Paracricetodontinae (Mammalia, Rodentia) from the late Eocene and early Oligocene of south-east Serbia

Hans De Bruijn,Zoran Marković,Andrew A Van De Weerd,Wilma Wessels

doi:10.1007/s12549-017-0317-9

Hans De Bruijn, Zoran Marković + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12549-017-0317-9

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Abstract

Three Paracricetodon species from the late Eocene locality Buštranje and the Early Oligocene localities Valniš, Strelac-1, -2, -3 and Raljin (south-east Serbia) are described; Paracricetodon dehmi Hrubesch, 1957 and two new species: Paracricetodon stojanovici and P. gracilis. A review of Paracricetodon species suggests that the species P. spectabilis, P. cadurcensis, P. dehmi, P. walgeri and P. wentgesi are primarily distinct in size. Paracricetodon kavakderensis and P. kodjayarmensis from Turkish Trace are considered junior synonyms of P. dehmi. The diversity and abundance of the Paracricetodontinae in the rodent assemblages from Serbia is not known from elsewhere and suggest that they underwent a radiation on the Serbian-Macedonian land area.

Highlights

This study on the Paracricetodontinae is part of a series dealing with late Eocene and early Oligocene rodent faunas from seven localities in two basins in south-east Serbia
In the late Eocene locality of Buštranje it is present with about 10% of the specimens and in the early Oligocene sites with 30 to 70% of the specimens
If our allocation of the lower cheek teeth to P. stojanovici and P. gracilis is correct these two species from Serbia have m3 that are shorter than the m2, while all other species of Paracricetodon have m3 that are longer than the m2 (Fig. 3)

Summary

Introduction

Vianey-Liaud et al (1995) in their study of the Paracricetodon material from Garouillas and Rigal-Jouet-1 confirmed this conclusion and observed that, the morphological variation within single assemblages is great, the dental morphology remains essentially unchanged in different species; Hugueney and Adrover (1989-1990) came to a similar conclusion. The consequence of these observations is that the species Paracricetodon spectabilis, P. confluens and P. cadurcensis, which are each based on one or very few specimens, can be recognised by size only. It has a length and width of 1.63 mm and 1.25 mm respectively and is included diagram of Fig. 1, where it is hidden in the point cloud of P. wentgesi

Material and methods

Findings

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