scholarly journals THE OCCURRENCE OF THE METAXYTHERIUM CUVIERI CHRISTOL IN THE LATE MIOCENE SEDIMENTS OF SITIA, CRETE

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 764
Author(s):  
Α. Μαρκοπούλου-Διακαντώνη ◽  
Ε. Λόγος

Two Sirenian skulls with their upper jaws coming from the Upper Miocene area of the village Achladia determined as Metaxytherium cuvieri Christol have been studied. This species is known up today from the M. Miocene of France (Cottreau, 1928). One skull of Metaxytherium cuvieri Chritol is found at the locality «Tympana» of Achladia village, within the formation of marls- gray marls, at an height of 170 m ca., while the second one is found in the locality «Kefala» of Achladia village within the formation of the gray marls at an altitude of 196 m c a . Metaxytherium cuvieri Christol is an intermediate type between Dugongs and Recent Lamantins (=Manatees). The occurrence of Metaxytherium cuvieri Christol in the Hellenic area contributes to our knowledge of its geographical and stratigraphical distribution in this eastern region of the Mediterranean basin during the Upper Miocene

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanni Pasini ◽  
Alessandro Garassino ◽  
Marco Sami

An assemblage of axiidean and brachyuran decapods is reported from the late Miocene pre-evaporitic (early-middle Messinian) limestone of Cò di Sasso, nearby Brisighella (Ravenna, Emilia- Romagna), located in Romagna Apennines (NE Italy). Except Monodaeus bortolottii Delle Cave, 1988 (Xanthidae MacLeay, 1838), which is reported here for the first time in Miocene, all the other specimens have been assigned to species previously known in the Italian Miocene (Messinian s.l.), but never reported in this area. The report of Galathea cf. G. weinfurteri Bachmayer, 1950 (Galatheidae Samouelle, 1819) and Medorippe ampla Garassino, De Angeli, Gallo and Pasini, 2004 (Dorippidae MacLeay, 1838) enlarges the stratigraphic range of these Miocene species. This report enlarges our limited knowledge on the composition and distribution of the axiidean, anomuran, and brachyuran decapods during the early-middle Messinian before the evaporitic event in the Mediterranean Basin.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (03) ◽  
pp. 117-123
Author(s):  
Enrique González-Ortegón ◽  
Deniz Innal ◽  
Jose A. Cuesta

The real distribution range of a species is mostly unknown due to the lack of sampling in certain regions in the world. This may be especially problematic for freshwater species in the Mediterranean basin since its freshwater inhabitants are taxa highly sensitive to anthropogenic disturbances. The cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (COI) gene in Atyaephyra recognized seven Atyaephyra species in the Mediterranean basin in recent years. However, the lack of sampling in the Middle East does not help to clarify what Atyaephyra species are present in this region and their distributions. The most extended species in the area is A. orientalis, while A. tuerkayi has been found only in the River Nahr Al-Kabir, which is located along the borders of Lebanon with Syria. DNA barcodes of Atyaephyra specimens collected in this study confirm the first record of A. tuerkayi in Turkey. In addition, Palaemon turcorum, an endemic species to the Sakarya River Basin which flows into the Black sea was collected outside this basin, in rivers of the Mediterranean coast. The fact that the Middle East has not been well surveyed for shrimp could explain the unknown distribution of these species.


2020 ◽  
Vol 95 (1) ◽  
pp. 184-192
Author(s):  
Massimo Delfino ◽  
Àngel H. Luján ◽  
Juan Abella ◽  
David M. Alba ◽  
Madelaine Böhme ◽  
...  

AbstractThe dispersal of Crocodylus from Africa to Europe during the Miocene is not well understood. A small collection of cranial fragments and postcranial elements from the latest Miocene (6.2 Ma) site of Venta del Moro (Valencia, Spain) have previously been referred to Crocodylus cf. C. checchiai Maccagno, 1947 without accompanying descriptions. Here we describe and figure for the first time the crocodylian remains from Venta del Moro, which represent at least two individuals. Our comparisons indicate that this material clearly does not belong to Diplocynodon or Tomistoma—the only two other crocodylians described so far for the European late Miocene. The material is only tentatively referred to cf. Crocodylus sp. because the apomorphies of this genus are not preserved and a referral to C. checchiai cannot be supported on a morphological basis. However, it is likely that this late Miocene species, originally described from Libya (As Sahabi) and later identified also in Kenya, could have dispersed across the Mediterranean Basin multiple times and colonized the southern areas of Mediterranean Europe, as evidenced by several Crocodylus or Crocodylus-like remains described during the past years.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fadl Raad ◽  
Johanna Lofi ◽  
Agnes Maillard ◽  
Antonio Caruso ◽  
Athina Tzevahirtzian

