Neurocranial anatomy of Sus arvernensis (Suidae, Mammalia) from Collepardo (Early Villafranchian; central Italy): taxonomic and biochronological implications

ABSTRACT

Suidae remains recovered from the late Pliocene site of Collepardo (Latium, central Italy) are described and assigned to Sus arvernensis, a small-sized Ruscinian to Early Villafranchian (MN14-MN16a) species. In Italy, S. arvernensis only occurs in the Triversa Faunal Unit (MN16a), supporting the recently revised chronology of Collepardo. CT-scan methods are used to virtually extract and analyse a newly discovered neurocranium, providing the content for the first inner cranial description carried out on an extinct Suidae. Our analysis reveals that S. arvernensis has an anteroposteriorly elongated and dorsoventrally flat cerebrum, similar to that of the Asian Babyrousa babyrussa and the African Hylochoerus meinertzhageni. These species substantially differ in size and are representatives of two widely diverging phylogenetic clades, excluding relatively simple evolutionary or allometric explanations for brain morphology in Suidae.

KEYWORDS:

• CT-scanning
• endocast
• palaeoneurology
• paranasal sinuses
• Ruscinian
• Pliocene

Acknowledgments

The Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio per le Provincie di Frosinone e Latina and the Museo Preistorico di Pofi are acknowledged, and we are especially grateful to C. Delpino and D. Quadrino. We would like to thank I. Biddittu, M. Germani, U. Pessolano, F. Strani, and F. Versino for giving us invaluable assistance during surveys. We are grateful to M. Danti (‘M.G. Vannini’ Hospital, Rome) for making the CT scanning. We are thankful for the precious feedback received from L.J. Flynn, E. Gliozzi, and A. Souron. We are grateful to M. Cherin and an anonymous reviewer for helpful comments and suggestions that improved the manuscript. We would like to thank the Istituto Italiano di Paleontologia Umana, and L. Bruni, for the access to the old collection of Collepardo. Many curators and other staff members helped and supported us in the study of museum collections: A. Benocci (AFS), M. Gasparik (HNHM), E. Cioppi (Natural History Museum, University of Florence), R. Castiglia (MACUS), L. Makadi (MAFI), L. Riti (MUST), A. Aquiloni and P. Piani (MPM), M. Aiglstorfer, and T. Engel (NMM). This research was supported by Sapienza University of Rome ‘fondi di dotazione del Dottorato di Ricerca in Scienze della Terra’ to AI. We acknowledge the use of the free digital database available at http://digimorph.org.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Disclosure statement

No potential competing interest was reported by the authors.