New records of Dorcatherium guntianum (Tragulidae), stratigraphical framework, and diphyletic origin of Miocene European
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New records of Dorcatherium guntianum (Tragulidae), stratigraphical framework, and diphyletic origin of Miocene European tragulids Gertrud E. Ro¨ssner • Kurt Heissig
Received: 30 November 2012 / Accepted: 20 May 2013 / Published online: 16 November 2013 Ó Swiss Geological Society 2013
Abstract Seven hitherto unpublished Dorcatherium guntianum teeth from the Early Miocene of Germany are described. Morphology and size of the teeth are documented in detail and taxonomic affiliation is assessed based on comparisons to type materials of European tragulids. The fossils represent one of the earliest European Dorcatherium records and the oldest unequivocal evidence of D. guntianum from Germany. A review of the European Dorcatherium occurrence pattern suggests that a bunoselenodont and a selenodont lineage immigrated into Europe simultaneously from the East or Southeast, and corroborates the interpretation of the genus as being diphyletic. Moreover, our data add support to immigration scenarios that have been linked with the emerging freshwater wetlands, which formed as a result of the regression in the Western Paratethys.
Keywords Northern Alpine Foreland Basin Early Miocene Gu¨nzburg-Umgehungsstrasse Upper Freshwater Molasse Systematics Palaeobiogeography Abbreviations BSPG Bayerische Staatssammlung fu¨r Pala¨ontologie und Geologie, Munich, Germany aw Anterior width d Lower deciduous premolar D Upper deciduous premolar dex Dextral l Length m Lower molar M Upper molar pw Posterior width sin Sinistral w Width GER Gertrud E. Ro¨ssner
Editorial handling: D. Becker & D. Marty.
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00015-013-0132-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. G. E. Ro¨ssner (&) K. Heissig SNSB—Bayerische Staatssammlung fu¨r Pala¨ontologie und Geologie, 80333 Munich, Germany e-mail: [email protected] G. E. Ro¨ssner K. Heissig Department fu¨r Geo- und Umweltwissenschaften, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universita¨t Mu¨nchen (LMU), 80333 Munich, Germany G. E. Ro¨ssner GeoBio-Center, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universita¨t Mu¨nchen (LMU), 80333 Munich, Germany
1 Introduction Tragulidae are a clade of ruminant artiodactyls that is considered to have branched off the ruminant stem lineage during the Late Eocene (Me´tais et al. 2001; Herna´ndezFerna´ndez and Vrba 2005) or Late Oligocene to Early Miocene (Hassanin et al. 2012) based on morphological and/or molecular evidence. Among the living Ruminantia, tragulids are graded the most ancestral group (e.g. Webb and Taylor 1980; Janis and Scott 1987; Herna´ndez-Ferna´ndez and Vrba 2005; Hassanin et al. 2012). In contrast to their Recent disjunct and restricted distribution in tropical Africa and Asia (Meijaard 2011), the Miocene fossil record
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reflects a wide distribution of these animals throughout the Old World, including Europe (Pickford 2001; Ro¨ssner 2007). The genus Dorcatherium constitutes a major part of the Miocene tragulid record (Janis 1984; Thenius 2000: 182; Pickford
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