Kerassia (Old Collection) (Miocene of Greece)

Where: Euboea, Greece (38.9° N, 23.3° E: paleocoordinates 38.6° N, 23.0° E)

• coordinate estimated from map

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: MN 12 mammal zone, Late/Upper Miocene (11.6 - 5.3 Ma)

• Combining the above given data, an MN12 age is plausible for the fauna of Kerassiá, although MN11 cannot be rejected. A biochronological distinction of the two fossiliferous levels found in Kerassiá is not possible for the moment.

Environment/lithology: terrestrial; lithified, silty, conglomeratic sandstone

• The numerical dominance of bovids and hipparions in the fauna of Kerassiá indicates an open and rather dry environment. Forest elements as cervids and suids are rare or absent. The giraffids, as well as Tragoportax, may have lived in open woodland environments (Gentry et al. 1999). A paleoecological shift between the lower and the upper fossiliferous level is possible due to the small differences in the faunal content, but such an assumption requires more material from both levels.
• They belong to the so-called "reddish-brown fluvial deposits" (Mettos et al. 1991) in the lower layers of the upper sequence of the Límni–Istiéa Basin. The lower sequence, as well as the ophiolithic basement, are exposed NE of the village Kerassiá. The superposed reddish-brown fluvial deposits include clays, conglomerates, sands, and siltstones in succession. Their total thickness is about 250–300 m.

Size class: macrofossils

Collected by H. de Bruijn, A. van der Meulen, C. Doukas in 1982; reposited in the AMPG

Collection methods: surface (in situ),

• AMPG, Museum of Palaeontology and Geology of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

Primary reference: G. Theodorou, A. Athanassiou, S. Roussiakis and G. Iliopoulos. 2003. Preliminary remarks on the Late Miocene herbivores of Kerassiá (Northern Euboea, Greece). In J.W.F. Reumer, W. Wessels (eds.), Deinsea, Distribution and Migration of Tertiary Mammals in Eurasia. A volume in honour of Hans de Bruijn 10:519-530 [E. Vlachos/E. Vlachos]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 195431: authorized by Evangelos Vlachos, entered by Evangelos Vlachos on 08.08.2018

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

• In this paper (Theodorou et al. 2003) they describe the herbivore fossils. The carnivores are described in another paper.
Show authors, comments, and common names
Mammalia
 Proboscidea - Deinotheriidae
"Deinotherium sp." = Dinotherium
"Deinotherium sp." = Dinotherium Kaup 1829 deinothere
 Artiodactyla - Tragulidae
Dorcatherium sp.
Dorcatherium sp. Kaup 1839 chevrotain
 Artiodactyla - Giraffidae
Bohlinia sp.
Bohlinia sp. Matthew 1929 giraffe
 Artiodactyla - Bovidae
Gazella sp.
Gazella sp. Blaineville 1816 gazelle
 Artiodactyla - Suidae
Microstonyx major
Microstonyx major Gervais 1848 pig
erymanthius (subspecies)