Beitr. Paläont., 30:293-313, Wien 2006 The Large Mammals from the Miocene/Pliocene Locality of Silata, Macedonia, Greece with Implications about the Latest Miocene Palaeoecology by George D. Koufos*) Koufos, G.D., 2006. The Large Mammals from the Miocene/Pliocene Locality of Silata, Macedonia, Greece with Implications about the Latest Miocene Palaeoecology. — Beitr. Palaont., 30:293-313, Wien. Abstract The Miocene/Pliocene locality of Silata is well known from its micromammalian fauna, described earlier. How ever, there are also some interesting remains of large mam mals which are described in this article. The material is fragmentary and in most cases difficult to be identified, but it is interesting as from that time period the data are very few in Greece. The locality is situated in the Chalkidiki peninsula (Macedonia, Greece) about 45 km south-east of Thessaloniki. The identified fauna of large mammals includes: Hyaenidae indet., Paramachaerodus orientalis, Hipparion cf. mediterraneum, Rhinocerotidae indet., Microstonyx major, Helladotherium sp. or Samotherium sp., and Bovidae indet. The entire fauna (macro- and mi cro-mammals) and its similarity to the Maramena (Serres basin, Greece) fauna allow an age determination to the Miocene/Pliocene boundary or at the end of MN 13 zone. The analysis of the Turolian faunas of Greece indicates a relatively open environment. The comparison of the late Turolian Dytiko, Maramena and Silata faunas with recent and other faunas of Turolian age and their faunal composition suggest that they represent water-points in a wider open landscape and the palaeoenvironment was patchy during latest Miocene. Keywords: Mammalia, Miocene/Pliocene, Greece, de scription, biochronology, palaeoecology Zusammenfassung Die vom Miozän ins pliozän reichende Fundstelle Silata ist bekannt für ihre Kleinsäuger-Faunen. Es gibt aber auch einige interessante Reste von Großsäugern, die in diesem Artikel beschrieben werden. Das Material ist fragmentiert und daher meistens schwer bestimmbar, da aber in Griechen- Dr. George D. Koufos, Aristotle University of Thessa loniki. Department of Geology. Laboratory of Geology and Palaeontology. 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece, e-mail: koufos@geo.auth.gr. land nur wenige Fossilien aus dieser Zeitstufe bekannt sind, ist es die Mühe wert. Die Fundstelle liegt auf der Halbinsel Chalkidiki (Mazedonien, Griechenland), etwa 45 km südöstlich von Thessaloniki. Die Großsäuger-Faunenliste umfaßt: Hyaenidae indet., Paramachaerodus orienta lis, Hipparion cf. mediterraneum, Rhinocerotidae indet., Microstonyx major, Helladotherium sp. or Samotherium sp., and Bovidae indet. Die Zusammensetzung der Gesamt fauna und ihre Ähnlichkeit mit Maramena (Serres-Becken, Griechenland) erlaubt eine Alterseinstufung im Bereich der Miozän/Pliozän-Grenze oder gegen Ende von MN 13. Die Analyse der turolischen Faunen Griechenlands deutet auf verhältnismäßig offene Landschaften hin. Der Vergleich der spät-turolischen Dytiko-, Maramena- und Silata-Fauna mit rezenten oder anderen Faunen turolischen Alters zeigt, dass diese Fundstellen Wasserstellen in einer weitläufigen Offenlandschaft repräsentieren und dass das paleoenviron- ment im obersten Miozän eher fleckenhaft angelegt war. 1. Introduction Late Turolian and early Ruscinian large mammals are very rare in Greece as they are in the whole Eastern Mediterra nean. In Greece the localities Dytiko-1,2,3 of Axios valley (Macedonia, Greece) are dated to late Turolian, MN 13 (Koufos, 2006). The locality of Maramena (Serres basin, Macedonia, Greece) includes several large mammals and a rich micromammalian fauna which allows its dating to Turolian / Ruscinian, MN 13/14 (Schmidt-Kittler et al., 1995). The locality of Megalo Emvolon (Thessaloniki area) includes a small fauna of large mammals and it is dated to late Ruscinian, MN 15 (Koufos et al., 1991). Sporadic fossils of large mammals have been found in the Pliocene ligniferous deposits of Ptolemais basin (West ern Macedonia, Greece) (Koufos, 1982; D oukas & D e Bruijn, 2002), as well as in the basin of Xanthi-Komotini (Thrace, Greece) dated to early Ruscinian (Syrides et al., 1997). Some remains of large mammals have been also described from the locality of Apolakkia, Rhodes island and were dated to Early Ruscinian (Van der M eulen & Van Kolfschoten, 1978; Koufos, 2006). The record of Pliocene large mammals is also poor in the neighbouring ©Verein zur Förderung der Paläontologie am Institut für Paläontologie, Geozentrum Wien