Estuarine Lago Mare fauna from the Tertiary Piedmont Basin indicates episodic Atlantic/Mediterranean exchange during the final stage of the Mediterranean Salinity Crisis

The presence of a paralic paleobiotope with thalassogenic water in the Tertiary Piedmont Basin contradicts ideas of the Mediterranean as a brackish lake fed by the Paratethys during the latest stage of the Mediterranean Salinity Crisis. Instead, our data support previous notions of temporary Atlantic/Mediterranean exchange during sea-level highstands preceding the permanent re-connection at the Miocene/Pliocene transition. The establishment of short-lived and disjunct estuarine and lagoonal environments such as in the Tertiary Piedmont Basin during marine ingressions also puts highly variable 87Sr/86Sr values and occurrences of shallow water benthic foraminifera in Lago Mare deposits of other Mediterranean basins into a new perspective.