Panagiotis Kampouridis

University of Tuebingen | EKU Tübingen · Department of Geosciences

The present study describes an almost complete cervical region of the fossil ostrich Struthio karatheodoris from the Turolian locality of Kerassia (Euboea, Greece). The material comes from two distinct fossiliferous horizons and consists of twelve cervical vertebrae, ten of which belong to the same individual. These specimens are the first remains...

Elasmotheres, such as the huge Siberian unicorn (Elasmotherium sibiricum), are amongst the most iconic large mammals ever to roam Eurasia. Several different elasmotheriine taxa are also known from the upper Miocene of Asia, including the large genus Parelasmotherium. Herein we present the re-examination of the holotype of its type species Parelasmo...

Chalicotheres are a peculiar group of large herbivorous mammals, closely related to extant tapirs, rhinoceroses, and horses, but with large claws instead of hooves. The family Chalicotheriidae consists of two subfamilies, the Schizotheriinae and the Chalicotheriinae. Herein we present chalicothere remains from the Upper Miocene locality of Pogana 1...

Extant rhinoceroses are represented only by five species and are characterized by the presence of a nasal horn. In the past, they were much more diverse, with one of the best-known groups being the aceratheriines, i.e., hornless rhinoceroses. Chilotheres are a group of hornless rhinos that inhabited Eurasia during the Late Miocene. Their westernmos...

Chalicotheres are enigmatic perissodactyls that had large claws instead of hooves. The present study concerns the material of Chalicotheriidae from the Late Miocene hominid locality of Hammerschmiede in Germany. The HAM 5 fossil site (11.62 Ma) consists of six isolated dental and postcranial chalicothere elements. Based on the morphology and dimens...

During the Miocene, proboscideans reached their greatest diversification, and due to their marked evolutionary changes in dental size and morphology, they comprise an important biostratigraphic/biochronological tool. In this article, we study the proboscideans from the Late Miocene hominid locality Hammerschmiede (Germany), whose fossiliferous laye...

The Palaeogene is a very important time period for mammalian evolution because it documents the first occurrence of many groups. One such group is the enigmatic Ptolemaiida, best known from the Early Oligocene of the Fayum Depression in Egypt, where it is represented by three genera, Ptolemaia, Qarunavus, and Cleopatrodon, including five species. A...

The limestones of the Solnhofen area in southern Germany are one of the most important fossil Lagerstätten from the entire Mesozoic era, especially famous for the exquisitely preserved vertebrates. The turtles from the Solnhofen Limestone have been always of special interest because they include some of the best-preserved specimens from the Mesozoi...

The hyaenid family reached its peak of spatial range and taxonomic diversity during the Late Miocene, including a very wide range of different forms that were spanning throughout the Old World. Particularly, the fossil record of the family in the Balkans and China has been extremely variable during that time. The present paper deals with cranial an...

Egypt has yielded some of the richest and most spectacular records of Mesozoic terrestrial vertebrates from Africa. Certainly, the best-known and most diverse of these are the vertebrate assemblages of the Upper Cretaceous Bahariya Formation (Cenomanian), which includes numerous different taxa of fishes, abundant remains of turtles and crocodylifor...

The Fayum has yielded one of the oldest and richest records of fossil mammals from Africa. Today, the Fayum Depression represents an oasis in the Western Desert of Egypt, south of Cairo, and contains several localities that are world renowned for their diverse Eocene to Oligocene vertebrate assemblages. The fossil sites of the Fayum area have provi...

The present paper deals with the ecomorphological characteristics of two sympatric species of ictitheres: Ictitherium viverrinum Roth & Wagner, 1854 and Hyaenictitherium wongii (Zdansky, 1924) from the Late Miocene of the Eastern Mediterranean. These two species represent different taxonomic groups with allegedly distinct ecological roles. The valu...

Pterodactylus from the uppermost Jurassic of southern Germany represents one of the most iconic pterosaurs, due to its status of being the first member of the Pterosauria to have been described and named. During the early phase of pterosaur research, Pterodactylus was a wastebasket taxon containing dozens of sometimes distantly related assigned spe...

