Fish, amphibian and reptilian faunas from latest Oligocene to middle Miocene localities from Central Turkey

In this paper, we describe ectothermic vertebrate assemblages from the Kargi 1, Kargi 2, Kargi 3, Harami1, Harami 3, Hancili, Kesekoy, candir and Bagici localities in Turkey. The ages of these localities range from the latest Oligocene to the middle Miocene. The preserved non-mammalian fauna of the studied localities includes fishes (Luciobarbus sp., Barbus sp., Luciobarbus vel Barbus sp., aff. Capoeta sp., Barbini indet., Leuciscus sp.), anurans (Bufonidae indet. (? Pseudepidalea sp.), Pelobatidae indet., Latonia sp., Palaeobatrachidae indet.), caudates (Salamandra sp.), lizards (Pseudopus sp., Lacertidae indet. 1, Lacertidae indet. 2, Lacertidae indet. 3, Lacertidae indet. 4, Blanidae indet. (?Blanus sp.)), snakes (Albaneryx sp., Erycinae indet.) and crocodiles (Crocodylia indet.). Here, we describe, for the first time, the fossil occurrences of the genera Salamandra, Albaneryx and Pseudopus from Anatolia, as well as the first fossil representative of the clade of the Western Asian lizards (Lacertidae indet. 3). Our study provides the earliest known fossil occurrences of the genera Luciobarbus, Barbus, Pseudopus and Albaneryx. Palaeobiogeographic relationships of each studied group are discussed and compared with the European and Asiatic records. A tentative palaeoenvironmental reconstruction is provided for each locality.