Early Pliocene continental vertebrate Fauna at Puerto de la Cadena (SE Spain) and its bearing on the marine-continental correlation of the Late Neogene of Eastern Betics

Abstract

In this paper, we synthesize sedimentological, magnetostratigraphic and paleontological data from the continental vertebrate site of Puerto de la Cadena (Murcia, SE Spain), in order to clarify its age. The study site is located on the northern edge of the Carrascoy

A large testudinid with African affinities in the post‐Messinian (lower Pliocene) record of south‐eastern Spain

“…(Piñero et al . ). Further Titanochelon fossils from Puerto de la Cadena were reported by Piñero et al .…”

“…Further Titanochelon fossils from Puerto de la Cadena were reported by Piñero et al . (). In this locality, several lineages of mammals that dispersed from Africa to Europe have been identified, probably in relation to the Messinian Salinity Crisis (see Piñero et al .…”

“…Montenat () reported a fossil assemblage from the coeval and nearby La Alberca locality, including remains of a large turtle, now identified as a representative of Titanochelon (see Piñero et al . ; and references therein). Mancheño Jiménez et al .…”

“…In this locality, several lineages of mammals that dispersed from Africa to Europe have been identified, probably in relation to the Messinian Salinity Crisis (see Piñero et al . ; and references therein). The preparation of these new Titanochelon fossils is pending and they will be described in the future.…”

“…), a small‐sized testudinid (morphologically close to Chersine hermanni (Gmelin, )) and another partial shell of a new member of Testudinidae (Piñero et al . ), whose study is the specific focus of this paper. Although this last find is compatible with the palaeobiogeographical and biostratigraphical ranges of distribution of Titanochelon (and even is sympatric with several specimens of Titanochelon in this locality), the new specimen cannot be attributed to this clade.…”