Report of craniodental material of the rhinocerotids Chilotherium schlosseri, Miodiceros neumayri and Dihoplus pikermiensis from the late Miocene of Samos Island, Greece, from the T. Skoufos collection. Based on the study of the mesowear, C. schlosseri is interpreted as a mixed feeder engaged in browsing.

The present study deals with new material of carnivorans (Mustelidae, Mephitidae, Ailuridae, Potamotheriinae and Viverridae) from the basal Tortonian (Late Miocene, late Astaracian) hominid-bearing locality of Hammerschmiede (Bavaria, Germany). The small carnivoran fauna includes 20 species belonging to nine different subfamilies (Guloninae, Lutrin...

Herein the fossil assemblage of the Middle Miocene (12.06 Ma) locality of Markt Retten-bach (Southern Germany) is studied. The fossil-bearing sediments of the clay pit have been known for almost a century, but until now only little is known about its fauna. A small sample of fossils collected in the 1940s is housed in the collections of the Kempten...

The present paper deals with new hyaenid material from the locality of Hammerschmiede (Bavaria, Germany). The described specimens are attributed to two forms: most of the specimens belong to the species Thalassictis montadai, whereas one I3 is attributed to a large bone-cracking hyena. The material comes from the layers HAM 5 (11.62 Ma) and HAM 6 (...

The Neogene Burel Basin in the Western Srednogorje region of the Balkans provides rare fossil large mammals, which have importance for mammalian evolution and faunal chronology at the Miocene-Pliocene transition of the Balkan Peninsula. Here we report on new, and review published, proboscideans and perissodactyls from the Kaisiinitsa and Tranerska...

The Lower Cretaceous Hutubei Formation of the southern Junggar Basin (northwestern China) is characterized by a very low faunal diversity, yielding almost exclusively the sinemydid turtle Wuguia. Here we describe the first pterosaur remains from the Hutubei Formation comprising a complete right ulna and the distal part of a left wing metacarpal. Th...

This study presents a new species of a large-sized lutrine from the upper Miocene hominid locality of Hammerschmiede, Vishnuonyx neptuni sp. nov., reporting the first occurrence of the genus in Europe and its most northern and western record. The new species differs from the already known members of the genus in size (intermediate between the Afric...

The Upper Triassic (Norian) Chinle Formation of the southwest USA is world-renowned for its diverse fossil assemblages. Here we describe a new trace fossil assemblage from the formation in Dinosaur National Monument (northeastern Utah), and discuss its paleoenvironmental implications. The trace fossils comprise freshwater bilobate resting and feedi...

The first detailed description of Ancylotherium pentelicum (Gaudry and Lartet, 1856) from the late Miocene (Turolian) of Kerassia (Greece) is provided based on three metapodial elements. Potential intraspecific variability of this species in the Eastern Mediterranean has been previously discussed, but no decisive conclusions could be drawn. The pre...

The present article offers a detailed review of the taxonomy, distribution and palaeoecology of the genus Semigenetta. The study is based on new craniodental and postcranial remains of the genus from the early late Miocene (Tortonian) locality of Hammerschmiede (Bavaria, Germany). Most of the new specimens are attributed to the medium-sized species...

Remains of the fossil aardvark Amphiorycteropus gaudryi (Orycteropodidae, Tubulidentata) from the late Miocene locality of Kerassia in Greece are here described and compared with material of other orycteropodid species. The studied material includes a partially preserved skull, two mandibular fragments, two lumbar vertebrae, the first rather comple...

Chilotherium represents one of the most characteristic rhinocerotid genera during the late Miocene of Eurasia. In Europe, it is restricted to the eastern parts of the continent (Balkan Peninsula and Peri-Pontic region). In total, eight Chilotherium species have been described from European material, with Samos (Greece) representing the type localit...

The family Chalicotheriidae formed a peculiar perissodactyl lineage with no extant representatives. The schizotheriine chalicotheriid Ancylotherium pentelicum was a rare, but typical faunal element of the sub-Paratethyan (Balkan-Iranian) biogeographical province during the late Miocene. In the present work, three new postcranial specimens of A. pen...

