http://hdl.handle.net/10900/155137 Sat, 04 Jul 2026 01:31:32 GMT 2026-07-04T01:31:32Z https://tst-publikationen.uni-tuebingen.de:443/xmlui/bitstream/id/f721aa8e-8700-4a16-98c4-cc533bcefb4f/ http://hdl.handle.net/10900/155137 http://hdl.handle.net/10900/156334 Introduction to the Volume Harvati, Katerina Given the ‘CROSSROADS’ research agenda, there could be multiple ways to organise the contributions in this volume. A temporal and geographic principle, rather than thematic, was chosen, in order to best showcase related work (for example, the multiple lines of research undertaken in the Megalopolis Basin). The book is organised in three sections: section one collects six contributions from earlier periods, from the late Miocene to the early Pleistocene, represented in Northern Greece; section two is by far the largest one, presenting seventeen contributions on the Middle Pleistocene Megalopolis Basin; and section three focuses on the late Middle and Late Pleistocene, with four contributions from Greece and beyond. Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10900/156334 2025-07-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10900/156332 Rhinocerotidae remains from the Lower Pleistocene site of Tsiotra Vryssi, Greece: Preliminary results Chitoglou, Krystalia; Pandolfi, Luca; Konidaris, George; Kostopoulos, Dimitris Pleistocene rhinocerotids are poorly investigated in Greece, compared to the Miocene ones. The limited systematic studies, as well as the scanty and fragmentary material allow only partial classifications, frequently at the genus level, i.e., Stephanorhinus sp. Based on the recent review by Giaourtsakis (2022), during the Pleistocene, rhinocerotids were represented by two genera in Greece; Coelodonta and Stephanorhinus. The most common representative of the genus Stephanorhinus is S. etruscus, which has been reported more or less certainly from the Early Pleistocene (middle Villafranchian to Epivillafranchian) faunas of Kalamoto 1 and 2, Krimni, Livakos, Molykrio, Psychiko, Richea, Aivaliki, Tourkovounia 3-5 and Vatera DS. The Middle–Late Pleistocene species, S. hemitoechus, is recorded in the localities of Penios and Petralona (Athanassiou, 2011; Symeonidis et al., 2006; Tsoukala, 2018; Giaourtsakis, 2022), whereas S. jeanvireti is present in some Pliocene localities, such as Angelochori, Milia and Saint George Priporos (Guérin and Tsoukala, 2013; Tsoukala, 2018). This contribution presents the preliminary results of the study of the Rhinocerotidae remains from the fossiliferous site of Tsiotra Vryssi (TSR) in the Mygdonia Basin (Northern Greece). The site, discovered in 2014, belongs to the upper parts of the Gerakarou Formation and yielded a late Villafranchian vertebrate fauna dated between 1.78 Ma and ~1.5 Ma (Konidaris et al., 2021). Among the mammalian remains, Rhinocerotidae are represented by numerous specimens, and their study aims to contribute to the taxonomy of the Greek Pleistocene rhinoceroses as well as to the biochronological and biogeographical distribution of the genus Stephanorhinus in Europe. Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10900/156332 2025-07-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10900/156336 The Late Villafranchian equids from the locality Tsiotra Vryssi (Mygdonia basin, Macedonia, Greece) Gkeme, Anastasia; Koufos, George; Kostopoulos, Dimitris; Harvati, Katerina The genus Equus arrived from North America to Eurasia at the beginning of Pleistocene (2.58 Ma) (Lindsay et al., 1980; Azzaroli, 1983; Bernor et al., 2019; Rook and Martínez-Navarro, 2010; Rook et al., 2019) with its first occurrence marking a faunal turnover and significant environmental changes from humid-warm ecosystems to colder-drier conditions. During the Early Pleistocene, Equus had been already significantly radiated in Eurasia, providing several lineages, some of them surviving till recent times. In Greece, the Equus datum is possibly traced in Damatria (Rhodes Island; van der Meulen and van Kolfschoten, 1986). Equids are the most common element in the Pleistocene Greek faunal assemblages, often exceeding 50% of the local finds in a number of specimens. Most of the Greek Equus remains come from the middle–late Villafranchian and Epivillafranchian. Mygdonia Basin (Central Macedonia, Greece), being at the crossroads of three continents, becomes an important path for faunal dispersals and a gateway for faunas coming from Asia Minor to South-Western Europe and vice versa. Several mammal fossiliferous sites have been discovered in this basin by the Laboratory of Geology and Palaeontology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (LGPUT) and many fossils have been unearthed, providing important palaeontological and biochronological data for Greece and beyond (Koufos and Kostopoulos, 2016 and references therein). Tsiotra Vryssi (TSR), a fossiliferous locality in Mygdonia Basin, dated between 1.78–1.5 Ma (Konidaris et al., 2021), provided a rich sample of fossil equids. Konidaris et al. (2015) preliminarily reported two species of Equus based on their size. Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10900/156336 2025-07-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10900/156339 Taphonomic study of the Lower Pleistocene site of Tsiotra Vryssi (Mygdonia basin, Greece): Preliminary results on bone modifications in equid carcasses Katsagoni, Anastasia; Konidaris, George; Giusti, Domenico; Koufos, George; Kostopoulos, Dimitri; Harvati, Katerina The fossiliferous site of Tsiotra Vryssi (TSR; Mygdonia Basin, Greece) is dated to the Lower Pleistocene, between 1.78 and 1.5 Ma, and has yielded a rich late Villafranchian vertebrate fauna, including diverse medium- to very large-sized herbivores (equids, bovids, cervids, giraffids, rhinocerotids, elephantids) and several large carnivorans (hyaenids, canids, ursids, felids) (Konidaris et al., 2015, 2021). Previous spatial taphonomic research has investigated the distribution of the TSR fossils and suggested multiple dispersion events and recurrent spatial rearrangement of a lag, (peri)autochthonous assemblage within a fluvial system (Giusti et al., 2019). Herein, we present preliminary results of our ongoing taphonomic study on carnivore modifications, and we focus on equid postcranial bones, which comprise the bulk of the TSR vertebrate assemblage. For the analysis, we perform a set of standard taphonomic analyses, following the “physical attribute approach” of Domínguez-Rodrigo et al. (2007, 2015a), in which the alterations in the physical attributes of skeletal elements constitute the major component for the interpretation of the taphonomic history of the assemblage. Therefore, besides the skeletal part representation, we focus here on bone surface modifications and bone damage patterns aiming to reveal the main biotic agent responsible for the modification of bones. Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10900/156339 2025-07-01T00:00:00Z