The configuration of the planet has not always been as we know it today, it has slowly changed over the eons. But thanks to clues hidden in the ground, scientists can guess what the setting was like in the past. About 40 million years ago there was a bridge that linked Asia and Europe, and through which researchers believe that many of the animal species distributed to reach what we know today.
The land surface has not always remained as it is today. There are simulations of the movement of tectonic plates over millions of years, which show us that the continents have been in practically all corners of the planet. Therefore, it can be assumed that surfaces existed in the past that today would be completely missing. That is exactly what is believed to have happened in Balkanatolia, a natural bridge that linked Asia and Europe millions of years ago.
Research suggests that the continent rose 40 million years ago. According to the indications, Balkanatolia was located between the current Balkans and Anatolia, hence its name. A recent study published in Earth Science Review has revealed interesting details about this now-vanished continent.
A bridge that united Asia and Europe
According to the researchers in charge of the study, Balkanatolia benefited from the drop in sea level, thus emerging from the depths and serving as a bridge that allowed animals to cross from Asia to Europe. Apparently this caused the substitution of the western endemic fauna and after this a mass extinction known as Coupure occurred, which occurred 34 million years ago and marks the end of the Eocene.
At that time the drop in sea level, as well as the growth of the Antarctic ice sheets and tectonic changes, produced a connection between Balkanatolia and Western Europe. For this reason, the endemic fauna of the continent was gradually replaced by biodiversity coming from other continental masses when it became connected to them.
They also explain that during the Antarctic Ice Age, the decrease in sea level caused the small continent of Balkanatolia to finally become attached to Western Europe, thus disappearing. According to the maps created by the researchers, reminiscences of Balkanatolia can still be seen in regions of Europe that we know today as Greece and Turkey.
In fact, experts have found fossils that seem to have affinities with families of animals from Asia in countries like Turkey. Specifically, jaws of Brontotherios were found, which were animals similar to current rhinos, dating from 38 million years ago and probably arriving from Asia to Europe through the now extinct Balkanatolia.
The study sheds light on the configuration of the continental masses in the past and shows us that everything we know is a consequence of the planetary configuration. That is to say, the geography of the regions brings great influences so that the species evolve and distribute themselves as they do today.
References: Licht, A. Balkanatolia: The insular mammalian biogeographic province that partly paved the way to the Grande Coupure. Earth Science Review, DOI
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