Original articleAubenas-les-Alpes (S-E France). Part III – Last and final part of the mammalian assemblage with some comments on the palaeoenvironment and palaeobiogeographyAubenas-les-Alpes (S-E France). Part III – Dernière partie de l’assemblage mammalien avec quelques commentaires sur le paléoenvironnement et la paléobiogéographie
Introduction
The vertebrate fossil locality of Aubenas-les-Alpes (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence) is located on the northern part of the Cereste-Forcalquier syncline, within the Luberon geological reserve, 15 km North-West to Manosque. The locality was first mentioned by Roman (1912) and Helmer and Vianey-Liaud (1970) were the first to indicate the occurrence of small mammals in the fossil assemblage (see Menouret et al., 2015 for a detailed presentation of the locality and geological framework). Later Vianey-Liaud, 1971, Vianey-Liaud, 1972a, Vianey-Liaud, 1972b and Vianey-Liaud et al. (1995) gave the following list of rodents: Theridomys lembronicus, Blainvillimys blainvillei, Archaeomys gervaisi, Eucricetodon aff. huberi, Pseudocricetodon aff. incertus, Pseudocricetodon moguntiacus, Pseudodryomys/Oligodyromys sp., Gliravus garouillensis (=?Gliravus cf. bruijni, = Gliravus priscus). In addition Crochet, 1974, Crochet, 1980, Crochet, 1995 reported in the locality the occurrence of Amphiperatherium exile, Srinitium aff. marteli, Myxomygale vauclusensis, Geotrypus antiquus and Geotrypus acutidentatus. As mentioned by Menouret et al. (2015), one of the particularities of the locality is to present an association of small and large mammals which is rare in Southeastern France for that period. Recent samplings have been undertaken in order to improve our knowledge of the mammalian assemblage. The present publication focuses on the recently found specimens and add some species hitherto unknown to the faunal list.
Section snippets
Material and methods
Material: The studied material comes from a number of different samples. Part of the material was collected by Ducreux, Hugueney and Truc in the framework of the study of dating, correlations and palaeoenvironments of the Apt, Forcalquier and Manosque basins formations (Ducreux et al., 1985); L.C and O.M. also collected samples in 2010.
The specimens found by M.H., L.C. and O.M. and the figured specimens are deposited in the collections of the University Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (FSL, ‘Faculté des
Systematic Palaeontology
Order NOTOMETATHERIA Kirsch, Lapointe and Springer, 1997
Family HERPETOTHERIIDAE Trouessart, 1879
Genus Amphiperatherium Filhol, 1879
Amphiperatherium exile (Gervais, 1848-52)
Fig. 1a
Type-locality: Cournon (Puy-de-Dôme, MP28).
Distribution: Quercy (France) from MP19 to MP28; Heimersheim, MP24 (Northern part of the upper Rhine Graben, Germany); Boningen, MP27 (cf., Olten, Suisse); Gaimersheim 1, MP28 (Bavaria, Germany); Herrlingen 8–9, MP 28–29 (Baden-Württemberg, Germany); Rickenbach, MP29
Conclusions
Considering intensive screen-washing and picking the small rodent teeth remain relatively rare. However, recent sampling allowed identifying four taxa previously unknown in this locality: Neurogymnurus cayluxi, Eomys minor, Pseudocricetodon philippi and Heterocricetodon cf. hausi (see Table 3). Altogether, thanks to the recent discoveries (including recent publications of Menouret et al., 2015 and Pickford, 2016) the mammalian assemblage of Aubenas-les-Alpes comprises now 26 species distributed
Disclosure of interest
The authors declare that they have no competing interest.
Acknowledgements
We want to thank Bernard Menouret for providing part of the specimens described in the frame of this publication. We also thank Damien Becker for sharing personal information and for numerous discussions that contributed to improve this study. O.M. and L.C. researches on Palaeogene mammals are supported by a grant of the Swiss National Science Foundation (No 200021-162359). We thank Christine Balme for her help in organizing field work in the Geological Reserve of the Luberon and for her
References (60)
- et al.
Dental nomenclature in Ruminantia: Towards a standard terminological framework
Mammalian Biology
-. Zeitschrift für Säugetierkunde(2011) - et al.
La formation des Calcaires et Lignites de Sigonce (Oligocène moyen, Bassin de Forcalquier, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence) : datation à l’aide des Mammifères ; reconstitution des milieux de dépôts
Geobios
(1985) - et al.