<p>The Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) is a prominent and still misunderstood event that influenced the Mediterranean basin in the late Miocene leaving behind a Salt Giant (SG) widespread all over the Mediterranean basin. More than 90% of the Messinian Evaporitic deposits are located offshore with reduced access via boreholes, and thus has been studied mainly by seismic imaging. Onshore-Offshore should be considered a key for a better understanding and answering some of the controversies on the MSC.</p><p>The Balearic Promontory (BP) contains a series of small perched basins presently lying at different water depths, stepped from the present-day coastline down to the deep basin. These topographic lows trapped sedimentary series up to 500m thick, interpreted as MSC in age.<br>The reduced tectonic movements in the BP since the late Miocene (Messinian) till recent days, favored the conservation of the MSC records in this area. Moreover, recent studies revealed the presence of a Salt layer in the Central Mallorca Depression (CMD).</p><p>Considering: 1- the bathymetry of the BP, classified as an intermediate perched basin; 2- the distribution of the MSC records accumulated in a series of sub-basins more or less connected between each other; 3- the geometries of the evaporitic formations, provided by how these records appear on the seismic data; this might recall similarities between the BP records (especially the ones in the CMD) and the MSC reference records outcropping in Sicily (especially in the Caltanissetta Basin).</p><p>We perform seismic interpretation of a wide seismic reflection dataset in the study area with the aim of refining the mapping of the Messinian evaporites covering the study area. Four seismic units were identified in the BP based on their seismic facies and their seismo-stratigraphic position. We try to match up these units to the consensus Messinian 3-stages chrono-stratigraphic model proposed during the CIESM in 2008.<br>We also attempt to find similarities in geometries, facies and distribution of the MSC between the sub-basins of the BP and those described in the Sicilian sub-basins.</p>


Author(s):  
Joshua M. White

This book offers a comprehensive examination of the shape and impact of piracy in the eastern half of the Mediterranean and the Ottoman Empire’s administrative, legal, and diplomatic response. In the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, piracy had a tremendous effect on the formation of international law, the conduct of diplomacy, the articulation of Ottoman imperial and Islamic law, and their application in Ottoman courts. Piracy and Law draws on research in archives and libraries in Istanbul, Venice, Crete, London, and Paris to bring the Ottoman state and Ottoman victims into the story for the first time. It explains why piracy exploded after the 1570s and why the Ottoman state was largely unable to marshal an effective military solution even as it responded dynamically in the spheres of law and diplomacy. By focusing on the Ottoman victims, jurists, and officials who had to contend most with the consequences of piracy, Piracy and Law reveals a broader range of piratical practitioners than the Muslim and Catholic corsairs who have typically been the focus of study and considers their consequences for the Ottoman state and those who traveled through Ottoman waters. This book argues that what made the eastern half of the Mediterranean basin the Ottoman Mediterranean, more than sovereignty or naval supremacy—which was ephemeral—was that it was a legal space. The challenge of piracy helped to define its contours.


Author(s):  
Matthew D. C. Larsen

The concept of textual unfinishedness played a role in a wide variety of cultures and contexts across the Mediterranean basin in antiquity and late antiquity. Chapter 2 documents examples of Greek, Roman, and Jewish writers reflecting explicitly in their own words about unfinished texts. Many writers claimed to have written unfinished texts on purpose for specific cultural reasons, while others claimed to have written texts that slipped out of their hands somehow with their permission.


Author(s):  
Madadh Richey

The alphabet employed by the Phoenicians was the inheritor of a long tradition of alphabetic writing and was itself adapted for use throughout the Mediterranean basin by numerous populations speaking many languages. The present contribution traces the origins of the alphabet in Sinai and the Levant before discussing different alphabetic standardizations in Ugarit and Phoenician Tyre. The complex adaptation of the latter for representation of the Greek language is described in detail, then some brief attention is given to likely—Etruscan and other Italic alphabets—and possible (Iberian and Berber) descendants of the Phoenician alphabet. Finally, it is stressed that current research does not view the Phoenician and other alphabets as inherently simpler, more easily learned, or more democratic than other writing systems. The Phoenician alphabet remains, nevertheless, an impressive technological development worthy, especially by virtue of its generative power, of detailed study ranging from paleographic and orthographic specifications to social and political contextualization.


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