Slovakia was part of a defunct continent. What happened when they joined Europe?
The people of Europe were unprepared for the flood of alien species from Asia and, with few exceptions, became extinct.
- In the Tertiary, older Europe was inhabited by a unique fauna.
- 34 years ago, it fell victim to a massive extinction, after which typical other species predominated in Europe.
- A new study came to the point that the connection to the extinct island continent, which bridged Europe with Asia, led to extinction.
- Scientists call it Balkanatolia. His reserve is the Balkans, Anatolia, but also the territory of Slovakia.
At the beginning of the Tertiary, about 50 million years ago, Europe does not yet exist. What we now call the Old Continent lacked large areas of the southeast of present-day Poland, Moravia, Germany, and France.
A new research by an international team of scientists contains that most of these missing areas of today’s Slovakia form part of a defunct island continent.
As reported in the study published in Earth Science Reviews, when they teamed up with nascent Europe, which caused the mass extinction of local species. They practically replaced foreigners.
When Europe ruled Asia
In the older Tertiary (66 to 34 million years ago), the “germ” of the future of Europe was inhabited by strange types of mammals.
A Slovak scientist helped clarify the evolution of the popular lizard
Various archaic, half-ape-like primates lay in the trees, while archaic ungulates ran in the forests, such as tapir-like but horse-related Paleotherias. The largest reached the dimensions of today’s horses, others weighed only a few kilos.
About 34 million years ago, a major turning point in the development of European mammals. Almost everyone is extinct.
In the fossil record, they are replaced by mammals of a close modern group, such as the extinction of relatives of hippos, rhinos or ruminants. Alternatively, early hamsters, hedgehogs and beavers.
All these groups share a common origin – their ancestors originally evolved in Asia.
According to a new study, the key to understanding the great European extinction may be Eurasia’s third “founding mainland” – a continent in the meantime.
Extinct continent
Geologists have long been paleontologists that the oldest indications of an “Asian invasion” come from Europe in the Balkans. They precede the mass extinction in other areas by several million years.
The reason is simple – the territory of today’s Balkans did not belong to Europe at the beginning of the Tertiary.
Instead, it formed part of a long island belt of broken blocks of crust. Today it includes Anatolia and, but they also became the territory of today’s Slovakia.
Geological indications have suggested that sea levels may have linked the archipelago to a continuous decline on the island’s mainland. A miniature continent sometimes called the Balkanatolia.
Photo gallery
The Balkans 40 million years ago and the current deployment of its remnants.
Source: Alexis Licht, Grégoire Métais
They reevaluated and dug up
An international team of geologists and paleontologists, led by scientists from the French National Center for Scientific Research, decided to better understand the role of this engulfed land in the large extinction of Tertiary mammals.
To do this, the researchers reconsidered the dating and species composition of the long-known sites of prehistoric mammals in the Balkans and Anatolia. Some of the finds were excavated by pioneers of paleontology as early as the beginning of the 19th century.
Thus, they found that both areas were inhabited by identical species 50 to 40 million years ago. However, they differed from the fauna of modern Europe and Asia.
The authors also explored new sites. The findings from the Turkish area of Büyükteflek proved to be the most important. Millions of other species have been found in strata 38 to 35 years old. For example, the strange long-legged rhinoceros Prohyracodon, or the horse-related but two-ton “thunder beasts” Embolotherium.
Photo gallery
Horses related to Embolotherium.
Source: Tim Bertelink, Wikimedia
Connection and influx of new species
The composition of the fauna – suitable species in the Balkans and Anatolia, which were also significantly different from the species of neighboring lands -, according to the authors confirm that both areas formed a common island continent, the Balkanatolia.
According to a new study, its surface area reached approximately 100,000 square kilometers. That is almost twice the size of Madagascar. At the same time, the reconstructions of Tertiary geography show that the territory of today’s Slovakia formed its northwestern tip.
The infiltration of multichannel species noted in the event of a change for the change that Lake Balaton merged with Asia at the latest 35 million years ago. The Asian fauna pushed out the species and waited for another opportunity shortly afterwards. About 30 million years ago.
At that time, sea levels, caused by the growth of glaciers in Antarctica, led to the formation of a land bridge between the Balkans and nascent Europe.
Photo gallery
Balkanatolia fauna and its paleogeographic reconstruction 38 million years ago.
Source: Alexis Licht, Grégoire Métais
Climate change was not enough
This was followed by an influx of new species into Europe, which, according to the authors, dealt a fatal blow to European “old settlers”.
Researchers admit that Europe was also affected by climate change at a time of mass extinction. However, according to them, they affected both domestic and foreign species.
The authors of the study point out that at about the same time another, a northern connection between Europe and Asia, was created. However, the northern corridor remained largely unused. It was formed by dry and cold semi-deserts. Most migrating species move through the Balkans.