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Crespo et al. (2023) have recently described a new genus and species called Europotamogale melkarti, purportedly an afrosoricid ‘tourist genus’ coming from central Africa to Spain during the Pliocene. The occurrence of this mysterious animal has been justified by means of a migration of thousands of kilometers leaving no other fossil evidence all along such an incredible journey. According to our analyses, this ‘tourist genus’ is surrounded by many inconsistent facts, which lead us to the conclusion that Europotamogaleshould not have been erected as a new taxon because its holotype (and only element yet known) belongs to a very different animal. We alternatively propose that this fossil is indeed a fragment of a tooth of a water-mole of the genus Archaeodesmana, which is a much more parsimonious hypothesis.

In the Early Pleistocene locality of Cueva Victoria, the insectivores are represented by several fossil teeth, mandibles and skull fragments. In the present work, we describe and provide measurements of these fossils for the first time. Insectivores show a rather low taxonomic diversity in Cueva Victoria, with only two different species. Considering the environmental requirements for their extant relatives, the presence of only one hedgehog (Erinaceus cf. praeglacialis Brunner, 1933), and one shrew (Crocidura kornfeldi Kormos, 1934) points to the existence of dry and warm conditions in the surrounding area of Cueva Victoria, unfavourable to other contemporary species of insectivores.

Capo Mannu D1 (often cited as Mandriola) is a key site to reconstruct Sardinian Plio-Quaternary faunal evolution and origin. After 35 years of the discovery of the site, the insectivore component of the Capo Mannu D1 fauna has been studied resulting in the identification of Parasorex depereti, Asoriculus gibberodon, cf. Soricini indet. and Talpa cf. minor. P. depereti and cf. Soricini indet. are not present in younger Corso-Sardinian assemblages. On the other hand, A. gibberodon and Talpa cf. minor are the oldest known possible ancestors recorded so far of the Late Pliocene-Quaternary Corso-Sardinian endemic “Nesiotites” spp. and Talpa tyrrhenica. The insectivores from capo Mannu D1 are not affected by modifications due to the permanence in an insular domain and resemble MN14-15 insectivore assemblages of SW Europe. Their arrival in Sardinia may have occurred at the Early/Middle Pliocene boundary in concomitance with R. azzarolii, a murid from Capo Mannu D1 that appears very slightly modified with respect to its continental ancestors.

Two magnetostratigraphic profiles (450 samples) have been carried out to constrain the age of synorogenic formations in the southern foreland of the High Atlas of Morocco. The Amekchoud profile covers the Aït Ouglif and Aït Kandoula alluvial formations that form the bulk of the Ouarzazate basin fill, indicating an age between the upper Langhian and the Messinian (Miocene). Data obtained in the previously unexplored Hadida formation profile covers the oldest terms of the foreland basin succession, but the low quality of the magnetic record only allows proposing a tentative age between the middle Lutetian and an undetermined middle to late Eocene. The correlation of the Amekchoud profile is based on the recognition of the long C5n chron (Tortonian) in the middle part of the section studied and a new vertebrate locality of upper Tortonian age found in the upper part. These results indicate a discontinuous record of foreland basin development in the southern Atlas domain from mid Eocene to late Miocene times, punctuated by an intermediate large hiatus of 20-25 ma (late Eocene to mid Miocene). Thrusting in the Sub-Atlas frontal thrust belt began before the Aït Ouglif and Kandoula formations, probably during the Oligocene, and extends up to recent times. The alternation of periods of deposition with others of no sedimentary record, which does not coincide with specific tectonic events, results probably from the interference of orogenic deformation and the mantle-related thermal uplift events that have been described for the Moroccan Atlas.

ABSTRACTThe species Myosorex meiniJammot, 1977 was a nomen nudum because it was named in an unpublished dissertation. The species is here revised using the new material found in the Late Pliocene fissure infillings of Almenara-Casablanca 1 and 4 (province of Castelló, East of Spain) and from the Tollo de Chiclana localities 1B, 3, 10, and 10B in the Guadix Basin (province of Granada, Southeastern Spain). A new diagnosis is given with some differential characters to identify the species within the family. The species definitively belongs to the genus Myosorex. A definitive new allocation for the genus into the subfamily Crocidosoricinae is proposed as an alternative to the classical assignment to the Crocidurinae. This is justified by available data coming from different fields of research, such as genetics, reproductive biology, morphology, and paleontology. Within the Crocidosoricinae, the tribe Myosoricini Kretzoi, 1965 is resurrected, and two other ones, the Crocidosoricini and the Oligosoricini, are redefined. From the paleobiogeographical point of view, the occurrence of the African genus Myosorexconstitutes a new striking evidence of the faunal exchange between Eurasia and Africa that took place during the Messinian Salinity Crisis.