Messinian Italian Bovidae revised: paleobiogeographic and biochronological implications

Abstract

ABSTRACT Bovidae from the Messinian localities of Italian Peninsula are poorly known and documented except in the Monticino Quarry record (Brisighella, central Italy), which represents, therefore, a key locality for the understanding of Bovidae diversity and biogeography during the Messinian in Italy. In the present paper, the material published in the 1989 along with new, unpublished bovid material from Monticino Quarry are revised in order to clarify the taxonomic attribution of the Monticino’ bovids and to better understand their geographic and chronological distribution, as well as the Bovidae diversity in Italy during the Messinian. The updated and revised data on the Italian small, spiral-horned antelope from Monticino Quarry, and the additional specimens from Borro Strolla (Tuscany) and Verduno (Piedmont), suggests it has to be referred to the genus Oioceros, i.e., Oioceros occidentalis nov. comb. In addition, the presence of four other bovids at Monticino is attested here: Bovidae indet. (small-size), Bovinae indet. (medium-large size cf. Boselaphini), Bovinae indet. cf. Parabos, and Antilopinae indet. (medium size). The biochronological correlations and paleobiogeographic implications of these findings are discussed, suggesting a close affinity in faunal assemblage among the northern and central Italian latest Messinian localities and supporting the dispersal of bovids from East to West during the Messinian (before and during the Messinian Salinity Crisis).