Abstract
The mammalian fauna of the German locality Ulm-Westtangente from the Aquitanian Lower Freshwater Molasse is investigated. The fauna is compared to other rich European localities of the same time period. It is shown to be one of the richest localities for fossil mammals and brings interesting insights into the composition of the Aquitanian European faunas. Sixty-one species are identified and high affinities with the French central region are confirmed. Body mass distributions of insectivores, herbivores, omnivores and carnivores are analysed. Altogether, they showed that the environment at Ulm-Westtangente was probably a warm-temperate forest with grassland habitats, although temperature was still difficult to assess. Ulm-Westtangente lies between the Late Oligocene warm-temperate to subtropical conditions prevailing in Europe and the late Early to Middle Miocene very warm subtropical to tropical conditions of the Miocene Climatic Optimum. It thus represents an intermediate stage in the overall climatic evolution of the late Palaeogene–early Neogene of Europe. The comparison of its body mass distribution with a dataset of extant faunas indicates affinities with community structures found in nowadays temperate forests. However, the record of certain types of ectothermic vertebrates at Ulm-Westtangente precludes the presence of a typical temperate climate. The range of carnivore body masses is similar to what is known in extant communities, with species distributed in a restricted size range (small to middle sizes) in comparison to the insectivore/herbivore/omnivore species.
Highlights
The European Aquitanian continental environments were comparatively less studied than other periods of the Late Palaeogene and Neogene because of the scarcity of data or because of the larger interest drawn by the period
The Aquitanian is an interesting period framed by the Late Oligocene global warming (Zachos et al 2001; Dallai and Burgess 2011) and the late Early/early Middle Miocene climatic optimum (Zachos et al 2001; Bohme 2004)
Europe seemed to be marked by a period of climatic stability associated with few faunal changes, many genera being inherited from the Late Oligocene and constantly present throughout the Aquitanian (Maridet et al 2007; Costeur and Legendre 2008b; Maridet and Costeur 2010)
Summary
The European Aquitanian continental environments were comparatively less studied than other periods of the Late Palaeogene and Neogene because of the scarcity of data or because of the larger interest drawn by the period. The European continent showed a more fractured shape than today; western Europe was continental with a partially open Rhine Graben separating the western part from the rest of the continent to the east This geographic configuration did not, yield high levels of regional endemism for mammals (Maridet et al 2007; Costeur 2009). This led credence to the hypothesis that the Aquitanian relative climatic stability and homogeneity allowed species to settle down in several regions without creating strong faunal heterogeneities. If the relative stability and homogeneity of the European Aquitanian climate seems likely, the type of climate and associated environments prevailing remain poorly understood
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