Ptolemais 1 (Pliocene of Greece)

Where: Macedonia, Greece (40.5° N, 21.7° E: paleocoordinates 40.4° N, 21.5° E)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

When: Ruscinian (5.3 - 3.2 Ma)

• 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 Main field bed, about 8m above layer 9 and 'is a lens within the lignite, it has a thickness of 20cm and a horizontal extension of 4 metres.'

Environment/lithology: mire or swamp; graded, black lignite

• 'The palynology of the Ptolemais lignites points to a depositional environments of reed-marshes and swamps, with or without some clumps of trees.'
• 'It consists of coal particles, molluscs and vertebrate remains in a clayey matrix and grades upwards into thinly layered black lignitic clay with abundant fishbones on the bedding planes.'

Size class: mesofossils

Preservation: coprolite

Collection methods: quarrying, chemical, sieve,

• Excavated in 1976 and 1977 by the State University of Utrecht and the Niedersachsisches Landesamt fur Bodenforschung, Hannover.

Primary reference: 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]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 35086: authorized by Alan Turner, entered by Hannah O'Regan on 03.11.2003, edited by Lars van den Hoek Ostende

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Mammalia
 Theriamorpha - Soricidae
Soricidae indet. Fischer 1814 shrew
 Theriamorpha - Talpidae
Desmanella sp. Engesser 1972 mole
Desmana verestchagini Topachevski 1961 Russian desman
 Rodentia - Sciuridae
Hylopetes sp. Thomas 1908 squirrel
 Rodentia - Castoridae
Castor fiber Linnaeus 1758 Eurasian beaver
 Rodentia - Muridae
Apodemus dominans Eurasian field mouse
Occitanomys brailloni Michaux 1969 mouse
Micromys steffensi n. sp. van de Weerd 1979 harvest mouse
Micromys bendai n. sp. van de Weerd 1979 harvest mouse
 Lagomorpha - Ochotonidae
Promimomys insuliferus
  -
"Promimomys insuliferus" = Polonomys insuliferus
"Promimomys insuliferus" = Polonomys insuliferus Kowalski 1958