Abstract
AbstractMembers of the urodele family Proteidae currently account for eight extant species within two genera and at least four extinct species within three genera. The clade has a clear disjunct geographical range, with the extinctParanecturusand the extantNecturusin North America and the extinctMioproteusand the extantProteusin Europe and Asia. A recent phylogenetic analysis supported a Eurasian clade including both fossil and living species found east of the Atlantic Ocean. However, the finding of a new proteid salamander, herein namedEuronecturus grogu, from the Miocene of western Germany sheds new light on the evolution of this family, challenging the idea of all Eurasian members of the group deriving from a single lineage separated from the North American ones at least prior to the Oligocene. This new proteid taxon is based on five isolated atlases found in late Orleanian (MN 5) sediments in Hambach 6C, and displays features that are unknown in any other proteid, such as the presence of secondary dorsal crests, small and posteriorly‐directed postzygapophyses, and (in at least some specimens) a wide and deep ventral fossa between the anterior cotyles. A phylogenetic analysis recovered the new taxon in an early‐branching position within Proteidae, sister to all other proteids but the late MaastrichtianParanecturus. It thus suggests the presence in Europe of a second proteid lineage, currently known only in the middle Miocene, that appears unrelated to theMioproteus–Proteusclade.
Highlights
Members of the urodele family Proteidae currently account for eight extant species within two genera and at least four extinct species within three genera
In Europe, the extant genus Proteus has a very scarce fossil record, limited only to an isolated parasphenoid from the Pleistocene of Germany attributed to the extinct species Proteus bavaricus Brunner, 1956
Several Neogene European localities yielded remains attributed to the extinct genus Mioproteus Estes & Darevsky, 1977, that a recent phylogenetic analysis detected as the sister taxon of the extant Proteus, together forming a monophyletic Eurasian group of proteids (Venczel & Codrea 2018)
Summary
Members of the urodele family Proteidae currently account for eight extant species within two genera and at least four extinct species within three genera. Gardneri is the oldest species, being known from the lower Oligocene of Romania (Venczel & Codrea 2018), whereas remains attributed to M. caucasicus (or M. cf caucasicus) are common in Miocene sites, mostly in Germany (Heizmann et al 1980; Sach & Heizmann 2001; Bo€ttcher et al 2009; Ivanov & Bo€hme 2011), and in Austria (Bachmayer & Szyndlar 1985) and Hungary (Bernor et al 2004) Occurrences of this latter species reach western Asia, including the Caucasus (where it was first described) and Kazakhstan (Estes & Darevsky 1977; Malakhov 2003; Vasilyan et al 2017). The holotype was destroyed by fire in 1943, so this synonymy is impossible to confirm (Estes 1981; Venczel & Codrea 2018)
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