The locality of Kerassia was discovered in 1982, yielding a diverse Late Miocene mammalian fauna. Since 1992, the University of Athens has been conducting a series of recurring systematic excavations, unveiling seven fossiliferous sites belonging to two distinct stratigraphical horizons. The rhinocerotid diversity at Kerassia is notable, comprising...

The Turolian fossil beds of Greece include a high number of contemporary small carnivoran taxa, such as Mustelidae (Promeles, Parataxidea, Martes, Sinictis, Enhydriodon), Mephitidae (Promephitis) and Hyaenidae (Protictitherium, Plioviverrops). Many of these species are found together in some localities, therefore they must have adapted some differe...

The present study deals with two enigmatic carnivores of the Late Miocene of Greece, Plesiogulo crassa and Simocyon primigenius, from an ecomorphological point of view. These species are compared to extant mustelids and canids respectively, in order to provide some suggestions on their diet. Plesiogulo crassa was a large, wolverine-like mustelid. M...

This study deals with the description of the fauna of Karnezeika, a new Middle-Late Villafranchian locality in southern Greece. The faunal assemblage is significantly rich, given the low number of specimens, including 22 genera of macromammals, micromammals, aves and reptiles

A fieldwork update on the new palaeontological excavations at the classical Turolian locality of Pikermi (Attica, Greece).

A fieldwork update on the new palaeontological excavations at the classical Turolian locality of Pikermi (Attica, Greece). For additional information and proper citation, view the published extended abstract: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333973305

Faunal Diversity at the Turolian locality of Kerassia (Northern Euboea, Greece)

As taxonomic identification is the most fundamental portion of palaeontological research, the present work is attempting to re-examine the ability to discriminate paleo-species. The limited nature of fossils has always been an inhibitor to a complete and accurate taxonomic identification. Therefore, a new method is presented that recalculates the d...

This study proposes that matrices can be used in taxonomical identification, by using the phylogenetically significant differences preserved in them. Τhe “morphological difference” between the unidentified sample and the typical form of a known species can be calculated through a simple set of formulas. The species that results to the minimum diffe...

In this study, the tail length of “Metailurus parvulus” is estimated, using a variety of methods. The studied material consists of a sacrum and four associated caudal vertebrae excavated from the Late Miocene locality Kerassia-1 in 2001. These specimens are the first remains of the tail of “M. parvulus”. The fossils were compared to different extan...

The presence of ostriches in the fossil record of Greece has been known since the 19th century. During the Late Miocene of Greece the genus Struthio (Aves, Struthioniformes) was represented by S. karatheodoris, which was initially described from Samos Island. Over the last few decades, remains of S. karatheodoris have been identified from many othe...

In this study we publish the occurrence of Amphiorycteropus gaudryi from the Late Miocene of Kerassia in Greece for the first time. We describe the new material and we make some assumptions about the morphology and the ecology of the species.

In the present study, rhinoceros fossils are described from the new locality of Richea (Eastern Laconia, Greece) for the first time. The fossils were discovered in bone-bearing calcified breccia inside the limestone fissures of the Tripolis geotectonic zone, and were deposited in the collections of the Museum of Palaeontology and Geology of Athens (AM...

In the present study, rhinoceros fossils are described from the new locality of Richea (Eastern Laconia, Greece) for the first time. The fossils were discovered in bone-bearing calcified breccia inside the limestone fissures of the Tripolis geotectonic zone, and were deposited in the collections of the Museum of Palaeontology and Geology of Athens (AM...

The locality of Pikermi (Attica, Greece) has yielded a remarkably rich Late Miocene vertebrate fauna, which is considered to be part of the Subparatethyan or Greco-Iranian Zoogeographic Province. Among the Order Perissodactyla, the Family Rhinocerotidae has encountered some complex taxonomic problems due to its high uniformity. Species taxonomy has...

New morphological and biometrical data on the carpal and metacarpal bones of Dihoplus pikermiensis and "Diceros" neumayri (Perissodactyla, Rhinocerotidae) from the Late Miocene of Greece.

The Late Miocene fossiliferous locality of Kerassia is located in northwestern Euboea, near the homonymous village. In the current undergraduate thesis material from all the excavations that have taken place in the area was studied. The material consists of bones from the most common mammal families that are represented in the Turolian faunas of th...