Eurasian mammal biochronology: an overview

Late Cenozoic Eurasian mammal biochronology has achieved a new and higher level of resolution. This has been accomplished by correlation of Eurasian mammal biochronology with an independent time frame, the Geomagnetic Polarity Time Scale (GPTS). The result is a tentative calibration for MN zones and their boundaries for the late Miocene, Pliocene and Pleistocene; spanning MN zones 8 through 17 (Vallesian through Villanyian-Villafranchian), an interval of about 10 my (2 to 12 Ma, more or less). An overview of papers presented in this special issue is organized under the following headings: Paleomagnetism and Biochronology in Spain, Chronologic Resolution of Eurasian Mammal Chronology, and Late Cenozoic Mammal Chronology in Asia (excluding the Siwaliks sequence of southern Asia). The chronologic framework presented in this issue should serve as a reliable temporal setting for late Cenozoic mammal evolution in Europe and Asia; it is not the last word in Eurasian late Cenozoic mammal biochronology, but must be tested and revised as our knowledge advances.