Large mammals (Proboscidea, Perissodactyla) from the late Miocene Burel Basin in West Bulgaria

Abstract

The Neogene Burel Basin in the Western Srednogorje region of the Balkans provides rare fossil large mammals, which have importance for mammalian evolution and faunal chronology at the Miocene-Pliocene transition of the Balkan Peninsula. Here we report on new, and review published, proboscideans and perissodactyls from the Kaisiinitsa and Tranerska formations. We identify the following taxa: Anancus? lehmanni, 'Mamma' sp., Deinotherium proavum, Dihoplus sp., Tapirus arvernensis, and Hipparion crassum. Our biochronologic interpretation is consistent with a late Turolian (MN13) age of both formations and in support of a correlation to the Pontian stage. However, we admit that numerical dating of the Burel section is needed by future research using magnetostratigraphy and geochronology.