The Vallesian age is a period of geologic time (11.6—9.0 Ma) within the Miocene

Miocene

The Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about . The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Its name comes from the Greek words and and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene. The Miocene follows the Oligocene...

 used more specifically with European Land Mammal Ages

European Land Mammal Ages

The European Land Mammal Mega Zones are zones in rock layers that have a specific assemblage of fossils based on occurrences of fossil assemblages of European land mammals. These biozones cover most of the Neogene and Paleogene systems The European Land Mammal Mega Zones (abbreviation: ELMMZ,...

. It precedes the Turolian

Turolian

The Turolian age is a period of geologic time within the Miocene used more specifically with European Land Mammal Ages. It precedes the Ruscinian age and follows the Vallesian age. The Turolian overlaps the Tortonian and Messinian ages....

 age and follows the Astaracian

Astaracian

The Astaracian age age is a period of geologic time , equivalent with the Middle Miocene and used more specifically with European Land Mammal Ages. It precedes the Vallesian age and follows the Orleanian age. The Astaracian overlaps the Langhian and Serravallian ages....

 age. The Turolian overlaps the Tortonian

Tortonian

The Tortonian is in the geologic timescale an age or stage of the late Miocene that spans the time between 11.608 ± 0.005 Ma and 7.246 ± 0.005 Ma . It follows the Serravallian and is followed by the Messinian....

 and Messinian

Messinian

The Messinian is in the geologic timescale the last age or uppermost stage of the Miocene. It spans the time between 7.246 ± 0.005 Ma and 5.332 ± 0.005 Ma...

 ages.

The Vallesian was a crucial period for the evolution of the European terrestrial fauna. During the Middle Miocene, the highly diversified mammalian fauna of the European forests were replaced by the faunas of the Late Miocene, adapted to a dry climate and to an open terrain. The beginning of the period is marked by the appearance and dispersal of the early horse Hipparion

Hipparion

Hipparion is an extinct genus of horse living in North America, Asia, Europe, and Africa during the Miocene through Pleistocene ~23 Mya—781,000 years ago, existing for...

throughout Eurasia. The so called Vallesian Crisis resulted in the extinction of several mammalian taxa characteristic of the Middle Miocene. The end of the Vallesian, and the beginning of the Turolian, brought the extinction in the west of faunas dominated by the bovid

Bovid

A bovid is any of almost 140 species of cloven-hoofed ruminant mammal at least the males of which bear characteristic unbranching horns covered in a permanent sheath of keratin....

s and giraffids

Giraffidae

The giraffids are ruminant artiodactyl mammals that share a common ancestor with deer and bovids. The biological family Giraffidae, once a diverse group spread throughout Eurasia and Africa, contains only two living members, the giraffe and the okapi. Both are confined to sub-saharan Africa: the...

 characteristic of the so called sub-Paratethyan

Paratethys

The Paratethys ocean, Paratethys sea or just Paratethys was a large shallow sea that stretched from the region north of the Alps over Central Europe to the Aral Sea in western Asia. The sea was formed during the Oxfordian epoch as an extension of the rift that formed the Central Atlantic Ocean and...

or Greek-Iranian province.