Dental Variation in the Endemic Dormouse Hypnomys Bate 1918 and its Implications for the Palaeogeographic Evolution of the Balearic Islands (Western Mediterranean) during the late Neogene-Quaternary

ABSTRACT

In this paper, a revision is carried out on the dental evolution of the endemic dormouse Hypnomys Bate, 1918 in the late Neogene-Quaternary of the Balearic Islands. In Mallorca, we have reviewed material (upper and lower first and second molars) coming from the localities of Cap Ferrutx, Pedrera de s’Ònix, Cova de Canet, Cova de Llenaire, Cova de son Bauçà, Cova de son Maiol and Cova de sa Bassa Blanca, ranging from the Pliocene to the Holocene. In Menorca, a revision is done of the species H. mahonensis and H. eliomyoides. It is concluded that, while H. eliomyoides corresponds to an endemic lineage from Menorca, H. mahonensis should be considered as a descendant of H. morpheus from Mallorca which probably entered Menorca during the late Pleistocene. Finally, the presence of Hypnomys in Eivissa is not confirmed, since a large lower first molar previously assigned to this genus in the locality of Cova de ca na Reia could belong to a new endemic form.

KEYWORDS:

• Rodentia
• gliridae
• mallorca
• menorca
• eivissa
• island evolution

Acknowledgments

The authors thank to the editor Gareth Dyke and two anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions on the paper. We acknowledge the valuable comments of this manuscript provided by Josep Antoni Alcover (IMEDEA, CSIC, Mallorca, Spain).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness [project number CGL2016-80000-P]; AGAUR, Gencat [project number SGR2017-859]; and CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya. P.P. is beneficiary of a postdoctoral fellowship from the Argentinian Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET).