1. New data on the Miocene dormouse Simplomys García-Paredes, 2009 from the peri-alpin basins of Switzerland and Germany: palaeodiversity of a rare genus in Central Europe
- Author
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Xiao-Yu Lu, Claudius Pirkenseer, Gaëtan Rauber, Olivier Maridet, Damien Becker, Pablo Peláez-Campomanes, Jérôme Prieto, Swiss National Science Foundation, Republic and Canton of Jura, and European Commission
- Subjects
010506 paleontology ,Population ,Biodiversity ,010502 geochemistry & geophysics ,01 natural sciences ,German ,Paleontology ,biology.animal ,Dormouse ,education ,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics ,Continuous evolution ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,Global and Planetary Change ,education.field_of_study ,Ecology ,biology ,Garcia ,Geology ,biology.organism_classification ,language.human_language ,Molasse ,Geography ,language ,Taxonomy (biology) - Abstract
Simplomys, a dormouse with a simple dental morphology compared to other glirids, shows a continuous evolution in Spain during the end of the Ramblian and up to the middle Aragonian, the stratigraphic frame considered in this work. In contrast, the record of the genus in Central Europe is reduced to a few localities spanning from the early to the middle Miocene. We review the record from the Burdigalian to Langhian equivalent to the deposition of the uppermost Upper Marine Molasse (OMM) to the lower part of the Upper Freshwater Molasse (OSM) and conclude the occurrence of three distinct species. The youngest species, Simplomys simplicidens, is recognised in Schönenberg (Germany, MN5) and Courrendlin-Solé (Switzerland; MN4). Material from a fissure filling near Glovelier (Switzerland, MN4) supplied the new species, Simplomys hugi, whereas the localities Petersbuch 2 and Erkersthofen 2 (both fissure fillings from Germany, MN4) contain species closely related to it. Finally, and pending further advances in the taxonomy of the Iberian Simplomys, the oldest population from the fissure filling of Schnaitheim (Germany; MN3) remains in open nomenclature (Simplomys sp.). The genus Simplomys has not been recorded eastwards from the Swabian and Franconian Jura Plateaus from Germany and its youngest occurrence in Schönenberg is correlated to the South German local scale OSM C+D, at around 15.5 Ma., JP received support from the SYNTHESYS Project [ES-TAF-6008 (2016)], http://www.synthesys.info/, which isfinanced by the European Community Research Infrastructure Action under the FP6 and FP7 B Capacities Programs as well as publication support from the Paléontologie A16 (Canton Jura, Switzerland). DB, OM and XL thank financial support from the Swiss National Science Foundation (project 200021_162359). The Paléontologie A16 project is funded by the Federal Roads Office (FEDRO, 95%) and the Republic and Canton of Jura (RCJU, 5%).
- Published
- 2019