Search

RESUMEN: El nuevo yacimiento kárstico de Casablanca I (prov. de Castellón), ha proporcionado la siguiente fauna de micromamíferos: Eliomys sp., Mimomys medasensis, Stephanomys balcellsi, Castillomys crusafonti ssp., cf. Apodemus sp. y Prolagus cf. calpensis. Esta asociación faunística se sitúa en el Plioceno terminal (Villafranquiense medio), en la unidad MN 17., The new karstic bed of Casablanca I (prov. of Castellón), has furnished the following fauna of micromammals: Eliomys sp., Mimomys medasensis, Stephanomys balcellsi, Castillomys crusafonti ssp., cf, Apodemus sp. y Prolagus cf. calpensis. This faunal association can be placed at the end of the Pliocene (Middle Villafranchien) in the MN 17 unity.

Los sedimentos Terciarios del área metropolitana de Madrid han proporcionado seis nuevos yacimientos paleontológicos de Micromamíferos. Los 400 restos identificados se reparten en 11 especies que permiten la correlación con las faunas del Aragoniense Medio de otras cuencas (Mioceno Inferior-Medio, -17 m. a. aprox.). Las asociaciones del Mioceno madrileño muestran rasgos tafonómicos y paleoecológicos peculiares, que interpretamos como propios de un clima relativamente árido y cálido., The Tertiary deposits of the metropolitan area of Madrid have delivered six new paleontological localities containning Micromammals. The 400 identified samples, belonging to 11 species, allow the correlation with the Middle Aragonian fauna in other basins (Early-Middle Miocene, ca. -17 m. y.). The Miocene associations from Madrid show taphonomical and paleoecological peculiarities which have been related to relatively warm and dry climatic conditions.

Quercomys bijmai gen. nov. sp. nov., a new dormouse of the subfamily Myomiminae, is described from the Oligocene/Miocene Boundary Interval of Santa Cilia (Huesca), Quel-1 and Fuenmayor-2 (La Rioja). Quercomys gen. nov. is characterized by its medium size, its hypsodont teeth, and its simple dental pattero. It is related to other genera, like Praearmantomys, Armantomys or Pseudodryomys, and its appearance is at a moment of high diversity of the family.Se describe Quercomys bijmai gen. nov. sp. nov. (Gliridae, Rodentia) del Tránsito OligocenoMioceno, de Santa Cilia (Huesca), Quel-1 y Fuenmayor-2 (La Rioja). Quercomys gen. nov. se caracteriza por sus dientes hipsodontos, talla media y modelo dental simple. Está relacionado con otros géneros como Praearmantomys, Armantomys o Pseudodryomys, y aparece en un momento de alta diversidad en la familia.

The Vallone Inferno rock-shelter is an archeological site located at 770 m a.s.l. in the Madonie massif in Sicily. This massif is modeled into the Triassic and Oligocene sedimentary rocks of the Imerese Basin. Thearchaeological excavations conducted since 2008 have provided a long prehistoric and historic sequence from the Neolithic to the medieval period. From the four sedimentary complexes identified, only levels 3.4 to 3.1 from complex 3 and 4.2 from complex 4 have yielded small-mammal material. Level 4.2 is poor in remains and as yet without cultural ascription, though it has a radiocarbon age of 9450±50 years BP. Level 3.4 has yielded fragments of ceramic characteristic of the Middle Neolithic-Bronze Age period, with a radiocarbon age between 3948±35 and3244±42 years BP. Levels 3.3 to 3.1 have provided ceramic fragments ascribed to the Late Roman-Byzantine period, with a radiocarbon age between1332±26 and 1260±34 years BP.The small-mammal assemblages recovered from the sieving-washing of all the sediment from the excavation campaigns include a total of at least 14 taxa (three insectivores, four chiropterans and seven rodents). The materials from this locality provide the first mention in the fossil record of Sicily for Suncus etruscus, Muscardinus avellanarius, Eliomys quercinus and Rattus norvegicus, as well as the last occurrence for Arvicola amphibius. The scarcity of the remains recovered from stratigraphic levels 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 and 4.2 makes it difficult to undertake a palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatical interpretation of them. However, the richness in small mammal contents from level 3.4 allow us to show that this level is dominated by dry meadows and woodland areas with a temperature and precipitation range that lies within the current values for the surrounding area, coinciding with the dry and temperate phase detected previously by marine surveys and pollen and microcharcoal studies., Rivista italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia, Vol 119, No 2

