A gap in digging: the Talpidae of Petersbuch 28 (Germany, Early Miocene)

• Published in: Paläontologische Zeitschrift 2015-09, Vol.89 (3), p.563-592
• Main Authors: Klietmann, Johannes, Nagel, Doris, Rummel, Michael, van den Hoek Ostende, Lars W.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Paleontology; Research Paper
• ISSN: 0031-0220; 1867-6812
• DOI: 10.1007/s12542-014-0228-2

In the Miocene, the talpid diversity was much higher than today. Especially the semifossorial and ambulatory moles were farther distributed and more common. Here, the talpids from the Bavarian fissure filling Petersbuch 28 (Early Miocene, MN 3) are described. The uropsiline Desmanella engesseri Ziegler, 1985 is the most frequent species, followed by Myxomygale hutchisoni (Ziegler, 1985 ), an urotrichine less specialized towards burrowing. The fossorial talpids Talpa sp. and Proscapanus intercedens Ziegler, 1985 are represented by humeri, P . intercedens by a few teeth. Some teeth could not be determined to species level. Among the rich postcranial material, the humerus of Desmanella engesseri was found for the first time. Compared to other Miocene localities, Petersbuch 28 is unique in the dominance of only superficially burrowing and semifossorial talpids. In the time from MN 2 to MN 7 + 8 (Early to Middle Miocene), the fossorial talpids were less dominant during MN 2 and most of MN 3, became more frequent during MN 4 and were predominant from MN 5 onward.