Publication details
New information on the Oligo-Miocene snake fauna from Central Anatolia - a case study of the Kargi 1, 2 localities
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| Year of publication | 2022 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | Snake fauna from Kargi localities (Kargi 1?3) is almost unknown. Only Albaneryx sp. have been reported from Kargi 3 (Vasilyan et al. 2019). However, its even generic attribution based on one rather fragmentary vertebra is not clear. The localities of Kargi 1 and 2 provided several snake clades including Aniliidae (Eoanilius cf. oligocenicus), Tropidophiidae (Falseryx sp.), Boidae (Bavarioboa sp.) and Colubroidea. The trunk vertebrae attributed to Bavarioboa differ from other representatives of this genus by the specific morphology of prezygapophysis. The occurrence of the genus Falseryx is supported by the presence of caudal vertebrae with simple morphology of the neural arch and a ‘hypapophysis’ instead of haemapophyses on the ventral surface of the vertebral centrum. Colubroid snakes are represented probably only by a single taxon (Colubroidea morphotype A). However, unusual development of interzygapophyseal ridges differentiates this morphotype from other known European fossil Colubroidea. The presence of taxa which frequently occur in Europe (including central Europe) since the Oligocene (Eoanilius, Falseryx, Bavarioboa) show on frequent exchanges of snake fauna between Anatolia and Balkan Peninsula around the Oligocene/Miocene transition. The origin of colubroid snake reported from in Kargi 1 and 2 is still debated as this rather diversified clade have been also reported from the late Oligocene of Africa (Tanzania, Nsungwe Foramtion; McCartney et al. 2014). Therefore, African origin of this taxon cannot be excluded. This study can help to fill still incomplete knowledge on the origin and evolution of late Cenozoic snake communities of southeastern Europe. |