Fossil Record 24(2): 233-246, doi: 10.5194/fr-24-233-2021
At the crossroads: early Miocene marine fishes of the proto-Mediterranean Sea
expand article infoKonstantina Agiadi‡, Efterpi Koskeridou‡, Danae Thivaiou‡
‡ Department of Historical Geology and Palaeontology, Faculty of Geology and Geoenvironment, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Panepistimioupolis 15784, Athens, Greece
© Konstantina Agiadi, Efterpi Koskeridou, Danae Thivaiou.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation: Agiadi K, Koskeridou E, Thivaiou D (2021) At the crossroads: early Miocene marine fishes of the proto-Mediterranean Sea. Fossil Record 24(2): 233-246. https://doi.org/10.5194/fr-24-233-2021
Open Access
Abstract

Connectivity and climate control fish distribution todayas well as in the geological past. We present here the Aquitanian (earlyMiocene) marine fish of the Mesohellenic Basin, a restricted basin at theborder between the proto-Mediterranean and Paratethyan seas. Based on fishotoliths, we were able to identify 19 species from 17 genera, including twonew species: Ariosoma mesohellenica and Gnathophis elongatus. This fish assemblage, in conjunction with theaccompanying molluscan assemblage, indicates a variable shelfpaleoenvironment with easy access to the open ocean. Although available dataon the Indo-Pacific fishes of the early Miocene are very limited, the fishfauna of the Mesohellenic Basin has many elements in common with the NorthSea, the NE Atlantic, and the Paratethys.