Plants and animals in an open forest landscape

Bohlinia attica

Around eight million years ago, giraffes roamed the forests and open landscapes of Europe. There were also giraffes in China.

Bohlinia is probably related to giraffes that exist today. It had long legs and a long neck, just like today’s giraffes. Its small teeth indicate that it ate mainly leaves and little or no grass, which wears teeth down more.

Hippotherium gracile

The teeth of this medium-size horse were smaller than those of today’s horses — an indication that its diet consisted not only of grass, but also included leaves.

 Animals that eat grass need large teeth, because grass wears teeth down more than leaves do.

Hippotherium belongs to a group of horse species that were common on the grasslands of North America, Eurasia and Africa around eight million years ago. This is the skull of a stallion, an adult male horse.

Gazella gaudryi

This is a fossil of a gazelle’s frontal bone and parts of the horns. Its discovery in Europe indicates that there were extensive grasslands in that region around eight million years ago. That may be assumed because gazelles live on savannahs and steppes today.

Myrica lignitum

The family Myricaceae consists of shrubs and trees that are found all over the world. Various species of the largest genus, Myrica, were widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere during the Palaeogene and Neogene periods.

Today, only one species remains in cool temperate regions — bog myrtle, which is most prevalent in the peat mosses of Sweden but is also found in other parts of Europe and in North America. All other species of Myrica are found in warm temperate and subtropical regions.

Quercus pseudocastanea

This jagged leaf is from a deciduous oak. Such oaks formed sparsely treed forests in a varied landscape of western Eurasia. Also living in that mixed environment were many different hoofed animals such as giraffes, horses and gazelles. Fossils of them can be seen in this display case.

Alnus cycladum

Modern genera of the birch family such as alder and birch already existed around 50-60 million years ago.  They grew in forest environments, including damp forests. Alnus cycladum is an alder that lived in Greece between 6-10 million years ago, around lakes and streams in an open forest landscape.

Most alder species grow along rivers, lakes and on wetlands. The most important thing for them is the availability of water, not what the climate is like. That is why various species of alder still grow in shoreline forests in drier parts of the Mediterranean region, and also along streams in the Alps.

Quercus drymeja

Oaks with leaves that remain green during winter are common in the Mediterranean region. Scientists have therefore assumed that all of Europe had a Mediterranean climate around 11 million years ago, because fossilized oak leaves resemble those of today’s evergreen oaks. But now it is known that the fossils are from species that are most closely related to oaks which today grow south of the Himalaya Mountains and in eastern Asia. It turns out that the ancient trees thrived in a climate with summers that were not very dry.

Those evergreen oaks grew together with deciduous oaks in both dense and open forests in mountainous areas of western Eurasia during the Neogene period.

Quercus drymeia

Oaks with leaves that remain green during winter are common in the Mediterranean region. Scientists have therefore assumed that all of Europe had a Mediterranean climate around 11 million years ago, because fossilized oak leaves resemble those of today’s evergreen oaks. But now it is known that the fossils are from species that are most closely related to oaks which today grow south of the Himalaya Mountains and in eastern Asia. It turns out that the ancient trees thrived in a climate with summers that were not very dry.

Those evergreen oaks grew together with deciduous oaks in both dense and open forests in mountainous areas of western Eurasia during the Neogene period.