Vertebrate microfossils from the Upper Freshwater Molasse in the Swiss Molasse Basin: Implications for the evolution of the North Alpine Foreland Basin during the Miocene Climate Optimum

Abstract

The older part of the Upper Freshwater Molasse (OSM) in the Swiss and South GermanMolasse Basin records the extended warm period known as the Miocene Climate Optimum.However, dating and global correlation of fossils and palaeoclimatic data from OSM sediments remains challenging, because sections are often incomplete and biostratigraphic data sometimes ambiguous. Here we present the rare case of a fossiliferous OSM section that can be securely dated to the late Early Miocene and early Middle Miocene (c. 16.1-15.7 Ma).

Snakehead (Teleostei: Channidae) diversity and the Eastern Himalaya biodiversity hotspot

“…Sahni, Srikantia, Ganesan, and Wangdus () described channid fossils from the Kuksho formation, India, Oligocene–Miocene boundary, and several channid fossils from Miocene Siwalik deposits in Pakistan (Pilbeam, Behrensmeyer, Barry, & Shah, ), India (Gayet, ; Lydekker, ; Sahni & Khare, ), and Nepal (Munthe et al, ) have been reported. In Europe, putative channid fossils, mostly otoliths and single bones, have been recorded from different Miocene deposits over a very narrow time frame (roughly between 13 and 17.5 Mya) in France, Germany, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic (e.g., Böhme, ; Gaudant, ; Jost et al, ) and a list of Miocene and Pliocene channid remains from Kazakhstan, Russia, and China was provided by Böhme (). In Africa besides the Late Eocene Parachanna dentary fragments (Murray et al, ; Otero et al, ) and Late Eocene to early Oligocene † Parachanna fayumensis (Murray, ), Van Neer () reported channid fossils from Mio‐Pliocene deposits in Uganda.…”

Late Burdigalian sea retreat from the North Alpine Foreland Basin: new magnetostratigraphic age constraints

“…Both in the German and Swiss Molasse Basins, the lower part of the OSM sediments are clayey finesands and silts with occasionally coaly intervals and palaeosoils, followed by sands (e.g., Doppler, 1989;Prieto et al, 2009). The stratigraphy of the OSM is mainly based on small mammal biostratigraphy and magnetostratigraphy (e.g., Kälin and Kempf, 2009;Abdul Aziz et al, 2010;Reichenbacher et al, 2013), and also otoliths can be used in the lower part (e.g., Reichenbacher, 1999;Jost et al, 2015).…”

Fossil lizards and snakes from Ano Metochi – a diverse squamate fauna from the latest Miocene of northern Greece

“…Despite their restricted extant distribution, the clade achieved a much wider distribution in the past, as it is demonstrated by its fossil record. Fossil cordylids are known with certainty from the early Miocene of The Czech Republic (Roček 1984;Čerňanský 2012) and Germany (Kosma 2004), and the middle Miocene (MN 5) of Austria (Böhme 2002), Germany (Böhme 2010) and Switzerland (Jost et al 2015). In addition, certain occurrences from the Paleogene of Europe have been variously suggested as having affinities with cordyliforms.…”

“…During the Miocene Ophisaurus or Ophisaurus-like forms became widespread throughout Europe. Their remains have up to this date been recovered from Austria (Böhme 2002;Miklas-Tempfer 2003;Böhme and Vasilyan 2014), The Czech Republic (Klembara 1979(Klembara , 1981(Klembara , 2014Roček 1984), France (Augé and Rage 2000;Rage and Bailon 2005), Germany (Jörg 1965;Prieto et al 2009;Böhme 2010;Čerňanský et al 2015), Hungary (Venczel 2006;Venczel and Hír 2015), Italy (Delfino 2002;Venczel and Sanchiz 2006;Rook et al 2015), Portugal (Antunes and Mein 1981;Crespo 2001), Romania (Hír and Venczel 2005;Venczel et al 2005;Venczel and Ştiucă 2008), Slovakia (Klembara 1986), Spain (Murelaga et al 2002;Blain 2005), and Switzerland (Jost et al 2015;Mennecart et al 2016). Following the end of the Miocene the clade is in demise and their Pliocene record is scarce (Bailon 1989;Čerňanský 2011;Delfino et al 2011).…”