The myth of the Messinian Dardanelles: Late Miocene stratigraphy and palaeogeography of the ancient Aegean-Black Sea gateway

Krijgsman, Wout; Stoica, Marius; Hoyle, Thomas M.; Jorissen, Elisabeth L.; Lazarev, Sergei; Rausch, Lea; Bista, Diksha; Alçiçek, Mehmet Cihat; Ilgar, Ayhan; Ostende, Lars W. van den Hoek; Mayda, Serdar; Raffi, Isabella; Flecker, Rachel; Mandić, Oleg; Neubauer, Thomas; Wesselingh, Frank P.

doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2020.110033

Cited by 9 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 74 publications

(62 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…nov. and N. karkabounasi is 0.135 ± 0.015 substitutions per 100 nucleotides (about 13%), showing the average divergence time for about 5.4 Mya (95% HPD: 17.53-2.61). Such divergence time is probably correlated with the disappearing (drying out) of the late Euxinian Basin of the Eastern Paratethys during the Messinian Crisis (5.96-5.33 Mya), which connected the regions of Greece and the modern mouth of the Don River [57][58][59]78,79]. There is also an undescribed species from a captured spring northeast of Arkadi Monastery, Arkadi, Crete, Greece, closely related to N. karkabounasi, which is known by molecular genetic data [73,74] (see Figure 1).…”

Section: Phylogenetic Approach Of Newly Discovered Species Of the Gen...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Insights on the Existence of Ancient Glacial Refugee in the Northern Black/Azov Sea Lowland, with the Description of the First Stygobiotic Microcrustacean Species of the Genus Niphargus Schiödte, 1849 from the Mouth of the Don River

Marín

Palatov

2023

Diversity

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A new species of the genus Niphargus Schiödte, 1849 (Crustacea: Amphipoda: Niphargidae), co-existing with other stygobiotic amphipods, Diasynurella kiwi Marin and Palatov, 2023 and Pontonyx donensis (Martynov, 1919) (Crangonyctidae), is described from a small spring on a shore of Kiziterinka River in Rostov-on-Don City in the mouth of the Don River. Two of the three species in the studied spring, D. kiwi and the discovered Niphargus, belong to microcrustaceans not exceeding the total body size of 3 mm. The new species, Niphargus rostovi sp. nov., represents one of the smallest species within the genus and is mostly related to the Greek Niphargus karkabounasi Ntakis, Anastasiadou, Zakšek and Fišer, 2015, which is also not reaching the body size of 3 mm. One more related undescribed species is found on the Crete Island by the molecular genetic data. These species represent a separate phylogenetic lineage within the “carpathicus” species complex, which diverged from the congeners in the Late Miocene for more than 10 Mya. At the same time, the speciation within the ingroup started about 5–6 Mya, obviously correlating with the drainage of the Euxinian basin of the Eastern Paratethys, connecting the lower Don and southern Greece areas. Niphargus potamophilus Birštein, 1954 is also first recorded from the mouth of the Belbek River in the Crimean Peninsula, closing the known area from the Kuban River delta to Rostov-on-Don area and further along the western coast of the Black Sea to Bulgaria. Analysis of the recent records of long-time lineages of endemic/subterranean/stygobiotic animals unable to disperse for long distances assumed that glacial refugium existed at the mouth of the Don River, along with the South Caucasus (Colchis) and the southern Caspian (Hyrcania), where many species have survived several periods of glaciation since the late Miocene.

show abstract

Section: Phylogenetic Approach Of Newly Discovered Species Of the Gen...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Insights on the Existence of Ancient Glacial Refugee in the Northern Black/Azov Sea Lowland, with the Description of the First Stygobiotic Microcrustacean Species of the Genus Niphargus Schiödte, 1849 from the Mouth of the Don River

Marín

Palatov

2023

Diversity

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The interpretation of these nannofossil assemblages in the westernmost areas of the Mediterranean has been countered with several observations: (1) the observation of these age-diagnostic taxa is often not replicated by other studies (e.g. Roveri et al, 2008a;Van Baak et al, 2015;Krijgsman et al, 2020b); (2) C. acutus is very rare also in fully marine open-ocean sediments (e.g. Di Stefano and Sturiale, 2010); (3) despite being rare in the late Messinian Mediterranean, this species has never been documented together with other long-range taxa, generally predominant in the assemblage, in Stage 3 deposits (see discussion in Krijgsman et al, 2020b).…”

Section: Calcareous Nannofossils and The C Acutus Conundrummentioning

confidence: 89%

“…Roveri et al, 2008a;Van Baak et al, 2015;Krijgsman et al, 2020b); (2) C. acutus is very rare also in fully marine open-ocean sediments (e.g. Di Stefano and Sturiale, 2010); (3) despite being rare in the late Messinian Mediterranean, this species has never been documented together with other long-range taxa, generally predominant in the assemblage, in Stage 3 deposits (see discussion in Krijgsman et al, 2020b). Recently, Golovina et al (2019) showed that the morphology and size of C. acutus overlaps with the shape and dimensions of destroyed ascidian spicules (i.e.…”

