Publication: Biogeographic provincialism in rodent faunas from the Iberoccitanian Region
(southwestern Europe) generates severe diachrony within the Mammalian Neogene
(MN) biochronologic scale during the Late Miocene
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Publication Date
2011
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Elsevier
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Abstract
In order to develop paleoecological studies involving many fossil sites, there is a need to establish a consistent
time framework, which enables us to arrange the fossil associations according to a sequence of biotic events
and subsequently to test a relationship with paleoenvironmental changes. The nature of the continental fossil
record has given rise to much controversy with regard to the establishment of general biostratigraphical
scales. Additionally, biochronological scales are sometimes all that can be proposed. The primary goal of the
present paper is to present a time arrangement for the Iberoccitanian micromammalian fossil sites from the
latest Middle Miocene to the Mio–Pliocene boundary, spanning around 7 million years (approximately 12.61–
4.95 Ma). Herein we study over one hundred faunal lists of rodents from the Iberoccitanian Region, compiled
from the literature. Previous research has described two biogeographical provinces in our study area: a
northern one (Vallès–Penedès and southeast France) and a southern one (all the Iberian basins, except the
Vallès–Penedès). We therefore conducted Alroy's Maximum Likelihood Appearance Event Ordination (ML
AEO) methodology, applying it to the database compiled for each province. Finally, using available numerical
dates for a quarter of the sites, we obtained a calibrated ordination for all localities. In each analysis, the results
obtained are roughly coherent with the Mammalian Neogene units (MN) and allow estimation of the
numerical ages for the entire set of fossil sites included in the study. Nevertheless, our results show severe
diachrony between the two biogeographic provinces of the Iberoccitanian Region in relation to the MN
boundaries, which might be linked to the existence of a refuge area associated with more humid
environments in the northern province.