major division of Miocene rocks and time (23.7 to 5.3 million years ago). The Sarmatian Stage, which occurs between the Pontian and Tortonian stages, was named for Sarmatia, the ancient homeland of the Sarmatian tribes in what is presently southern European Russia, where important exposures are found. During the Miocene, a number of areas in western Europe became emergent, while sizable areas of eastern Europe were submerged by waters cut off from interchange with the oceans; these isolated, inland seas were freshened by the inflow of streams, resulting in the development of a very distinctive, lagoonal-type fossil fauna represented by peculiar species of clams, gastropods, and bryozoans. These animals were present in great abundance but exhibit little variety; almost no other kinds of animals occur. The bryozoans frequently occur in such local abundance that they form reeflike masses. Sarmatian depositional basins fluctuated greatly from extremely salty to brackish.