The European Land Mammal Mega Zones (abbreviation: ELMMZ, more commonly known as European land mammal ages or ELMA) are zones in rock layers that have a specific assemblage of fossils (biozones) based on occurrences of fossil assemblages of European land mammals. These biozones cover most of the Cenozoic, with particular focus having been paid to the Neogene and Paleogene systems (i.e. rock layers which are 65.5 to 2.588 million years old), the Quaternary has several competing systems. In cases when fossils of mammals are abundant, stratigraphers and paleontologists can use these biozones as a more practical regional alternative to the stages of the official ICS geologic timescale. European Land Mammal Mega Zones are often also confusingly referred to as ages, stages, or intervals.
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👉 European Land Mammal Ages in the context of Ruscinian
The Ruscian age is a period of geologic time (5.3–3.4 Ma) within the Pliocene used more specifically with European Land Mammal Ages. It precedes the Villanyian age and follows the Turolian age. The Ruscian overlaps the early Piacenzian and Zanclean ages.
- ⭐ Core Definition: European Land Mammal Ages
- 👉 European Land Mammal Ages in the context of Ruscinian
- European Land Mammal Ages in the context of Turolian
- European Land Mammal Ages in the context of Agenian
- European Land Mammal Ages in the context of Astaracian
- European Land Mammal Ages in the context of Vallesian
European Land Mammal Ages in the context of Turolian
The Turolian age is a period of geologic time (9.0–5.3 Ma) within the Miocene used more specifically with European Land Mammal Ages. It precedes the Ruscinian age and follows the Vallesian age. The Turolian overlaps the Tortonian and Messinian ages.
European Land Mammal Ages in the context of Agenian
The Agenian age is a period of geologic time (23.8–20 Ma) within the Miocene used more specifically with European Land Mammal Ages. It follows the Orleanian age and overlaps the Aquitanian and Burdigalian ages.
European Land Mammal Ages in the context of Astaracian
The Astaracian age is a period of geologic time (16 to 11.6 Ma), equivalent with the Middle Miocene and used more specifically with European Land Mammal Ages. It precedes the Vallesian age and follows the Orleanian age. The Astaracian overlaps the Langhian and Serravallian ages.
During the Late Orleanian and Astaracian (17 to 10.7 Ma), oscillating sea levels resulted in a succession of palaeogeographic changes in the Eastern Mediterranean; the opening and closing of the Tethys seaway resulted in temporary land-bridges between Africa and Eurasia. Three short periods of faunal migrations between the continents can be distinguished:
European Land Mammal Ages in the context of Vallesian
The Vallesian age is a period of geologic time (11.6–9.0 Ma) within the Miocene used more specifically with European Land Mammal Ages. It precedes the Turolian age and follows the Astaracian age. The so-called Vallesian Crisis resulted in the extinction of several mammalian taxa characteristic of the Middle Miocene.
The term "Vallesian" was introduced by Catalan palaeontologist Miquel Crusafont in 1950 to mark the arrival of the equid Hipparion in Europe. The remaining European palaeofaunas, however, had been around since the Middle Miocene, including the moschid Micromeryx (a musk deer), the cervid Euprox, the suid Listriodon, and the felids Sansanosmilus and Pseudaelurus, and the Aragonian-Vallesian boundary does not represent a major shift in the European mammalian record. In contrast, the transition between Lower and Upper Vallesian corresponds to a major biotic crisis — the demise of most Aragonian artiodactyls, including the antelope Protragocerus, the bovid Miotragocerus, Listriodon, and the suids Hyotherium and Parachleusastochoerus. The crisis also affected rodents such as the family Eomyidae and most of the cricetids and glirids. They were replaced by species arriving from the east, Turolian in character: for example the suid Schizochoerus, the murid Progonomys, the bovids Tragoportax and Graecoryx, the hyaenid Adcrocuta, the felid Paramachairodus, and the suid Microstonyx.