A new species of Eomellivora from the latest Aragonian of Abocador de Can Mata (NE Iberian Peninsula)

ABSTRACT

Eomellivora is a large-bodied mellivorine mustelid genus widely distributed throughout Eurasia and North America during the late Miocene (MN9-MN13). Here, we report the oldest Eurasian material of Eomellivora based on a palate and two mandibular fragments from ACM/PTA-A2, a pre-Vallesian (11.21 Ma; latest MN7+8) locality of Abocador de Can Mata (Vallès-Penedès Basin, NE Iberian Peninsula) that slightly predates the first appearance datum of Hippotherium by ~30 kyr. The described material differs from Hoplictis helbingi – another large mustelid recorded within the same basin in the roughly coeval site of Castell de Barberà (~11.2, earliest MN9) – and more closely resembles Eomellivora spp. Despite closer resemblances in both size and dental shape with the Vallesian (MN9–MN10) species Eomellivora piveteaui, the ACM material differs in possessing multiple features that may be considered plesiomorphic. A new species, Eomellivora moralesi sp. nov., is thus erected based on the described material. A cladistic analysis confirms that the new species occupies a basal-most position within the Eomellivora clade, in agreement with its older age and more plesiomorphic morphology.

KEYWORDS:

• Carnivora
• Mustelidae
• Mellivorinae
• systematics
• late Miocene
• Spain

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Acknowledgments

We thank CESPA Gestión de Residuos S.A.U. for defraying fieldwork; the ICP Preparation & Conservation Area for preparing the specimens; Víctor Vinuesa and Itzíar Llopart for codirecting fieldwork; the Centre d’Interpretació i Restauració Paleontològica (els Hostalets de Pierola) and the Servei d’Arqueologia i Paleontologia of the Generalitat de Catalunya for their collaboration; our colleagues M. Sotnikova (PIN, Moscow), the late S. Peigné, and P. Loubry (MNHN, Paris) for kindly providing us photographs of the holotype of E. ursogulo and the lectotype of E. piveteaui; the reviewers Michael Morlo, Louis de Bonis, and Jon Baskin for helpful comments that helped to improve a previous version of this paper; and the editor (Gareth Dyke) and the guest editors for inviting us to contribute to this special issue in honor of Jorge Morales. We wholeheartedly dedicate this paper to him: many thanks, Jorge, for being an endless source of inspiration!

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (CGL2016-76431-P, CGL2017-82654-P and PGC2018-094122-B-100, AEI/FEDER, EU); the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (RYC-2013-12470 to I.C.V.); the Generalitat de Catalunya/CERCA Programme; AGAUR (2017 SGR 116 and Beatriu de Pinós 2017 BP 00223 to J.A.); the Gobierno de Aragón (Group ref. E33_20R to A.V.); and the ‘Juan de la Cierva Formación’ program from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities (FJC2018-036669-I to A.V.).