (Esteban, 1996;Rosen, 1999), suggests that eastern Mediterranean Europe (and especially the north Tyrrhenian area) was an area where warmer and possibly wetter conditions persisted longer than elsewhere in Europe. It has already been stressed that these conditions in Tyrrhenian insular environments made possible the maintenance of suitable habitats that influenced the survival/extinction of peculiar taxa (Rook et al, 2000).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Late MioceneMauremys(Testudines, Geoemydidae) from Tuscany (Italy): Evidence of terrapin persistence after a mammal turnover

2009

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ABSTRACT-The occurrence of freshwater turtle remains in the late Miocene lignites of southern Tuscany (Montebamboli and Casteani, Italy) has been known since the nineteenth century. Three chelonian species were recognized by Ristori in 1891: Emys depressa, E. campanii, and E. parva. Revision of their type material, together with the study of new fossils from a different but correlated locality, Pian Calcinaio (Scansano), allows one to state that they can be referred to the genus Mauremys and that they belong to one single species. The new combination M. campanii (Ristori, 1891) is here proposed. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that M. campanii is closely related to the modern post-Miocene group of Mauremys species and shows a sister-group relationship with the Plio-Pleistocene M. gaudryi. The remains of M. campanii come from an insular setting which progressively lost its endemic mammal fauna, defined as the Oreopithecus Zone Fauna, enabling us to compare the pattern of survival of the chelonians with that of the mammals. In contrast to the radical turnover suffered by mammals, softshell turtles (Trionyx sp.) and terrapins (M. campanii) are present both in the pre-Messinian V1-V2 and Messinian V3 assemblages. Terrestrial tortoises (Testudo amiatae Pantanelli, 1893, Testudo s.l.) show a different pattern, because they appear only in the V3 assemblage, possibly because they apparently dispersed into Italy as recently as the Messinian. M. campanii represents the southernmost evidence of the genus Mauremys in the uppermost Miocene of Europe, filling a gap in the palaeogeographic and chronological distribution of this genus.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Late MioceneMauremys(Testudines, Geoemydidae) from Tuscany (Italy): Evidence of terrapin persistence after a mammal turnover

2009

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“…The species richness at the paleontological sites Cova Bonica, Avenc Marcel, and Canal Negre-1 and the results of the pollen analyses (Suc and Cravatte, 1982;Suc et al, 1995;Fauquette et al, 1999) point to ecological optima in the Garraf plateau during the Pliocene, a different scenario from the current habitability of this area. Thus, dolines and collapsed cavities under the plateau are a useful record for Quaternary paleoenvironmental studies.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Palaeopalynological studies (Suc and Cravatte, 1982;Suc et al, 1995;Fauquette et al, 1999) emphasize a subtropical climate for the northwestern Mediterranean during the Pliocene, and these environmental conditions could have accelerated karstification.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Karst Evolution of the Garraf Massif (Barcelona, Spain): Doline Formation, Chronology and Archaeo-palaeontological Archives

Daura¹,

Sanz²,

Fornós³

et al. 2014

JCKS

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Karst landscape evolution has been widely studied in recent years on karst plateaus, but the use of dating methods has not usually been possible owing to a lack of data. The intensely karstified Garraf Massif, however, presents large solution dolines and several shafts that contain archaeological and palaentological remains that can be used for determining the chronological framework of the karstification processes. These sites have been dated using various techniques, and the resulting data combined with evidence from previous geomorphological studies. The results allow us to define the pattern and timing of the evolution of karst morphologies in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula. We propose a simple five-stage geomorphological model of the evolution of the Garraf dolines located on the plateau, between the Middle to Upper Miocene and the Holocene. The study also provides important information for analyzing landscape history in high plateaus of karst regions.

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“…4 The necessity to shift the diet to fallback foods, such as from the underground storage organs of plants, has already been postulated to have led to selection advantages during primate evolution. 5,6 We suggest that a genetic mutation in purine metabolism, which occurred during the Middle Miocene, 7 may have conferred a survival advantage under these conditions.…”

Section: Richard J Johnson and Peter Andrewsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fructose, uricase, and the Back‐to‐Africa hypothesis

Johnson

Andrews

2010

Evolutionary Anthropology

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In the Middle Miocene (approximately 17 to 12 Ma) at least two radiations of fossil apes from East Africa into Eurasia occurred, and, while controversial, some paleoanthropological studies suggest that one of the Eurasian lineages may have returned to Africa to evolve into humans and the African apes. Here, we present a novel argument supporting this hypothesis. Specifically, the global cooling that occurred in the middle Miocene rendered hominoids living in Europe at risk for starvation as seasonal climate change resulted in less availability of fruits during the winter months. During this time, a mutation in uricase occurred in early hominids that resulted in a rise in serum uric acid. Uric acid has been found to potentiate the effect of fructose to increase fat stores, suggesting that the mutation provided a survival advantage. Such a survival advantage would have been less likely to occur in Africa, where the continued presence of tropical rainforests would have been more likely to provide food throughout the year. Furthermore, Miocene apes in Europe were in protected sites where geographic isolation could have allowed the uricase mutation to be rapidly expressed in the entire population. While speculative, we suggest that the uricase mutation supports an extra‐Africa origin of humans.

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Neogene vegetation changes in West European and West circum-Mediterranean areas

Cited by 43 publications

References 0 publications

Late MioceneMauremys(Testudines, Geoemydidae) from Tuscany (Italy): Evidence of terrapin persistence after a mammal turnover

Late MioceneMauremys(Testudines, Geoemydidae) from Tuscany (Italy): Evidence of terrapin persistence after a mammal turnover

Karst Evolution of the Garraf Massif (Barcelona, Spain): Doline Formation, Chronology and Archaeo-palaeontological Archives

Fructose, uricase, and the Back‐to‐Africa hypothesis

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