New localities of late Miocene terrestrial and Maine vertebrates in Adygeya (Russia, Northern Caucasus)

In 2003, K.K. Tarasenko found several localities of fossil vertebrates in sections cropping out at the Fortepyanka River (Russia, Adygeya Republic, Maikop district, left tributary of the Belaya River; Fig. 1a). These sections include the continuous largest part of the upper Blinovo Subformation and basal lay ers of the Gaverdovskii Formation (upper Miocene) being more complete as compared with the stratotype of the Blinovo Formation in the Belaya River basin [1]. The Fortepyanka 1 locality is described 1.61 km away from the bridge across the Fortepyanka River. The section in this locality is approximately 30 m thick. The Fortepyanka 2 locality is located 288 m away from the bridge upstream along the river. It corre sponds to the middle part of the Fortepyanka section continuing for 23 m its basal layers. The total thick ness of the section is approximately 14 m. The Fortepyanka 3 locality was recovered in 2008 during the construction of a road 0.9 km away from the bridge across the Fortepyanka River upstream of the river. Its section approximately 10 m thick recovered layers cor related with the uppermost part of the Fortepyanka 1 section (Fig. 1).