A gap in digging: the Talpidae of Petersbuch 28 (Germany, Early Miocene)

Author(s)
Johannes Klietmann, Doris Nagel, Michael Rummel, Lars W van den Hoek Ostende
Abstract

In the Miocene, the talpid diversity was much higher than today. Especially the semifossorial and ambulatory moles were farther distributed and more common. Here, the talpids from the Bavarian fissure filling Petersbuch 28 (Early Miocene, MN 3) are described. The uropsiline Desmanella engesseri Ziegler, 1985 is the most frequent species, followed by Myxomygalehutchisoni (Ziegler, 1985), an urotrichine less specialized towards burrowing. The fossorial talpids Talpa sp. and Proscapanusintercedens Ziegler, 1985 are represented by humeri, P. intercedens by a few teeth. Some teeth could not be determined to species level. Among the rich postcranial material, the humerus of Desmanella engesseri was found for the first time. Compared to other Miocene localities, Petersbuch 28 is unique in the dominance of only superficially burrowing and semifossorial talpids. In the time from MN 2 to MN 7 + 8 (Early to Middle Miocene), the fossorial talpids were less dominant during MN 2 and most of MN 3, became more frequent during MN 4 and were predominant from MN 5 onward.

Organisation(s)
Department of Palaeontology
External organisation(s)
Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Naturmuseum Augsburg
Journal
Palaeontologische Zeitschrift
Volume
89
Pages
563-592
No. of pages
30
ISSN
0031-0220
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12542-014-0228-2
Publication date
09-2015
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
105118 Palaeontology
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Palaeontology
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/a-gap-in-digging-the-talpidae-of-petersbuch-28-germany-early-miocene(5ad33ab5-c6ca-4d34-8d98-d17a256cd15d).html