Back
pdf
Journal article

New data on Amynodontidae (Mammalia, Perissodactyla) from Eastern Europe: Phylogenetic and palaeobiogeographic implications around the Eocene-Oligocene transition

  • Tissier, Jérémy Jurassica Museum, Porrentruy, Switzerland - Department of Geosciences, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
  • Becker, Damien Jurassica Museum, Porrentruy, Switzerland - Department of Geosciences, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
  • Codrea, Vlad Department of Geology, Faculty of Biology-Geology, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
  • Costeur, Loïc Naturhistorisches Museum Basel, Basel, Switzerland,
  • Fărcaş, Cristina Faculty of Environment Science, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
  • Solomon, Alexandru Department of Geology, Faculty of Biology-Geology, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
  • Venczel, Marton Department of Natural History, Ţării Crişurilor Museum, Oradea, Romania
  • Maridet, Olivier Jurassica Museum, Porrentruy, Switzerland - Department of Geosciences, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
Show more…
    18.04.2018
Published in:
  • PLOS ONE. - 2018, vol. 13, no. 4, p. e0193774
English Amynodontidae is a family of Rhinocerotoidea (Mammalia, Perissodactyla) known from the late Early Eocene to the latest Oligocene, in North America and Eurasia. European Amynodontidae are very rare, and all remains belong almost exclusively to a single post—Grande Coupure genus from the Oligocene, Cadurcotherium. The “Grande Coupure” defines an extinctions and dispersal-generated originations event in Europe that is nearly contemporaneous with the Eocene-Oligocene transition. Perissodactyls are one of the major groups affected by this event: Palaeotheriidae went almost extinct during this crisis, whereas Rhinocerotidae appeared for the first time in Europe. Study of fossiliferous Eastern-European localities from this age is crucial for the understanding of this crisis. We report here three new localities of Amynodontidae in Eastern Europe. Two of them are dated from the Eocene (Morlaca, Romania; Dorog, Hungary), whereas the other is either Late Eocene or Early Oligocene (Dobârca, Romania). The skull from this latter locality belongs unexpectedly to the same individual as a previously described mandible attributed to “Cadurcodon” zimborensis. As a result, this specimen can be allocated to its proper locality, Dobârca, and is assigned to a new genus, Sellamynodon gen. nov. It is characterised by an extraordinary growth of the nuchal crest, a unique character among amynodontids. Along with this remarkable material from Dobârca, two specimens from another Romanian locality, Morlaca, have been recently discovered and are dated from the Late Eocene. They belong, as well as new material from Dorog (Middle Eocene, Hungary), to the genus Amynodontopsis, also found in North America. The new Hungarian material represents the earliest occurrence of Amynodontidae in Europe. New phylogenetic hypotheses of Rhinocerotoidea are proposed, including the new material presented here, and show that Amynodontidae may be closer to the polyphyletic family ʽHyracodontidaeʼ than to Rhinocerotidae. Amynodontidae, with their deep preorbital fossa and extremely reduced premolars, display in fact a very derived condition, compared to rhinocerotids.
Faculty
Faculté des sciences et de médecine
Department
Département de Géosciences
Language
  • English
Classification
Palaeontology
License
License undefined
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/306617
Statistics
Document views: 23 File downloads:
  • mar_nda.pdf: 22