Miocene to Late Pleistocene proboscideans of Croatia

Abstract

A total of 96 sites of Neogene and Pleistocene proboscidean taxa on the territory of Croatia are listed and mapped. The studied material is mainly stored at the Institute for Quaternary Paleontology and Geology of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Zagreb, and the Croatian Natural History Museum in Zagreb. Further material from the Museum of Slavonia in Osijek, the “Stjepan Gruber” Museum in Županja, and some other local museums, and private collections are included. The following taxa have been determined (including names from the original papers): Deinotherium giganteum Kaup, 1829, Prodeinotherium bavaricum (von Meyer, 1831), Anancus (“Mastodon”) arvernensis (Croizet and Jobert, 1828), Mammut (“Mastodon”) borsoni (Hays, 1834), “Mastodon” (Bunolophodon) grandincisivus Schlesinger, 1917, “Mastodon” (Bunolophodon) angustidens Cuvier, 1817, “Mastodon” (Zygolophodon) tapiroides Cuvier, 1824, Mammuthus meridionalis Nesti, 1825, Mammuthus trogontherii (Pohlig, 1881), Mammuthus armeniacus (Falconer, 1857), Mammuthus primigenius (Blumenbach, 1799), and Elephas (Palaeoloxodon) antiquus (Falconer and Cautley, 1847). Approximately 360 specimens were anatomically and taxonomically determined, of which approximately 160 are determined and listed for the first time. The majority of the findings are isolated teeth. No morphological descriptions or metrical data have been given. The majority of the specimens are allochthonous and fragmentary finds without detectable stratigraphic provenience, which originate from the alluvial deposits of the largest Croatian rivers (Danube, Drava, Sava) and smaller rivers and brooks. Very rarely more or less complete autochthonous (in situ) bones/specimens were found, and more detailed data about particular specimens have been published. For the first time in Croatia, proboscidean findings have been excavated from cave deposits, in Jama Vrtare male in the vicinity of the Adriatic coast near Crikvenica (Dramalj; Hrvatsko primorje region). Miocene, Pliocene and Early to Middle Pleistocene finds from proboscideans are more rare in Croatia (∼95 specimens) than finds from the Late Pleistocene (∼265 specimens), due to better preservation and exposure.