KOUFOS, G.D. & NAGEL, D. (2010):
The Late Miocene Mammal Faunas of Samos. - 438 pages, 4 plates, numerous figures,
The island of Samos (Aegean Sea, Greece) houses a rich fauna of late Miocene fossiliferous mammals, which was discovered at the end of the 19th century. Since that time, a large amount of fossil material, now housed at various museums and institutions, was collected by numerous researchers.
In 1993 a new concerted study of the Samos mammals was undertaken by a team of researchers of the University of Thessaloniki.
The papers contained in this volume present an overview of both the fossil inventory collected before 1993 and the new finds made since that time. An introductory paper attempts to place the Samos fossiliferous sites in their proper lithostratigraphic context. Subsequently papers focus on the palynological features and the microfloristic assemblages they represent, which span a age interval from the middle Miocene to Pliocene. Different mammal groups are covered in detail in the following 13 contributions. These mammal groups include micromammals, carnivores, tubulidentata, Hyracoidea, proboscids, rhinoceratids (rhinos), chalicotheriids, equids (horses), suidae (pigs), giraffids and bovids. A chapter discusses carnivore guild structure, and its paleoecological importance. Another chapter is devoted to clarifying the biochronological position of the newly collected samples by comparing the new finds with previously collected specimens, aided by newly acquired magnetostratigraphic data.
A synthetic review evaluates the available data in order to assess the paleoecology and paleobiography of the mammal assemblages of these faunas.