The Maragheh hipparions, late Miocene of Azarbaijan, Iran

Abstract

Morphological analyses of hipparionine astragali, calcaneum, third phalanx and metapodials from the late Miocene locality of Maragheh, Iran, was carried out using bivariate plots and log10 ratio diagrams. The results, together with previous studies on cranial and dental material, have allowed us to characterise and define the following equid species in the Maragheh assemblage: Hipparion gettyi, aff. Hippotherium brachypus, Cremohipparion aff. moldavicum, Cremohipparion matthewi and Hipparion campbelli. These species are arrayed in three successive biostratigraphic intervals: H. gettyi, late Vallesian Lower Maragheh horizon; aff. H. brachypus and Cr. aff. moldavicum, early Turolian Middle Maragheh levels; and H. campbelli, late early Turolian Upper Maragheh interval. The small hipparion, Cr. matthewi, would appear to range throughout all biostratigraphic intervals of Maragheh. The proposed taxonomic and biostratigraphic resolution here is slightly different from previous studies especially in the recognition of aff. H. brachypus instead of Hipparion prostylum. The Maragheh hipparion assemblages are well correlated to those from Turkey, Greece, the Balkans and Black Sea region and are clearly different from those of Central and Western Europe, central Asia, China and Africa. Maragheh Cremohipparion is related to species of Cremohipparion from Greece, China and the Siwaliks. A clear niche differentiation based on palaeodiet studies has been revealed in Maragheh hipparions, indicative of different environmental adaptations amongst these species.

Assessment of dental ontogeny in late Miocene hipparionines from the Lamagou fauna of Fugu, Shaanxi Province, China

“…Liu [ 20 ] studied new materials of H . chiai collected from Lantian, Shaanxi in terms of morphology and phylogeny, and treated Hippotherium as a genus for classic taxonomic, which is consistent with the mainstream views in the west [ 21 – 24 ]. However, for consistency and completeness of the regional researches, Hippotherium remains a subgenus as the previous literatures [ 5 , 12 – 14 , 16 – 18 ] in this study.…”

New insights on the Early Pleistocene equids from Roca-Neyra (France, central Europe): implications for theHipparionLAD and theEquusFAD in Europe

“…moldavicum, the sister-taxon of C . mediterraneum (Bernor et al, 2016).

Figure 6.Log10 Ratio diagrams analysis for third metacarpal ( Hippotherium primigenium from Höwenwgg, Germany used as standard; Bernor et al, 1997), comparing a suite of Miocene, Pliocene and Early Pleistocene hipparions ( 1–4 ).

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“…Eisenmann (1995), Bernor and Harris (2003), Bernor et al (2003, 2005, 2016, 2018a, b, 2019), Bernor and Sen (2017), Sun et al (2018), and Cirilli et al (2020, in press) have used Log10 ratio diagrams on postcranial elements to evaluate differences between selected species of “ Hipparion ” and Equus species and their evolutionary trends. We follow these authors in our analyses of third metapodials and for lower dentitions in the Equus sample.…”

“…The fossiliferous levels are considered penecontemporaneous with the debris avalanches that fossilized the sedimentary sequence of the Perrier Plateau (Nomade et al, 2014) and the Roca-Neyra fossil locality is constrained within the first two debris avalanches of the Perrier Plateau area. The Roca-Neyra equid assemblage was previously reported by Stehlin (1904), who highlighted the presence of an “ Hipparion ” (not demonstrably of the genus Hipparion s.s., Woodburne and Bernor, 1980; Bernor et al, 1996, 2016) in the faunal assemblage. Later, the equid assemblage was discussed by several authors, many of whom challenged the presence of “ Hipparion ” and Equus (Schaub, 1944; Bout, 1960; Kurten, 1963; Radulescu and Samson, 1967).…”

Denizli Havzası (GB Anadolu) Neojen istifinde ilk Turoliyen bulgusu ve bölgesel paleobiyocoğrafik önemi

“…To date, these findings are known in the localities of Kemiklitepe-A (Late Miocene, MN11) (Koufos and Kostopoulos, 1994), Akkaşdağı (Late Miocene, MN12) (Koufos and Vlachou 2005), Şerefköy-2 (Late Miocene, MN12) (Kaya et al 2012) and Sivas-Hafik (Late Miocene, MN12) (Akgün et al, 2000) (Figure 8). The species is also present in the late Miocene localities of Greece (Samos, Pikermi) (Koufos and Vlachou, 2005;Vlachou and Koufos, 2009), Bulgaria (Hadjidimovo, Kalimanci) (Hristova et al, 2003) and Iran (Maragha) (Bernor et al, 2016). The relatively short and coarse metapodials suggest that this species was adapted to living in more confined paleoenvironments (Koufos and Vlachou, 2005;Vlachou and Koufos, 2009).…”