The Late Miocene Talpidae (Eulipotyphla, Mammalia) from the Pannonian Region, Slovakia

• Published in: Journal of paleontology 2024-01, Vol.98 (1), p.128-151
• Main Authors: Cailleux, Florentin, Hoek Ostende, Lars W. van den, Joniak, Peter
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Environmental changes; Eulipotyphla; Fossils; Jargon; Mammalia; Miocene; Museums; New species; Paleontology; REGULAR ARTICLES; Talpidae; Talpini; Urotrichini
• ISSN: 0022-3360; 0022-3360; 1937-2337
• DOI: 10.1017/jpa.2023.95

The family Talpidae (moles) is a family of insectivores displaying a wide range of locomotor habits and consisting of semi-aquatic, terrestrial, and fossorial species. Although the modern diversity of Talpidae is relatively low, the paleodiversity of Talpidae during the Late Miocene (from about 11.5 to about 5.5 million years ago) was extremely high, especially in Central Europe. This is confirmed by the identification of eleven talpid species in several localities from Slovakia, including a new species of desman, Archaeodesmana dissona new species. Whereas the terrestrial moles are commonly found in all localities, the fossorial talpids are almost restricted to the earliest part of the Late Miocene, the Vallesian (from about 11.5 to about 9.0 million years ago). On the other hand, the desmans progressively became dominant in the beginning of the Turolian (from about 9.0 to about 5.5 million years). The high diversity of Talpidae in Central Europe is explained by the high resources and heterogeneous environments of the region, somehow reducing the pressure of competition for morphologically and ecologically similar species. The evolution of the talpid fauna reflects the environmental changes that occurred in Slovakia between the Vallesian and the Turolian. Additionnally, new information has been obtained on the morphology and phylogeny of the identified species, which are: Desmanella rietscheli, Desmanella dubia, Archaeodesmana vinea, Archaeodesmana dissona n. sp., Gerhardstorchia biradicata, Gerhardstorchia sp., Proscapanus minor, Proscapanus austriacus, Talpa cf. T. minuta, Urotrichini gen. and sp. indet., and Desmanodon cf. D. fluegeli. Central Europe is an area of high diversity for the Talpidae (Eulipotyphla, Mammalia) during the Late Miocene. The assemblages from Slovakia (Borský Svätý Jur, Krásno, Pezinok, Šalgovce, Studienka, Triblavina) are no exception with their abundant material representing eleven species. The uropsiline Desmanella is represented by D. rietscheli and D. dubia. Desmanini fossils are attributed to Archaeodesmana vinea, Archaeodesmana dissona new species, Gerhardstorchia biradicata, and Gerhardstorchia sp. The scalopines Proscapanus minor and P. austriacus are well recorded in the Vallesian localities and support the emergence of P. austriacus before the MN9/10 transition. Talpini and Urotrichini are especially rare and only represented by Talpa cf. T. minuta and Urotrichini gen. sp. indet. Finally, we identified the youngest occ