Late Miocene to Pliocene palaeogeography of the Paratethys and its relation to the Mediterranean

The palaeogeographic evolution of the Paratethyan and Mediterranean realms are reconstructed with three maps ranging from the Late Miocene to the Middle–Late Pliocene. The maps are based on the facial analysis of selected deposits, clastic input, slope-slide process analyses as well as biogeographic data of the planktic, benthic and terrestrial biota. Characteristic fossil assemblages are used for palaeobathymetric and palaeohydrologic interpretations, restoration of palaeogeographic connections. The palaeogeographic reconstructions are palinspastically restored (after [Dercourt, J., Ricou, L.-E., Vrielynck, B. (Eds.), 1993. Atlas Tethys Palaeoenvironmental Maps. Gauthier-Villars, Paris, pp. 1–307, 14 maps; The Paleogeographic Atlas of Northern Eurasia, 1997. Inst. Tectonics Lithospheric Plates. Moscow. 26 maps], with modifications). Maps have been prepared for the terminal Tortonian/early Messinian–Late Pannonian/early Maeotian, Late Messinian–Pontian (salinity crisis time) and Piacenzian/Gelasian–Akchagilian. They illustrate the Neogene palaeogeographic evolution during and after the Attic orogenesis. Though the emerging mountain system of the Alpine foldbelt increasingly separated the Paratethys from the Mediterranean, Tethys–Paratethys connections remained extant and sufficiently effective for limited communication between both basins. They governed many features of the cyclic depositional history and biogeographic evolution of the Eastern Paratethys.