Caught in travertine: computed tomography reveals the youngest record of Amphicyon giganteus from the travertine deposits of Karacalar (late middle Miocene, central Anatolia, Turkey)

Julien van der Hoek; Aslı Karabaşoğlu; Serdar Mayda; Lars W van den Hoek Ostende

doi:10.1007/s12542-022-00610-0

Caught in travertine: computed tomography reveals the youngest record of Amphicyon giganteus from the travertine deposits of Karacalar (late middle Miocene, central Anatolia, Turkey)

Palaontol Z. 2022;96(2):385-402. doi: 10.1007/s12542-022-00610-0. Epub 2022 Feb 19.

Authors

Julien van der Hoek^{1

2}, Aslı Karabaşoğlu³, Serdar Mayda⁴, Lars W van den Hoek Ostende²

Affiliations

¹ Present Address: Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University, Villavägen 16, 75236 Uppsala, Sweden.
² Naturalis Biodiversity Center, P.O. Box 9517, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands.
³ Geological Engineering Department, Afyon Kocatepe University, 03200 Afyonkarahisar, Turkey.
⁴ Faculty of Science, Department of Biology, Ege University, Izmir, Turkey.

Abstract

A computed tomography scan of a travertine slab from the Karacalar Silver Travertine Quarry (Afyonkarahisar Province, Turkey) revealed the presence of an encased partial cranium, partial mandible and three vertebrae. 3D reconstruction of the fossil helped identifying it as Amphicyon giganteus. As the travertine caps a section correlated to MN7/8, the specimen represents the youngest record of Amphicyon giganteus, the known range previously being limited to MN4 - MN6. This young age is in line with the more advanced morphology of the lower molars.

Keywords: 3D reconstruction; Afyonkarahisar; Amphicyon giganteus; Amphicyonidae; Travertine.