Anatolia, the western part of modern-day Turkey that sits at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, is a fossil-rich land crucial to unlocking the mysteries surrounding the evolution of mammals over the last 10 million years. Despite the abundance of fossils from the Middle and Late Miocene (about 16 to 5.3 million years ago), scientists have to rely on indirect methods—like studying changes in the Earth’s magnetic field and comparing fossils from distant and uncertain locations—to estimate the age of the remains, due to lack of volcanic materials. Anatolia, the western part of modern-day Turkey that sits at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, is a fossil-rich land crucial to unlocking the mysteries surrounding the evolution of mammals over the last 10 million years. Despite the abundance of fossils from the Middle and Late Miocene (about 16 to 5.3 million years ago), scientists have to rely on indirect methods—like studying changes in the Earth’s magnetic field and comparing fossils from distant and uncertain locations—to estimate the age of the remains, due to lack of volcanic materials. Evolution Paleontology & Fossils Phys.org – latest science and technology news stories
Radioisotopic ages of newly discovered fossil sites hold clues to evolution of mammals
