Upper Miocene mammalian faunas of the Axios Valley (Macedonia, Greece) and their contribution to the study of the Neogene in the Eastern Mediterranean

The Late Miocene vertebrate localities in the Axios Valley (Macedonia, Greece) were discovered at the beginning of the last century by the French geologist Camille Arambourg, who made a large fossil collection and carried it back to France. During the last 50 years, extensive fieldwork have been carried out by a Greek–French team, which has yielded a large number of fossils. Important data on fauna, stratigraphy, biochronology, and palaeoecology were obtained from the study of this collection. The fauna of the Axios Valley proved diverse, comprising numerous groups of mammals and number of new taxa. It is divided into five distinct faunal assemblages, which cover chronologically the entire Late Miocene period. These faunas have been systematically studied, dated, and correlated with the European MN (mammal Neogene) biozones. Their analysis has been a major contribution to the understanding of palaeoenvironmental conditions and climatic changes during the Late Miocene in Greece and the wider Eastern Mediterranean region. The faunas of the Axios Valley have a well-established geographic, stratigraphic, systematic, and chronological background. They were the first to appear in the Eastern Mediterranean and can be used as a comparative fauna for the Late Miocene. Subsequent works in Greece and Türkiye added more data, further improving our understanding of the Neogene period in the Eastern Mediterranean. This paper is an attempt to summarise the work done on the Axios Valley Late Miocene mammal fauna in the last 50 years and present the results.