View article

The evolution of the paleobiogeography of the central Mediterranean, and of Italy in particular, is presented in a set of time-slices. Landmass movements and the erection of mountain ridges of the Alpine orogenesis explain the isolation, mixture, or extinction of populations through time. In turn, the change of faunal communities yields crucial information for testing geological reconstructions and models. Early Oligocene- earliest Miocene Subduction processes active during the Oligocene–Miocene caused the opening of the Balearic basin, the Sardinian rift, the Tyrrhenian sea and the formation of the Apennines. During the Rupelian-Chattian transition the Corsica-Sardinia microplate was still connected with the European continent. Anthracotheres reached what would become Calabria. A Sardinian early Miocene herpetofauna includes taxa that dispersed before the separation from the mainland. A set of uplifted, shallow-water carbonate platforms separated by shallow- to deep-marine basins characterized the Apennine domains wedged between the Paleogene Apennine Chain and the Dinarides. The Apulia Platform is the easternmost of these structural highs. It formed a vast land connected, through a trans-Adriatic landbridge, with the Balkan mainland. During the earliest Miocene Asian ctenodactyls colonized Sardinia. Italy then disappears from the terrestrial fossil records for the whole early-middle Miocene time span. Early-middle Miocene During the late Burdigalian, the Calabrian and Peloritan Arc started separating from the Corsica-Sardinia microplate. The evolution of the northern Tyrrhenian area created the Tusco-Sardinian …