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Vallesian


The Vallesian age is a period of geologic time (11.6—9.0 Ma) within the Miocene used more specifically with European Land Mammal Ages. It precedes the Turolian age and follows the Astaracian age. The Turolian overlaps the Tortonian and Messinian ages. The so-called Vallesian Crisis resulted in the extinction of several mammalian taxa characteristic of the Middle Miocene.

The term "Vallesian" was introduced by Catalan palaeontologist Miquel Crusafont in 1950 to mark the arrival of the equid Hipparion in Europe. The remaining European palaeofaunas, however, had been around since the Middle Miocene, including the moschid Micromeryx (a musk deer), the cervid Euprox, the suid Listriodon, and the felids Sansanosmilus and Pseudaelurus, and the Aragonian-Vallesian boundary does not represent a major shift in the European mammalian record. In contrast, the transition between Lower and Upper Vallesian corresponds to a major biotic crisis — the demise of most Aragonian artiodactyls, including the antelope Protragocerus, the bovid Miotragocerus, Listriodon, and the suids Hyotherium and Parachleusastochoerus. The crisis also affected rodents such as the family Eomyidae and most of the cricetids and glirids. They were replaced by species arriving from the east, Turolian in character: for example the suid Schizochoerus, the murid Progonomys, the bovids Tragoportax and Graecoryx, the hyaenid Adcrocuta, the felid Paramachairodus, and the suid Microstonyx.


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