Abstract
Small mammals represent an important source of biostratigraphic and ecological information at Plio/Pleistocene localities. In this paper, we provide an overview of small mammals from Pliocene and Pleistocene sites in Greece, present fossil rodent and insectivore faunal assemblages and their chronology for select loci, and discuss the applicability of Paleomagnetism and Mammal Neogene (MN) zonation for Greek assemblages. Comparisons and contrasts between the faunas of various sites are attempted in order to trace paleoenvironmental and ecotone changes during each period. Small mammal faunas have been studied at only a few archaeological/anthropogenic Pleistocene sites in Greece, and therefore most of the sites mentioned here bear only paleontological information. Our overview, however, demonstrates that small mammals can be an excellent source of supplementary information for the interpretation of archaeological sites.
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Acknowledgments
We thank the organizers of the PaGE Symposium in general and Katerina Harvati in particular for putting together Archaeologists, Anthropologists, and Paleontologists in a fruitful discussion mode. George Koufos and Ioanna Sylvestrou provided useful information. Constantine Kostantopoulos was instrumental in writing this manuscript. Mirjana Roksandic made critical suggestions that greatly improved this manuscript. We would also like to thank the reviewers and editors for their comments and corrections.
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Doukas, C.S., Papayianni, K. (2016). Small Mammals in the Plio/Pleistocene Sediments of Greece. In: Harvati, K., Roksandic, M. (eds) Paleoanthropology of the Balkans and Anatolia. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-0874-4_17
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