Corrélations stratigraphiques et paléogéographie des formations marines et continentales à la limite Oligocène-Miocène dans le SE de la France
Geobios
(1976) Notes on type specimens of European Miocene Talpidae and a tentative classification of Old World Tertiary Talpidae (Insectivora, Mammalia)
Geobios
(1974)- et al.
Diaceratherium massiliae nov. sp. des argiles oligocènes de Saint-André et Saint-Henri à Marseille et de Les Milles près d’Aix-en-Provence (SE de la France), premier grand Rhinocerotidae brachypode européen
Geobios
(2009) - et al.
Aubenas-les-Alpes, a forgotten Oligocene mammalian site in Provence (S-E France). Part I - Carnivora, Perissodactyla and Microflora
Annales de Paléontologie
(2015) Anthracotheres from the Oligocene of Aubenas-les-Alpes, France
Annales de Paléontologie
(2016)- et al.
The Palaeogene period
Parallelism in the evolution of dental pattern and systematic implications: the case of Protechimys major Schlosser, 1884 (Theridomorpha, Rodentia, Mammalia) and its associated rodents
Comptes Rendus Palevol
(2015)Die Nagetierfauna von Heimersheim bei Alzey (Rheinhessen, Westdeutschland)
Abhandlungen des Hessischen Landesamtes für Bodenforschung
(1975)
A new genus of Rhinocerotidae (Mammalia, Perissodactyla) from the Oligocene of Europe
Journal of Systematic Palaeontology
Évolution et systématique du genre Lophiomeryx Pomel, 1853 (Mammalia, Artiodactyla)
Münchner Geowissenchaftliche Abhandlungen
Éléments nouveaux sur l’évolution des genres Eucricetodon et Pseudocricetodon (Eucricetodontinae, Rodentia, Mammalia) de l’Oligocène d’Europe occidentale
Palaeovertebrata
Les Insectivores des Phosphorites du Quercy
Palaeovertebrata
Les Marsupiaux du Tertiaire d’Europe
Le Garouillas et les sites contemporains (Oligocène, MP25) des Phosphorites du Quercy (Lot, Tarn-et-Garonne, France) et leurs faunes de vertébrés. 4. Marsupiaux et Insectivores
Palaeontographica A
Upper Oligocene micro-mammals from Pareja, Loranca Basin, prov. of Guadalajara, Spain
Scripta Geologica
New data on Eomyidae and Gliridae (Rodentia, Mammalia) from the Late Miocene of Austria
Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien
A world in transition…
Nature
New Eomyidae, Dipodidae, and Cricetidae (Rodentia, Mammalia) of the Lower Freshwater Molasse of Switzerland and Savoy
Eclogae geologicae Helvetiae
Sur l’âge numérique des faunes de mammifères du Paléogène d’Europe occidentale
Die oberoligocänen Nager from Gaimersheim bei Ingolstadt und ihre Verwandten
Palaeontographica
The genus Pseudocricetodon (Cricetidae, Mammalia) in the Upper Oligocene of the Province of Teruel (Spain)
Scripta geologica
Zoologie et Paléontologie françaises
Nouveaux gisements de rongeurs dans l’Oligocène moyen de Provence
Comptes Rendus sommaires de la Société géologique de France, Paris
Les Talpidés de Coderet-Bransat (Allier) et l’évolution de cette famille au cours de l’Oligocène supérieur et du Miocène inférieur d’Europe
Documents du Laboratoire de Géologie de la Faculté des Sciences de Lyon
Evolution of Oligo-Miocene talpids (Mammalia, Talpidae) in Europe: focus on the genera Myxomygale and Percymygale n. gen
Historical Biology
International Code of Zoological Nomenclature
Zahnmorphologische und schädelanatomische Untersuchungen an Nagetieren aus dem Oberoligozän von Gaimersheim (Süddeutschland)
Abhandlungen Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Klasse, N.F.
Révision de la faune des Mammifères oligocènes d’Auvergne et du Velay
Cited by (2)
Marsupials (Herpetotheriids) from the late Palaeogene of south-east Serbia
2024, Palaeobiodiversity and PalaeoenvironmentsA small assemblage of early Oligocene rodents and insectivores from the Sivas basin, Turkey
2023, Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments