Kardia: Ruscinian, Greece

List of taxa
Where & when
Geology
Taphonomy & methods
Metadata & references
Taxonomic list
Mammalia - Rodentia - Muridae
Apodemus dominans
8 specimens
from sampled lens
Rhagapodemus hautimagnensis
5 specimens
from sampled lens
Occitanomys brailloni Michaux 1969
11 specimens
from sampled lens
Micromys steffensi n. sp. van de Weerd 1979
149 specimens
from sampled lens
Mammalia - Rodentia - Castoridae
Castor fiber Linnaeus 1758
2 specimens
from sampled lens
Mammalia - Cervidae
Cervidae indet. Gray 1821
from other lenses at same level
Mammalia - Suidae
Sus sp. Linnaeus 1758
compressed skull and some footbones from coal layer close to sampled lens.
Mammalia - Talpidae
Desmana sp. Guldenstaedt 1777
211 specimens
from sampled lens
    = Dibolia dekkersi n. sp. Rümke 1985
Rümke 1985
recombined as Archaeodesmana dekkersi
Desmanella sp. Engesser 1972
2 specimens
from sampled lens
Desmana verestchagini Topachevski 1961
Rümke 1985
Reptilia - Testudines
Chelonia indet. (Latreille 1800)
synonym of Testudines
from other lenses at same level
Amphibia - Temnospondyli - Ranidae
Pelophylax ridibundus
Sanchiz 1998
unclassified
Promimomys insuliferus Kowalski 1958
114 specimens
recombined as Polonomys insuliferus
from sampled lens
see common names

Geography
Country:Greece State/province:Macedonia
Coordinates: 40.5° North, 21.7° East (view map)
Paleocoordinates:40.4° North, 21.5° East
Basis of coordinate:based on nearby landmark
Time
Period:Neogene Epoch:Pliocene
10 m.y. bin:Cenozoic 6
Key time interval:Ruscinian
Age range of interval:5.33300 - 3.10000 m.y. ago
Stratigraphy
Local section:Coal containing stage Local bed:Kardia field
Regional section:Amintheon-Ptolemais-Kozani Basin
Stratigraphy comments: Pliocene, Early Ruscinian, MN14. 'The A-P-K basin is part of a graben system running in a NW-SE direction from Bitola (Yugoslavia) to Servia. It is suggested that Quaternary faulting caused the fractioning into the Bitola-Florina, the A-P-K and the Kozani-Servia sub-basins.' The Neogene and Pleistocene deposits have been divided into three series, the Basal Series, the Coal Containing Series (subdivided into a. main field beds, b. intermediate sequence and c. south field beds) and the Top Series. 'The main field consist of about 30metres of lignite with intercalations of calcareous muds and lignitic clays. The number and the thicknesses of these intercalations vary from locality to locality. The lignite is well layered and contians a few macroscopic plant remains, xylite is rare. The coal beds contain a variable amount of clay. Molluscs are abundantly present in many coal beds. Intercalated calcareous beds have thicknesses of up to 0.5m; most beds are rich in molluscs and some contain root imprints. A 10 to 20cm thick level of yellowish sand is present in both mines and observed in most boring. This guide level is called layer 9 by the local miners. The site is in the Kardia field bed, which is 1.5m above the base of the Main field bed and about 10m below sand layer 9.
Lithology and environment
Primary lithology: lignite
Lithology description: 'it is situated in Kardia field, about 1.5m above the base of the main field beds. The sampled level was a lens 10-20cm thick with a horizontal extension of 10-20m. The lens consisted of resedimented lignite particles, molluscs and abundant remains of vertebrates. The lens showed horizontal and cross bedding. Lower jaws of Desmana and Castor were found in a fairly complete state. Other lenses of the same lithology are common at this level in Kardia field but they were all of smaller dimensions' (these also contained bones, which have been included in the faunal list). 'The Kardia site is about 10m below the sand layer 9.'
Environment:mire/swamp
Geology comments: 'The palynology of the Ptolemais lignites points to a depositional environments of reed-marshes and swamps with or without some clumps of trees.'
Taphonomy
Modes of preservation:coprolite
Size of fossils:macrofossils,mesofossils
Collection methods and comments
Collection excludes:some microfossils
Collection methods:bulk,chemical,sieve,field collection
Minimum sieve size:0.500
Reason for describing collection:taxonomic analysis
Collection method comments: Excavated in 1976 and 1977 by the State Universiy of Utrecht and the Niedersachsisches Landesamt fur Bodenforschung.
Metadata
Database number:35087
Authorizer:A. Turner, E. Vlachos, L. van den Hoek Ostende Enterer:H. O'Regan, L. van den Hoek Ostende, E. Vlachos
Modifier:H. O'Regan Research group:PACED
Created:2003-11-03 06:13:39 Last modified:2003-11-03 09:14:58
Access level:the public Released:2003-11-03 06:13:39
Creative Commons license:CC BY
Reference information

Primary reference:
9439.PACED A. van de Weerd. 1979. Early Ruscinian rodents and lagomorphs (Mammalia) from the lignites near Ptolemais (Macedonia, Greece). Proceedings Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen (Serie B) 82:127-170 [A. Turner/H. O'Regan/L. van den Hoek Ostende]

Secondary references:

23416 C. G. Rümke. 1985. A review of fossil and recent Desmaninae (Talpidae, Insectivora). Utrecht Micropaleontological Bulletins 4:1-241 [L. van den Hoek Ostende/L. van den Hoek Ostende]
50079 B. Sanchiz. 1998. Salientia. In P. Wellnhofer (ed.), Handbuch der Palaoherpetologie 4 [C. Boyd/C. Boyd]