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The late Miocene hominoid-bearing site in the Maragheh Formation, Northwest Iran

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Abstract

After a long period of inactivity, recent excavations at the late Miocene Maragheh Formation unexpectedly resulted in the discovery of the first fossil hominoid and second Mesopithecus remains from this area. The discovery motivated a new international initiative to conduct research in these rich fossil sites. These studies focused on the fossil hominoid and its locality, aiming to reveal more about the context of this fossil discovery. Detailed stratigraphy, sedimentology and magnetostratigraphy studies were conducted. New samples from volcaniclastic key horizons (pumice beds) in Dareh Gorg, where the hominoid fossil site is located, were dated by radiometric methods. The radiometric age determinations provide a firm tie-point for the geochronology. The polarity pattern in the palaeomagnetically investigated section corroborates the K-Ar results. The preliminary magnetostratigraphic results suggest that the hominoid locality can be correlated to the normal polarity chron C4n.2n (8.108–7.695 Ma), C4n.1n (7.642–7.528 Ma) or C3Br.1n (7.285–7.251 Ma), placing it at intervals corresponding to the mammal units MN11 or possibly early MN12. The study of fossil hominoid indicates broad affinities with a number of contemporaneous taxa from the Balkan-Iranian palaeoprovince, as well as Siwaliks and southeast Asia. A preliminary analysis of the accompanying (in situ) fauna at the hominoid site indicates the highest similarity of this level to Turolian hominoid- and Mesopithecus-bearing localities in Turkey, Greece and Bulgaria. However, some environmental differences are observed among these localities, based on their faunal structure and taxon properties, as well as in the different masticatory adaptations of their hominoids.

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Acknowledgements

The Department of Environment (environment protection organisation) of the Government of Iran permitted and facilitated this study. We would like to express our gratitude to the former and present heads of the “natural environment division” of this organisation as well as those of the “office of natural history museum, biodiversity and genetic resources” for their support. We also appreciate assistance by the Maragheh governor, mayor, city council, and the DOE office, and the members of the INSPE (International Sahand Palaeoenvironmental Expedition) team and participants of the field workshops held in Maragheh during 2007–2009. We specially thank Philippe Richir (MNHN, Paris), Zhou Wei (IVPP, Beijing), Pierre Mauries and Kari Lintulaakso (University of Helsinki) for their field assistance. MMA is grateful to Dimitris Kostopolous for providing bovid body mass data. We thank Raymond Bernor and Nikolai Spassov for their reviews and valuable comments. MMA, MF, AK and field work in Maragheh were partially supported by the Academy of Finland, RHOI project (NSF-HOMINID- BCS-0321893), Sasakawa Foundation, Nordenskiöld Samfundet and DOE/MMTT.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, University of Zanjan, Zanjan, 4537138791, Iran

    Majid Mirzaie Ataabadi

  2. Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Anu Kaakinen, Mohammad Paknia & Mikael Fortelius

  3. Ryukoku University, Kyoto, Japan

    Yutaka Kunimatsu

  4. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Kagoshima University, Kagoshima, Japan

    Hideo Nakaya

  5. Department of Environment, National Museum of Natural History (MMTT), Tehran, Iran

    Zahra Orak

  6. Department of Geoscience, Shimane University, Matsue, Japan

    Tetsuya Sakai

  7. Department of Physics, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Johanna Salminen

  8. Professor Emeritus, Shimane University, Matsue, Japan

    Yoshihiro Sawada

  9. Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France

    Sevket Sen

  10. The University Museum, The University of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan

    Gen Suwa

  11. Department of Earth sciences, Osaka City University, Osaka, Japan

    Mahito Watabe

  12. Department of Environment, Maragheh, Iran

    Gholamreza Zaree

  13. Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, CAS, Beijing, China

    Zhang Zhaoqun

  14. CEES, Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1066 Blindern, NO-0316, Oslo, Norway

    Mikael Fortelius

  15. Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Berlin, Germany

    Mikael Fortelius

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This article is a contribution to the special issue "The late Miocene Maragheh mammal fauna; results of recent multidisciplinary research."

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Ataabadi, M.M., Kaakinen, A., Kunimatsu, Y. et al. The late Miocene hominoid-bearing site in the Maragheh Formation, Northwest Iran. Palaeobio Palaeoenv 96, 349–371 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12549-016-0241-4

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