Abstract
The Middle Miocene climatic cooling (MCC) is a global event recorded synchronously in the marine and continental realms by several geo- and bioindicators around 15–13.5 Ma. The temporal distribution of European plants and ectothermic vertebrates indicates a similar response to the MCC around 15–13.5 Ma. According to the existing correlations of the European mammalian biochronological time scale to the Geomagnetic Polarity Time Scale (GPTS), a cenogram analysis revealed an important reorganisation of the Middle Miocene European terrestrial mammalian faunas that seems to take place later, around 11.5–11 Ma. This discrepancy between the timing of faunal changes can be solved by considering the recent biochronological and magnetostratigraphic data leading to reinterpretations of the debated ages of several Middle Miocene localities that need to be placed before the MCC event. # 2007 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.