Section: Calcareous Nannofossils and The C Acutus Conundrummentioning

confidence: 99%

Birth, evolution and demise of the Mediterranean Lago-Mare

Andreetto¹

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Mediterranean Sea is a large sea almost completely enclosed by Europe, Africa, and SW Asia. Today, the continuous flow of Atlantic seawater through the Strait of Gibraltar balances the net water loss due to the excess of evaporation over input from rain and rivers and keeps the Mediterranean a marine basin with the water level equal to the global ocean level. In the late Miocene, the input of Atlantic seawater was through shallow gateways in southern Spain and northern Morocco. The exhumation of the Betic and Rif Cordilleras and orbitally-controlled regional climate change contributed to the step-by-step close these marine gateways and transformed the Mediterranean into an inhospitable evaporitic sea, starting at 5.96±0.02 Ma. The environmental and hydrological crisis that followed, known as the Messinian Salinity Crisis, peaked at ~5.55 Ma, when a 1.5-2 km-thick salt layer precipitated on the sea floor, and terminated at ~5.332 Ma, when normal marine conditions were re-established, perhaps as a consequence of catastrophic flooding at Gibraltar. The transitional interval from the giant salina to Mediterranean Sea that resembles what we know today is known as the Lago-Mare phase. Gypsum and brackish water biota from the Central Paratethys (approximately coinciding with the present-day Hungary-Slovenia) are both characteristic of Lago-Mare successions. This sedimentary and paleontological evidence suggest that the Mediterranean, during the Lago-Mare phase, experienced a complex history of inter- and extrabasinal connections, base-level fluctuations and extreme environmental and biological changes. This thesis aims to reconstruct the fiercely debated Mediterranean water level changes and identify the hydrological fluxes responsible for these Lago-Mare environmental and biological turnover events. It focuses on key sections exposed on-land and recovered from deep sea cores along an E-W transect across the Mediterranean with a multi-disciplinary approach that integrates biocyclostratigraphic analyses with high-resolution Sr-isotope ratios. The new data show that the Lago-Mare phase was a far more dynamic period of the Mediterranean history than previously thought. Large areas of the Mediterranean were occupied by an anomalohaline water mass predominantly formed by low-salinity waters from the Eastern Paratethys (i.e. the present-day Black-Caspian seas) and from the larger circum-Mediterranean rivers such as the Nile, the Rhône and currently dried North-African rivers. A small and possibly episodic Atlantic flux was a minor contributor. The regular variability of the Mediterranean’s freshwater budget with the astronomic precession combined with fluctuating Atlantic inflow and negligible outflow resulted in a Mediterranean base level that oscillated dramatically, but consistently below eustatic sea level. These precession-paced fluctuations caused the low-salinity Paratethyan biota to colonize the marginal areas of the Mediterranean at times of high base level and central areas during phases of low base level, gypsum to precipitate only in the deeper basins during the regressive phases and silled regions such as the Adriatic and the North Aegean to exist for long as some of the largest endorheic lakes.

show abstract

“…The connection between Paratethys and Mediterranean is interrupted until Messinian (7.27 when a new gateway opens in the northern Aegean (6.9−6. 1 Ma;Krijgsman et al, 2020). The first persisting marine conditions in the Egemar basin (proto-Marmara and North Aegean), alternating with brackish Paratethyan environments, appear during this time period, with multiple marine influxes (Krijgsman et al, 2020).…”

Section: Relationships With Paratethys: Connectivity Vs Isolationmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…1 Ma;Krijgsman et al, 2020). The first persisting marine conditions in the Egemar basin (proto-Marmara and North Aegean), alternating with brackish Paratethyan environments, appear during this time period, with multiple marine influxes (Krijgsman et al, 2020). The termination of marine conditions is very well documented by a marked paleoenvironmental change to the brackish water environments that correlate to the Maeotian/Pontian local stages boundary (6.…”

Section: Relationships With Paratethys: Connectivity Vs Isolationmentioning

confidence: 96%

Reconstruction of the Paratethys-Mediterranean climatic system during the upper miocene

