Depósito legal: S1004-2011

Front cover: View of the Gibraleon quarry in the westermost part of the North Betic strait,showing the Tortonian-Messinian boundary.Copyright F.J. Sierro & J.A.González-Delgado (eds.)

ARAGONIAN BIOSTRATIGRAPHY: NEW DATA AND CORRELATIONS

M. A. Álvarez-Sierra1, I. García-Paredes2, V. Hernández Ballarín2, L.W. van den HoekOstende3, K. Hordijk4, P. López Guerrero1, A. J. van der Meulen4, A. Oliver2, andP. Peláez-Campomanes2

1 Dpto. de Paleontología, Facultad de CC Geológicas, UCM, IGEO (CSIC) José AntonioNovais 2, 28040 Madrid, Spain. Álvarez-Sierra E-mail: masierra@geo.ucm.es2 Dpto. de Paleobiología, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales-CSIC, José GutiérrezAbascal 2, 28006 Madrid, Spain3 Netherlands Centre for Biodiversity-Naturalis; Darwinweg 2, 2333 CR Leiden,The Netherlands.4 Faculty of Earth Sciences, Utrecht University, Budapestlaan 4, 3584 CD Utrecht,The Netherlands.

Ever since their discovery in the 1960s, the fossiliferous layers in the vicinity of Daroca-Villefeliche, now known as the Aragonian type section, have played an important rolein discussions on European mammal stratigraphy. The last major revision of thestratigraphy of the sections was made in 1999, when preliminary information from scoresof new localities, as well as magnetostratigraphic data became available (Daams et al.,1999a, b). Ongoing taxonomical studies on the glirids, cricetids, lagomorphs and in-sectivores now allow further refinement, and formal biozone definition, of the Aragonianbiostratigraphy (Van der Meulen et al., in press). Moreover, similar advances in differentbasins, both within Spain (e.g., the Madrid Basin) and elsewhere in Europe (e.g., theNorth Alpine Foreland Basin), lead to a better understanding of the Middle Miocenefaunal palaeobiogeography. At the same time, it becomes more and more evident justhow complex the European biochronology is. Recent analyses of the micromammalinformation from the Calatayud-Montalbán and Madrid basins show the existence ofclear asynchrony on several faunal events at Spanish and European scale, based on themost recent information on European chronology (Van der Meulen et al., 2011; andreferences included there in), although not as important as proposed in previous worksbased on correlations of MN units (Kälin & Kempf, 2009). A more detailed studyof several key faunal events, based on new information, allows the refinement of previ-ously proposed European faunal correlations. This greatly improves our understandingof the complex European biochronology and biogeographical history. At the same timeour work clearly shows that in order to further advance our knowledge on the Miocenevertebrate history of Europe, we need to first extend the local and regional stratigra-phies, with well-stablished time control, before we can make confident correlationsacross Europe.

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Climate changes, bioevents and geochronology in the Atlantic and Mediterranean over the last 23 MyrJoint RCMNS - RCANS Interim Colloquium, Salamanca. September 21st to 23rd, 2011

REFERENCES1. Daams, R., van der Meulen, A.J., Álvarez Sierra, M.Á., Peláez-Campomanes, P.,

Calvo, J.P., Alonso Zarza, M.A. and Krijgsman, W. (1999a). Stratigraphy and sedi-mentology of the Aragonian (Early to Middle Miocene) in its type area (North-CentralSpain). Newsletters on Stratigraphy, 37(3), 103-139.

2. Daams, R., van der Meulen, A.J., Alvarez Sierra, M.Á., Peláez-Campomanes, P. andKrijgsman, W. (1999b). Aragonian stratigraphy reconsidered, and a re-evaluation ofthe middle Miocene mammal biochronology in Europe. Earth and Planetary ScienceLetters, 165(3-4), 287-294.

3. Kälin, D. and Kempf, O. (2009) High-resolution stratigraphy from the continentalrecord of the Middle Miocene northern Alpine foreland basin of Switzerland. NeuesJahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie Abhandlungen, 254(1-2), 177-235.

4. Van der Meulen, A.J., García-Paredes, I., Álvarez-Sierra, M.Á., van den Hoek Ostende,L.W., Hordijk, K., Oliver, A., López-Guerrero, P., Hernández-Ballarín, V. and P. Peláez-Campomanes. (2011) Biostratigraphy or biochronology? Lessons from the Early andMiddle Miocene small Mammal Events in Europe. Geobios, 44(2-3):309-321.

5. Van der Meulen, A.J., García-Paredes, I., Álvarez-Sierra, M.Á., van den Hoek Ostende,L.W., Hordijk, K., Oliver, A. and Peláez-Campomanes, P. (in press). Updated Aragonianbiostratigraphy: Small Mammal distribution and its implications for the Miocene Euro-pean Chronology. Geologica Acta.

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Climate changes, bioevents and geochronology in the Atlantic and Mediterranean over the last 23 MyrJoint RCMNS - RCANS Interim Colloquium, Salamanca. September 21st to 23rd, 2011