Paracamelus (Mammalia, Camelidae) remains from the late Messinian of Italy: insights into the last camels of western Europe

Abstract

In this paper we describe fossil remains of an indeterminate species of the genus Paracamelus (Artiodactyla, Camelidae) from the Messinian post-evaporitic deposits (5.55–5.40 Ma) of Verduno (Piedmont, NW Italy). Camelins dispersed into Eurasia from North America in the late Miocene and almost instantaneously spread in western Europe and Africa. The size and morphology of the fossils found at Verduno are consistent in with those of Paracamelus, the earliest Old World camelin. Up to now, the only fossil camels recovered in the Neogene of Western Europe have been found at Venta del Moro and Librilla in Spain at 6.2 Ma. The remains from Verduno represent the first evidence of a camelin in the Neogene of Italy and they considerably expand the paleobiogeographic range of the Old World early camelins. The presence of a camelid at Verduno reinforces and confirms the importance of the fossiliferous deposits of NW Italy in defining the complex paleobiogeographic patterns of Europe during the Messinian, at the end of the Messinian salinity crisis.