Mammutid Proboscideans (Mammalia, Proboscidea, Mammutidae) from the Upper Miocene of Hayranli-Haliminhani, Sivas Basın, Türkiye

Abstract

Anatolia was a biogeographically important area between Europe, Western Asia, and Africa during the Late Miocene. Hayranlı-Haliminhanı in Sivas Basin in Central Anatolia has provided a diverse fossil mammal fauna dated between 8 and 6.5 Ma. While the presence of proboscidean fossils (Mammalia, Proboscidea) there has been noted before, those materials have not yet been described in detail. Here we describe the proboscidean fossils from Hayranlı-Haliminhanı, which we identify mostly as remains of a derived mammutid proboscidean (“Mammut” cf. “M.” obliquelophus), a comparatively rare taxon which has previously been reported from only one Upper Miocene locality in Anatolia. The presence of this taxon in Hayranlı-Haliminhanı supports earlier paleoenvironmental interpretations based on bovids, rodents, and mean ordinated hypsodonty of large herbivorous mammals, which suggested predominantly woodland or shrubland type vegetation. Morphometric comparisons of a proboscidean lunar (intermediate carpal bone) indicates similarity with the genus Mammut, supporting the affinity of Late Miocene Eurasian mammutids with this genus.