Aliveria mojmiri sp. nov. among other flying and ground squirrels (Rodentia, Mammalia) from the early Miocene of Mokrá-Quarry sites (Moravia, Czech Republic)

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on the sciurid (Rodentia, Sciuridae) remains from the early Miocene (MN4) Mokrá-Quarry sites, Moravia, Czech Republic. The sciurid assemblage in the different fissures ranges from one genus in MWQ4/2018 to three different genera in MCQ3/2005. Regarding subfamily Sciurinae, the dentognathic remains are referred to Palaeosciurus aff. fissurae, which shows an intermediate stage of evolution between Palaeosciurus fissurae and Palaeosciurus sutteri according to the development of conules in both upper and lower molars. Although the sciurid postcranial remains are left unassigned, several calcanei show strong morphological features belonging to ground squirrels, and, are therefore attributed to cf. Palaeosciurus. As for Pteromyinae subfamily, three genera were recovered (Miopetaurista, Blackia and Aliveria), including a new species: Aliveria mojmiri sp. nov. The new species shows a more specialised dental pattern and could further represent the ancestral species from which several middle Miocene genera evolved. Furthermore, some of the recovered calcanei have been here identified as cf. Aliveria, representing the first postcranial remains ever belonging to the genus, and confirm its attribution as a flying squirrel. The presence of both ground and flying squirrels is in concordance with an open landscape with patches of woodland proposed for Mokrá-Quarry sites.

KEYWORDS:

• Sciuridae
• flying squirrels
• postcranial
• locomotion
• Burdigalian
• Moravian Karst

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Acknowledgments

The authors are deeply thankful to: I. Casanovas Vilar, for allowing the measurements of tarsal bones housed at the Institut Català de Paleontologia, as well as for providing all the equipment necessary to do so; and to I. Kostič, for taking the SEM images of the dental remains. The authors are also very grateful to the reviewers J. Hír and A. R. Gómez Cano for their valuable comments and suggestions, which helped improve the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

The research reported in this work has been supported by: the VEGA Scientific Agency (Project No. 1/0164/19; I.B.S; M.S); the APVV grant agency of the Slovak Republic (Project No. APVV-16-0121 and APVV-20-0079; I.B.S; M.S); the UK grant of the Comenius University in Bratislava (Project No. UK/56/2019, UK/100/2020 and UK/75/2021; I.B.S); the Specific research project at the Faculty of Science at Masaryk University, Brno (MUNI/A/0944/2019; M.I). À.H. Luján also thanks the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación and the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (Grant I+D+I PID2020-117289GB-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/), the Operational Programme Research, Development and Education – Project ‘Postdoc@MUNI’ (No. CZ.02.2.69/0.0/0.0/16_027/0008360), the Generalitat de Catalunya (CERCA Program and 2017 SGR 116) and the Beatriu de Pinós postdoctoral programme (2019 BP 00154).