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We here describe new remains of amphibians and reptiles from the early Miocene (MN 4) of two different Greek localities, Aliveri and Karydia. The newly described material consists of urodelans, alytids, indeterminate anurans, turtles, crocodylians, lacertids, indeterminate scincomorphs, anguids, colubrids, viperids, and indeterminate snakes. The presence of the frog Latonia cf. gigantea in Greece is documented for the first time. Additionally, the presence of viperids in Aliveri implies a much wider distribution for these snakes during the early Miocene of Europe. Of special interest is the presence of a peculiar colubrid that seems to possess a hitherto unknown vertebral structure, which is herein defined as the 'paracentral ridge'. Although incomplete, the new material has important taxonomic and biogeographic implications, as it enhances our understanding of southeastern European herpetofaunas from the early Miocene, a time period that was characterised by major dispersal and extinction events and climatic change that affected the whole continent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dating fossil hominids and reconstructing their environments is critically important for understanding human evolution. Here we date the potentially oldest hominin, Graecopithecus freybergi from Europe and constrain the environmental conditions under which it thrived. For the Graecopithecus-bearing Pikermi Formation of Attica/Greece, a saline aeolian dust deposit of North African (Sahara) provenance, we obtain an age of 7.37–7.11 Ma, which is coeval with a dramatic cooling in the Mediterranean region at the Tortonian-Messinian transition. Palaeobotanic proxies demonstrate C4-grass dominated wooded grassland-to-woodland habitats of a savannah biome for the Pikermi Formation. Faunal turnover at the Tortonian-Messinian transition led to the spread of new mammalian taxa along with Graecopithecus into Europe. The type mandible of G. freybergi from Pyrgos (7.175 Ma) and the single tooth (7.24 Ma) from Azmaka (Bulgaria) represent the first hominids of Messinian age from continental Europe. Our results suggest that major splits in the hominid family occurred outside Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world-famous upper Miocene fossil localities on the Aegean island of Samos in Greece have produced a rich fossil record that sheds light on the evolution of eastern Mediterranean terrestrial faunas over a one-million-year interval of the late Neogene. Fossils have been discovered on Samos since antiquity, although a succession of paleontological and commercial collecting expeditions over the last 130 years has resulted in specimens now being distributed throughout museums all over the world. Here, we survey the fossil tortoise remains from Samos, which are significant because they include early antecedents of the modern Testudo lineage, together with spectacular examples of the European Neogene gigantic testudinid †Titanochelon, which represents one of the largest-bodied terrestrial turtle taxa documented to date. All of the Samos fossils derive from the Mytilinii Formation, which spans the late MN11–early MN13 Neogene land mammal zones. The small-bodied tortoise remains include two incomplete shells that are morphologically consistent with basal testudonans and phylogenetically distinct from the coeval species Testudo marmorum found on mainland Greece. The Samos gigantic tortoise †'Testudo' schafferi was based on a spectacularly large skull and femur. However, we describe new plastron fragments, limb elements, and osteoderms that are compatible with †Titanochelon specimens from southern Greece and Anatolia. This could imply faunal links with the distinctive 'Pikermian' local assemblages from Asia Minor and concurs with the proposed late Miocene–Pliocene biogeographic segregation of large mammals from the eastern Aegean margin and Turkey relative to those occurring in northwestern Greece and the Balkan Peninsula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with the fossil tortoises of one of the most iconic fossil localities of the Neogene of the Old World, the upper Miocene locality of Pikermi, near Athens, Greece. We describe the type, previously published, and new material of the fossil tortoises from Pikermi, along with new material from the coeval Azmaka 6 locality in Bulgaria. This combined information results in the complete revision of the 'marble tortoise' Testudo marmorum, which is the first turtle species ever named from Greece. Besides the challenges and difficulties of working with material from the old collections of Pikermi, we present a complete revision of this species and identify its presence outside its type locality in the South Balkan Peninsula. The presence of numerous shells of the 'marble tortoise' allows us to discuss the observed variation and attempt to interpret it as the result of intraspecific variation, ontogenetic changes, or sexual dimorphism. For the first time, we observe the absence of the characteristic hypo-xiphiplastral hinge in female individuals of Testudo marmorum, which in turn challenges the traditional phylogenetic position of this species. We further describe previously published and new material of the giant tortoise Titanochelon from Pikermi. Based on the updated information, we can suggest that the Pikermian giant tortoise probably represents a distinct taxon. Our results signal Pikermi as one of the most important localities to understand the evolution of tortoises in the eastern Mediterranean during the last parts of the Neogene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]