Get to know Balkanatolia: a forgotten continent that, according to an international team of researchers, radically changed the European animal kingdom millions of years ago.

An international team of researchers thinks they have discovered a continent unknown to us until recently. They christened it Balkanatolia. The continent – ​​the remnants of which now form the Balkans and Anatolia – are said to have separated Europe from Asia for millions of years and then brought the two continents into contact with each other – with dramatic consequences for the mammals living in Europe. That can be read in the magazine Earth Science Reviews† The research not only hints at the existence of a long-forgotten continent, but also solves an old riddle: the paradox of the Grande denomination.

grand denomination

It has been known for much longer that the European animal kingdom changed radically towards the end of the Eocene (an epoch covering the period between 55 and 34 million years ago). Researchers also refer to the event as the Grande denomination.

Divorced

Prior to this Grande Denomination, Europe and Asia were separated by water. And both continents had their own fauna. In Europe, this fauna was dominated by the odd-toed ungulate Palaeotheriidae (distant relatives of modern horses) and several even-toed ungulate families. Meanwhile, Asia was home to a much more diverse fauna, including mammalian families that can be found in both Asia and Europe to this day. All that changed about 34 million years ago: Asian species (including rhinoceroses, hamsters and hedgehogs) suddenly colonized Europe. Numerous native European species – including some of those distant relatives of the horse – lost out, while countless Asian species successfully established themselves in Europe. The European fauna changed radically and for good.

So far, the Grande Coupure is an unambiguous story. It became puzzling, however, when scientists in the Balkans dug up fossil remains of Asian animals that roamed here long before the Grande Coupure. The finds hinted at a much earlier colonization of Europe, while the penetrating consequences of this did not appear in the fossil record until the end of the Eocene. How can this paradox be explained? An international team of researchers now thinks they have figured it out. In their review they introduce a forgotten continent: Balkanatolia, which undermines the complete paradox.

Above: Balkanatolia about 40 million years ago. Below: the remains of Balkanatolia as they appear today. Image: © Alexis Licht & Grégoire Métai.

Balkanatolia

According to the researchers, Balkanatolia – which today covers the Balkans and Turkey – would have been an archipelago about 50 million years ago. The archipelago was located between Europe and Asia and had its own fauna. About forty million years ago, for reasons still unknown, the isolated location of Balkanatolia would have ended, on which Asian mammals could enter the continent. They colonized it. At that time, the animals could not steam through to Europe; Balkanatolia was still separated from Europe by water. However, that changed about six million years later, probably due to the formation of the Antarctic ice sheet. The sea level dropped and a land bridge was created between Balkanatolia and Europe, after which the Grande Coupure took place.

Finds

The researchers base that tentative conclusion on a review of previous paleontological discoveries. And those discoveries, according to the scientists, show that the fauna in the Balkans and Anatolia was very different from that in Europe and Asia until 40 million years ago. It hints at an isolated location, with Balkanatolia thus forming a continent in its own right. In addition, in their review, the research team reveals the discovery of new mammal fossil remains in Turkey that are between 38 and 35 million years old and clearly originate from Asia. Taken together, the finds point to an early colonization of Balkan atolia by Asian mammals, which then had to wait millions of years before they could steam on to Europe.

It is certainly an interesting interpretation of the fossil remains discovered recently and previously in the Balkans and Turkey. Follow-up research – in which more fossil remains from the Eocene are found and examined – will have to show whether this can survive. It is also more important to look beyond fossil finds alone. Thus, the interpretation could also be (further) confirmed or disproved by follow-up studies that also investigate the driving forces behind the geographic changes that would have made Balkan atolia accessible to Asian animals and that, at a later stage, would also have enabled animals to to reach Europe.