Quantitative biochronology methods applied to continental Palaeogene mammal faunas from western Europe

In continental environment. the lack of stratigraphic support generate a problem to establish chronological sequences. Therefore. the biochronology of the European continental Palaeogene: has been early based on phylogenetic hypotheses resulting from studies on mammalian evolutionary lineages as a-ell as associated faunal events (first appearance datum [FAD] and last appearance datum [LAD] taxa). A few years ago, some methods have been developed to formalize and quantify the chronological time span between mammalian localities, and to establish their relative time succession. This paper proposes a brief analysis of three quantitative biochronology methods (Martinez, Guex, and Hooker Methods) applied to mammalian Faunas from western Europe of the late Eocene - Oligocene period. Whereas palaeoenvironnemental changes affect generally the results obtained with the method based only on the occurrence/non-occurrence taxa (Hooker), the use of evolutionary stages in several lineages appear more reliable (Martinez, Guex). Phenetical approaches cannot he applied to problems of relative dating.