Butiseaca¹

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This thesis is focusing on the impact of Paratethys and Mediterranean water bodies over the Eurasian climate and the interplay between climate, tectonics and biosphere during the late Miocene. This target was the interval between 12.7 and 7.65 Ma for Paratethys, following the Eastern Paratethys restriction and isolation, and 7.2−6.5 Ma (the early Messinian) in Mediterranean, zooming on the effects of gateway restrictions over the eastern Mediterranean and the new born Aegean domain. In both cases restriction is overlapping with large scale climatic changes and tectonic reconfiguration, leading a sort of symbiotic relationship. Paratethys was a giant epicontinental sea that covered a large part of Eurasia since Paleogene. Due to the Eurasia-Afro-Arabia collision and formation of the Alpine-Himalayan belt (Rögl, 1999; Popov et al., 2006), the Paratethys was divided during the late Miocene in smaller basins that in time were isolated of each other. The protracted isolation and intense continentalisation of paratethyan realm led to changes in humidity distribution, basin connectivity, sediment sources and salinity. These changes had in turn major consequences over water circulation, water availability, vegetation cover and biota. These changes are more intense after 11.6 Ma, when the Eastern Paratethys lost any sustained marine connection, evolving into an enclosed system with endemic fauna (Harzhauser and Piller, 2007). Mediterranean Sea is a Mezozoic oceanic relic squeezed between Africa, Europe, Anatolia and Arabia, as Africa continued to subduct beneath the European plate. As opposed to Paratethys, it maintained the open connection with the ocean until Messinian, when the two Atlantic gateways (Betic and Rifian corridors) closed for a short time, isolating the basin. The cut off resulted in a dramatic drop down and onset of evaporitic precipitation in marginal basins, the event receiving the name of Messinian Salinity Crisis (5.97−5.55). The restriction affected all marine ecosystems, due to changes in salinity and stratification of water column. The main objectives of this thesis were: (1) build valid paleo-temperatures records for both basins based on biomarkers; (2) reconstruct the hydrology for the late Miocene time interval; (3) identify vegetation composition and changes; (4) identify paleo-fires in the late Miocene sediment records; (5) identify the biotic response to the overall climate and tectonic changes. All the above objectives were attained with results published in specific journals (Chapters 5−7). Based on Panagia section (Taman Peninsula, Russia) the longest Paratethys temperature record was completed (~5 Myr), covering the interval between 12.7 and 7.65 Ma. A comprehensive SST and MAT records was obtained, as well as soil pH and carbon (δ13C) and hydrogen (δ2H) stable isotopic compositions on n-alkanes and alkenones. The main findings are concentrated around three prolonged periods with severe droughts affecting the late Miocene circum-Paratethys region peaking at 9.65, 9.4 and 7.9 Ma, associated with a transition towards open land vegetation, intensification of fire activity and enhanced evaporation and aridity. The time intervals with dryer conditions recorded in Panagia coincide with periods of mammal turnover and dispersal in Eurasia indicating that major environmental changes occurred in the circum-Paratethys region and Paratethys fragmentation had a great impact on the terrestrial ecosystems, when periods of prolonged droughts generated biotic crises and animal displacements across the Eurasian continent. The δ13CC29n-alkane values and charcoal morphologies from Panagia indicate an increased contribution of C4 plants adapted to drier conditions at 9.66 Ma. Similarly high δ13CC29n-alkane values continue until 9.4 Ma, when in Western Europe increased seasonality accelerated the demise of the evergreen subtropical woodlands and expansion of grasslands from Anatolia and Middle East to Europe. As a result of basin fragmentation and climatic stress, the Eastern Paratethys sub-basins progressively lost their marine properties and turned into brackish-fresh water bodies fed primarily by riverine input. The shallower areas became in time emerged, obstructing connections and isolating the biota, inducing rapid adjusting or extinctions. Thus, the Paratethys harbored a highly endemic fauna (Rögl, 1999), such as dwarf whales, dolphins, seals (among mammals), as well as fish and other taxa (mollusks, ostracods, diatoms, foraminifera, algae, etc.). Collectively the data structured and analyzed in chapter five support a model in which the Eastern Paratethys evolved as a largely (en)closed system, registering paleoenvironmental signals that are governed by interbasinal connectivity (or lack of it) and regional climate changes in the basin catchment. Acting as an important source of humidity for Western and Central Asia, the size and areal extent of the Paratethys water body is likely to have had a major impact on hydroclimate patterns in the Eurasian interior, with the cumulative fluctuations in both hydrology and surface temperature enhancing the aridity and seasonality, with different partition of moisture over the year. Our combined data suggests a decoupling of Paratethys from the global system as isolation advanced, dominated by regional tectonics and ultimately the Paratethys volume and areal extent reduction.

show abstract

The myth of the Messinian Dardanelles: Late Miocene stratigraphy and palaeogeography of the ancient Aegean-Black Sea gateway

Cited by 9 publications

References 74 publications

Insights on the Existence of Ancient Glacial Refugee in the Northern Black/Azov Sea Lowland, with the Description of the First Stygobiotic Microcrustacean Species of the Genus Niphargus Schiödte, 1849 from the Mouth of the Don River

Insights on the Existence of Ancient Glacial Refugee in the Northern Black/Azov Sea Lowland, with the Description of the First Stygobiotic Microcrustacean Species of the Genus Niphargus Schiödte, 1849 from the Mouth of the Don River

Birth, evolution and demise of the Mediterranean Lago-Mare

Reconstruction of the Paratethys-Mediterranean climatic system during the upper miocene

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About