THE KAYSERI HIPPARION HORSES: NEW INSIGHTS INTO EQUID EVOLUTION IN TÜRKIYE DURING THE EARLY AND MIDDLE TUROLIAN (MN11-12, LATE MIOCENE)
Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia, vol.132, no.2, pp.295-330, 2026 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
- Publication Type: Article / Article
- Volume: 132 Issue: 2
- Publication Date: 2026
- Doi Number: 10.54103/2039-4942/30263
- Journal Name: Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia
- Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, BIOSIS, Geobase, Directory of Open Access Journals, Zoological Record, Academic Search Ultimate (EBSCO)
- Page Numbers: pp.295-330
- Keywords: Biochronology, Hipparion horses, Kayseri, Late Miocene, Paleobiogeography
- Open Archive Collection: AVESIS Open Access Collection
- Ankara Haci Bayram Veli University Affiliated: Yes
Abstract
The Yamula Reservoir shores have yielded a series of vertebrate localities rich in diverse ungulates and carnivores which we refer to the Kayseri faunas, Türkiye. We report herein the geological context and hipparion horses excavated from fluvial and lake deposits Çevril, Taşhan, and Hırka sites. Published ^40Ar/^39Ar geochronologies place the deposits within the late Tortonian, respectively the late European Mammal Neogene (MN) Units late MN11–early MN12 (early to middle Turolian). These localities can therefore be correlated with others of the Greek–Türkish–Iranian region, as Pikermi and Samos (Greece) and Maragheh (Iran). We undertake both morphologic and morphometric analyses in identifying taxa and comparing them to a broad suite of taxa from Western Eurasian localities. Hipparion horses identified in this study include Hippotherium brachypus, Hipparion dietrichi, Cremohipparion moldavicum, Cremohipparion aff. proboscideum and Plesiohipparion longipes. Our paleoclimate reconstruction of Upper Miocene Western Eurasian faunas based on the mean ordinated hypsodonty analysis of fossil mammal assemblages from MN10–12 shows a substantial climate shift, expressed in the expansion and diversification of the classic Pikermian ungulate and carnivore “savanna-like” chronofauna.