Southeastern Europe as the Arena of Vertebrate Evolution in the Late Miocene

The paper considers the main features of the late Miocene faunas of terrestrial vertebrates and marine mammals of Southeastern Europe and their general dynamics in connection with landscape and climatic changes. We note that the geographical area corresponding to the modern northwestern and northern Black Sea region with adjacent territories was a territory of intense diversification during the late Miocene. The revealed biogeographic significance of the region is associated with the fact that a border between the forest biome and open and/or semi-open landscapes occurred on this territory in the late Miocene. Accelerated diversification in this transitional (ecotone) zone is supposed to be associated with the fragmentation of species’ geographical ranges under pronounced spatial differentiation of plant associations and a wide representation of mosaic habitats caused by significant climatic fluctuations. We further discuss the general evolutionary potential of peripheral communities, as exemplified by the Hipparion vertebrate faunas of southeastern Europe.