https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2151-7693
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ABSTRACT
We describe new specimens of the Miocene moschid Hispanomeryx, from the early Vallesian sites of Castell de Barberà (CB) and Ecoparc de Can Mata (ECM), Vallès-Penedès Basin, representing the first Iberian record of Hispanomeryx outside the inner Miocene basins. Fossils from ECM constitute Hispanomeryx lacetanus, sp. nov., the first Hispanomeryx to be described with a ‘Palaeomeryx fold (external postprotocristid).’ Fossils from CB constitute the first unambiguous record of Hispanomeryx aragonensis outside its type locality (La Ciesma-1B, Ebro Basin, Spain) and allow us to describe for the first time the upper molars of this species. Our phylogenetic analysis of Hispanomeryx places H. andrewsi from China as the sister group of a clade containing two European lineages. One of the latter places H. daamsi in a clade with the sister species H. duriensis and H. lacetanus, sp. nov., and the other groups together the two forms of H. aragonensis (type series from La Ciesma-1B plus the new material from CB). Emended diagnoses for the genus Hispanomeryx and all previously described species are presented. The new Hispanomeryx material from the Vallès-Penedès Basin constitutes the first unambiguous forest-dwelling Hispanomeryx ever recorded in Iberia, demonstrating that the previous lack of Hispanomeryx fossils in the Vallès-Penedès Basin was due to insufficient sampling rather than to paleoecological absence. It is therefore apparent that Hispanomeryx was as environmentally plastic as its relative Micromeryx, inhabiting similar habitats that varied from dry and open to humid and forested.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported by the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación (Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad)–European Regional Development Fund of the European Union (CGL2015-68333-P, MINECO/FEDER-UE; CGL2016-76431-P; and CGL2017-82654-P, AEI/FEDER EU), the Generalitat de Catalunya (CERCA Programme, 2017 SGR 86 GRC, and 2017 SGR 116 GRC), the Departament de Cultura of the Generalitat de Catalunya (field work grant 2014/100609), and the Leakey Foundation. We thank I. Casanovas-Vilar (ICP) for kindly providing the original file used to derive . We are also very grateful to S. Wang (Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Beijing) for her help with Hispanomeryx sp. 1 from Lengshuigou; to M. Aiglstorfer (Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart) for her aid with some moschid cranial characters and the pictures of Catakbağyaka Hispanomeryx; and to I. Pérez-Urresti (Universidad de Zaragoza) for the pictures of H. aragonensis. We also acknowledge M. González-Vázquez (Universidad de Barcelona) and C. Pociña for their assistance with the names of the ancient Iberian peoples. Finally, we thank editor F. Bibi and the two anonymous referees for their useful comments. We dedicate this paper to the late J. V. Santafé (1934–2017), former paleontologist of the ICP, who actively participated in the excavations of CB during the 1970s and who in 2015 kindly helped S.A. and S.M.S. in locating the main fossiliferous horizon of the site.
ORCID
Israel M. Sánchez https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2151-7693
Daniel Demiguel http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6138-7227
Jorge Morales http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5170-5754
David M. Alba http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8886-5580
