Oldest record of Apatemyidae (Mammalia, Apatotheria) from Spain and the taxonomic status of Spanish paromomyids (Mammalia, Primatomorpha)

ABSTRACT

A new species of the paromomyid genus Arcius was recently described from the early Eocene locality of Masia de l’Hereuet in northeastern Spain. Reassessment of the holotype of this species reveals that it belongs to the apatemyid genus Heterohyus. Heterohyus ilerdensis, comb. nov., is the earliest record of Apatemyidae from Spain and the oldest species of Heterohyus described to date. Heterohyus radiated in the middle and late Eocene of western Europe before succumbing to extinction around the time of the Grande Coupure. Arcius is documented at Masia de l’Hereuet, but the three specimens currently known from the site are inadequate to be confidently assigned at the species level.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank J. Marigó and colleagues at IPS for providing access to high-resolution epoxy casts of specimens from Masia de l’Hereuet, G. Billet at MNHN for facilitating access to comparative collections from the Paris Basin, F. Sénégas (CR2P, MNHN) for help with SEM, and C. Bouillet and Y. Despres (both at CR2P, MNHN) for technical assistance. We appreciate the comments provided by R. Tabuce and an anonymous reviewer, whose suggestions improved the quality of the final manuscript.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study.

AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS

KCB designed the project and drafted the manuscript, and KCB and GM gathered and analyzed the data and edited the manuscript.