LANDS AND ENDEMIC MAMMALS IN THE LATE MIOCENE OF ITALY: CONSTRAINS FOR PALEOGEOGRAPHIC OUTLINES OF TYRRHENIAN AREA

Abstract

The Pre-Messinian land mammal localities of Italy contribute substantial information for reconstructing the complex history of the land masses of the central Mediterranean. At the present state of knowledge the available paleogeographic maps do not have the adequate time resolution for providing an effective picture of the evolution of the physiographic and of the oceanographic characteristics of the area. This can only be accomplished through detailed comparative analyses of the geology and of the land and marine faunas in the course of the Miocene. The Pre-Messinian Late Miocene land mammals localities of Italy document the existence of three distinct bioprovinces. Two of the latter are characterised by faunas with manifestly endemic features, thus attesting to the occurrence of isolated emerged areas. One of these areas is called the Abruzzi-Apulia paleobioprovince; it was located on the Adriatic side of Apennines. The other one is the so-called Tusco-Sardinian paleobioprovince and was located in the peri-Tyrrhenian side of Italy. A third bioprovince, testified by sites in Calabria and Sicily, is characterised by non-endemized mammals, counterparts of which were identified in North Africa and Europe. This area was therefore, at least in part, a northern extension of the Late Miocene Mediterranean border of the African plate. These three areas belong to completely different tectonic domains and kept separated for a considerable time span and each one has a peculiar biogeographic and tectonic history. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.