A new late Miocene Anomalomys species from western Ukraine with implications for the diversity and evolution of anomalomyid rodents in Eastern Europe

ABSTRACT

Anomalomyid rodents first appeared in the fossil record of Europe in the early Miocene being represented by three small-sized species of the genus Anomalomys (A. aliveriensis, A. minor, and A. minutus). During the middle and late Miocene, they were replaced by larger forms (A. gaudryi, A. rudabanyensis, A. gaillardi) with a simpler tooth morphology pattern. Here we describe a new medium-sized species of Anomalomys – A. grytsivensis sp. n. – from the early late Miocene locality Grytsiv in western Ukraine. The exceptional large sample size (ca. 500 specimens including maxillae and mandibles with dentition, isolated teeth) are confined to early Vallesian, MN9. The new species is characterised by the presence of brachio-hypselodont molars, separation of the anteroconid from the protoconid and mesoconid on m1 and m2, as well as the connection of mesoconid and protoconid to the hypoconid. Anomalomys grytsivensis sp. n. demonstrates a variable set of morphotypes and can be regarded as a transitional form between Anomalomys and Prospalax. Fossorial activity could be inherent to Anomalomys (as for Spalax), however it hardly played an important role in the life of these rodents because of their small and narrow incisors which could only occasionally be used as a digging tool.

KEYWORDS:

• Anomalomys grytsivensis
• Anomalomyidae
• Vallesian
• MN9
• Eastern Europe
• diversity

Acknowledgments

We are sincerely thankful to H.de Bruijn and T. Mörs for their constructive comments and fruitful advice. T. Bolliger and M. Sinitsa are acknowledged for their assistance in getting access to various publications. We extend our gratitude to Z. Barkaszi for linguistic corrections of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.