The Record of Prodeinotherium in the Iberian Peninsula: New Data from the Vallès-Penedès Basin

Deinotheres (Proboscidea, Deinotheriidae) are a clade of non-elephantiform proboscideans that originated in Africa and dispersed into Eurasia by the early Miocene. In Europe, deinotheres are first recorded in Greece during MN3, although they did not become a common faunal element throughout Europe u...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of mammalian evolution 2021-09, Vol.28 (3), p.647-660
Main Authors: Gasamans, Natalia, Luján, Àngel H., Pons-Monjo, Guillem, Obradó, Pau, Casanovas-Vilar, Isaac, Alba, David M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal Genetics and Genomics
Anthropology
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Deinotheriidae
Evolutionary Biology
Human Genetics
Life Sciences
Miocene
Original Paper
Proboscidea
Prodeinotherium
Taxonomy
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Summary:Deinotheres (Proboscidea, Deinotheriidae) are a clade of non-elephantiform proboscideans that originated in Africa and dispersed into Eurasia by the early Miocene. In Europe, deinotheres are first recorded in Greece during MN3, although they did not become a common faunal element throughout Europe until MN4. Early Miocene (MN3–MN4) deinothere remains from Europe are generally assigned to a different species ( Prodeinotherium cuvieri ) than those from the early middle Miocene ( Prodeinotherium bavaricum ; MN5–MN6). In the Vallès-Penedès Basin (NE Iberian Peninsula), Prodeinotherium remains are very scarce and largely remain unpublished. To clarify their taxonomic assignment, we describe the available material and compare it with that from elsewhere in Europe. Based on size and a few diagnostic occlusal details, we tentatively recognize both Prodeinotherium cf. P. cuvieri and Prodeinotherium cf. P. bavaricum in the basin. Although all the studied sites had previously been correlated to MN4, the recognition of P. cf. P. bavaricum at els Casots and les Escletxes is consistent with ongoing litho- and magnetostratigraphic studies suggesting a slightly younger age for these sites. The lack of Prodeinotherium remains in older (MN3) localities from the Vallès-Penedès Basin, where Gomphotherium is already recorded, further supports the view that deinotheres dispersed into Western Europe somewhat later than gomphotheres.
ISSN:1064-7554
1573-7055
DOI:10.1007/s10914-021-09543-y