Since 1992, excavations at Baume Moula-Guercy (Ardèche, France) provide abundant micromammals remains (insectivores, bats, rodents and lagomorphs). This sequence is related to stages 6, 5 and 4 of the oceanic paleotemperature curves. Rodents percentage frequencies and some aspects of mammals community permit us to put in evidence variations of the climate and environment in the sequence, related to 4 climatic phases. The wealth of documentation and the great variety of identified species, make the Baume Moula-Guercy a reference site for the study of the transition between the middle and the lower Pleistocene in western Europe., Les fouilles réalisées depuis 1992 dans la Baume Moula-Guercy à Soyons (Ardèche, France) ont livré un très grand nombre de restes de micromammifères (insectivores, chiroptères, rongeurs et lagomorphes) se rapportant à plus de 3 000 individus et à 49 espèces. L'étude des espèces présentant une évolution durant le Quaternaire permet d'attribuer la séquence stratigraphique aux stades 6, 5 et 4 de la chronologie isotopique marine. L'analyse des proportions relatives des rongeurs regroupés en catégories climato-écologiques et l'étude de la communauté mammalienne (méthode des cénogrammes) mettent en évidence des variations importantes du climat et des environnements qui individualisent quatre phases climatiques principales. L'abondance de la documentation et la grande variété des taxons identifiés, uniques en France, font de la Baume Moula-Guercy un site de référence pour l'étude de la transition entre le Pléistocène moyen et le Pléistocène supérieur en Europe occidentale.

Background Ticks are among the most important vectors of zoonotic diseases in temperate regions of Europe, with widespread distribution and high densities, posing an important medical risk. Most ticks feed on a variety of progressively larger hosts, with a large number of small mammal species typically harbouring primarily the immature stages. However, there are certain Ixodidae that characteristically attack micromammals also during their adult stage. Rodents are widespread hosts of ticks, important vectors and competent reservoirs of tick-borne pathogens. Micromammal-tick associations have been poorly studied in Romania, and our manuscript shows the results of a large scale study on tick infestation epidemiology in rodents from Romania. Methods Rodents were caught using snap-traps in a variety of habitats in Romania, between May 2010 and November 2011. Ticks were individually collected from these rodents and identified to species and development stage. Frequency, mean intensity, prevalence and its 95% confidence intervals were calculated using the EpiInfo 2000 software. A p value of Results We examined 423 rodents (12 species) collected from six counties in Romania for the presence of ticks. Each collected tick was identified to species level and the following epidemiological parameters were calculated: prevalence, mean intensity and mean abundance. The total number of ticks collected from rodents was 483, with eight species identified: Ixodes ricinus, I. redikorzevi, I. apronophorus, I. trianguliceps, I. laguri, Dermacentor marginatus, Rhipicephalus sanguineus and Haemaphysalis sulcata. The overall prevalence of tick infestation was 29.55%, with a mean intensity of 3.86 and a mean abundance of 1.14. Only two polyspecific infestations were found: I. ricinus + I. redikorzevi and I. ricinus + D. marginatus. Conclusions Our study showed a relatively high diversity of ticks parasitizing rodents in Romania. The most common tick in rodents was I. ricinus, followed by I. redikorzevi. Certain rodents seem to host a significantly higher number of tick species than others, the most important within this view being Apodemus flavicollis and Microtus arvalis. The same applies for the overall prevalence of tick parasitism, with some species more commonly infected (M. arvalis, A. uralensis, A. flavicollis and M. glareolus) than others. Two rodent species (Mus musculus, Rattus norvegicus) did not harbour ticks at all. Based on our results we may assert that rodents generally can act as good indicators for assessing the distribution of certain tick species.

It is widely believed that Byzantine agriculture in the Negev Desert (fourth to seventh century Common Era; CE), with widespread construction of terraces and dams, altered local landscapes. However, no direct evidence in archaeological sites yet exists to test this assumption. We uncovered large amounts of small mammalian remains (rodents and insectivores) within agricultural installations built near fields, providing a new line of evidence for reconstructing anthropogenic impact on local habitats. Abandonment layers furnished high abundances of remains, whereas much smaller numbers were retrieved from the period of human use of the structures. Digestion marks are present in low frequencies (20% of long bones and teeth), with a light degree of impact, which indicate the role of owls (e.g.Tyto alba) as the principal means of accumulation. The most common taxa—gerbils (Gerbillusspp.) and jirds (Merionesspp.)—occur in nearly equal frequencies, which do not correspond with any modern Negev communities, where gerbils predominate in sandy low-precipitation environments and jirds in loessial, higher-precipitation ones. Although low-level climate change cannot be ruled out, the results suggest that Byzantine agriculture allowed jirds to colonize sandy anthropogenic habitats with other gerbilids and commensal mice and rats.