PBDB Collection

Kerassia 4 (K4) (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, burrowed, 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.

•

•(brown silted mud with few scattered rounded to subrounded, polymict grains in a homogeneous matrix), the presence of a red-brown layer above the bone bed, and also the presence of the same trace fossils (roots, insect burrows etc.).

Size class: macrofossils

• The specimen shows no sign of abrasion or breakage, preserving fragile parts, as the nasals, the tusks and the paroccipital processes. This implies either that the specimen has not suffered any substantial transport from the death site, or that it was transported soon after death, when the skin, muscles, and ligaments remained mostly still in place. The absence of any other skeletal parts of the same individual supports the latter option, as does the general taphonomical setting of the site, which suggests a low energy water current as the accumulating agent of the bones (Iliopoulos 2003a).

Collected by G. Theodorou Team in 1992; 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 195435: authorized by Evangelos Vlachos, entered by Evangelos Vlachos on 08.08.2018, edited by Panagiotis Kampouridis

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

Aves
Struthioniformes - Struthionidae	Struthio karatheodoris² Struthio karatheodoris² Forsyth Major 1888 ostrich
Galliformes - Phasianidae	Pavo archiaci⁴ Pavo archiaci⁴ Gaudry 1862 peafowl tibiotarsus
Mammalia
Proboscidea - Gomphotheriidae	Konobelodon atticus³ Konobelodon atticus³ Wagner 1857 gomphothere
Carnivora - Hyaenidae	Adcrocuta eximia⁵ Adcrocuta eximia⁵ Roth and Wagner 1854 hyaena
Carnivora - Felidae	Machairodus giganteus⁵ Machairodus giganteus⁵ Wagner 1848 cat
Perissodactyla - Equidae	Hipparion sp. Hipparion sp. de Christol 1832 hipparionine horse
Perissodactyla - Chalicotheriidae	Ancylotherium sp. Ancylotherium sp. Gaudry 1863 chalicothere
Perissodactyla - Rhinocerotidae	"? Dicerorhinus cf. pikermiensis" = Dihoplus pikermiensis, Acerorhinus neleus n. sp.¹ "? Dicerorhinus cf. pikermiensis" = Dihoplus pikermiensis Toula 1906 rhinoceros Acerorhinus neleus n. sp.¹ Athanassiou et al. 2014 rhinoceros sp. nov.
Artiodactyla - Giraffidae	Helladotherium cf. duvernoyi, Palaeotragus sp. Helladotherium cf. duvernoyi Gaudry and Lartet 1856 giraffe Palaeotragus sp. Gaudry 1861 giraffe
Artiodactyla - Bovidae	Gazella sp. Gazella sp. Blaineville 1816 gazelle

¹Athanassiou et al. 2014; ²Kampouridis et al. 2020; ³Konidaris et al. 2014; ⁴Michailidis et al. 2010; ⁵Roussiakis and Theodorou 2003