Map revealing Balkanatolia 40 million years earlier and at the present day. Balkanatolia is a forgotten low-lying continent wedged in between Europe, Africa, and Asia, currently out there 50 million years ago and house to an unique animals. Geographical modifications 40 to 34 million years ago connected this continent to its 2 Eurasian next-door neighbors, paving the way for the replacement of European mammals by Asian mammals. Credit: © Alexis Licht & & Grégoire Métais
Balkanatolia: The Forgotten Continent That Sheds Light on the Evolution of Mammals
A group of French, American, and Turkish paleontologists and geologists led by CNRS researchers [1] has discovered the presence of a forgotten continent they have actually called Balkanatolia, which today covers the contemporary Balkans and Anatolia. Formerly populated by a highly particular fauna, they think that it enabled mammals from Asia to colonize Europe 34 million years back. Their findings are released in the March 2022 volume of Earth-Science Reviews.
For millions of years during the Eocene Epoch (55 to 34 million years ago), Western Europe and Eastern Asia formed 2 distinct landmasses with very different mammalian animals: European forests were home to endemic animals such as Palaeotheres (an extinct group distantly associated to contemporary horses, however more like todays tapirs), whereas Asia was occupied by a more varied animals including the mammal households discovered today on both continents.
A team of geologists and paleontologists has found that, some 50 million years back, there was a low-lying continent separating Europe from Asia that they have actually named Balkanatolia.
At the time, it was lived in by an endemic fauna that was really various from those of Europe and Asia.
Geographical modifications 40 to 34 million years ago linked this continent to its 2 next-door neighbors, leading the way for the replacement of European mammals by Asian mammals.
Reference: “Balkanatolia: The insular mammalian biogeographic province that partially paved the way to the Grande Coupure” by Alexis Licht, Grégoire Métais, Pauline Coster, Deniz İbilioğlu, Faruk Ocakoğlu, Jan Westerweel, Megan Mueller, Clay Campbell, Spencer Mattingly, Melissa C. Wood and K. Christopher Beard, 21 January 2022, Earth-Science Reviews.DOI: 10.1016/ j.earscirev.2022.103929.
Balkanatolia is a forgotten low-lying continent wedged in between Europe, Africa, and Asia, currently in presence 50 million years ago and home to a special animals. Geographical modifications 40 to 34 million years ago connected this continent to its 2 Eurasian next-door neighbors, paving the method for the replacement of European mammals by Asian mammals. Formerly populated by an extremely particular fauna, they think that it allowed mammals from Asia to colonize Europe 34 million years ago. Alexis Licht et al. discovered a new fossil deposit in Turkey (Büyükteflek) dating from 38 to 35 million years earlier, which yielded mammals whose affinity was plainly Asian, and are the earliest discovered in Anatolia until now. It seems likely that a major glaciation 34 million years back, leading to the formation of the Antarctic ice sheet and decreasing sea levels, connected Balkanatolia to Western Europe, offering rise to the Grande Coupure.
Working at the Centre for Research and Teaching in Environmental Geoscience (CNRS/Aix-Marseille Université/ IRD/INRAE) and at the Centre for Research on Palaeontology– Paris (CNRS/Museum nationwide dHistoire naturelle/Sorbonne Université). Another French lab, Geosciences Rennes (CNRS/Universit é Rennes 1) likewise contributed to this study, in addition to Kütahya Dumlupınar and Eskişehir Osmangazi Universities (Turkey) and the universities of Washington, Connecticut, Kansas and Chicago (USA).
Balkanatolia might be an antique of Greater Adria, another of the Mediterranean regions forgotten continents, formed over 200 million years earlier, and brought to light by reconstructions of the place of tectonic plates performed by Douwe van Hinsbergen et al. and released in a 2019 paper.
Site excavated in Turkey (Büyükteflek). Credit: © Alexis Licht & & Grégoire Métais
We understand that, around 34 million years earlier, Western Europe was colonized by Asian types, resulting in a major renewal of vertebrate animals and the termination of its endemic mammals, a sudden event called the Grande Coupure. Surprisingly, fossils found in the Balkans indicate the presence of Asian mammals in southern Europe long before the Grande Coupure, recommending earlier colonization.
This unique animals consisted of, for example, marsupials of South American affinity and Embrithopoda (big herbivorous mammals looking like hippopotamuses) formerly discovered in Africa. The area should for that reason have made up a single landmass, separated from the neighboring continents.
Upper molar of a Brontothere mammal of Asian origin. Alexis Licht et al. discovered a new fossil deposit in Turkey (Büyükteflek) dating from 38 to 35 million years ago, which yielded mammals whose affinity was clearly Asian, and are the earliest discovered in Anatolia previously. They found jaw fragments coming from Brontotheres, animals looking like large rhinoceroses that passed away out at the end of the Eocene. Credit: © Alexis Licht & & Grégoire Métais
The group likewise discovered a brand-new fossil deposit in Turkey (Büyükteflek) dating from 38 to 35 million years ago, which yielded mammals whose affinity was plainly Asian, and are the earliest discovered in Anatolia previously. They discovered jaw pieces belonging to Brontotheres, animals looking like big rhinoceroses that passed away out at the end of the Eocene.
All this info made it possible for the team to outline the history of this third Eurasian continent, wedged in between Europe, Africa, and Asia, which they dubbed Balkanatolia. The continent, already in existence 50 million years ago [2] and home to an unique fauna, was colonized 40 million years earlier by Asian mammals as an outcome of geographical modifications that have yet to be totally understood. It seems likely that a major glaciation 34 million years earlier, leading to the formation of the Antarctic ice sheet and reducing sea levels, linked Balkanatolia to Western Europe, triggering the Grande Coupure.
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