Elsevier

Annales de Paléontologie

Volume 105, Issue 2, April–June 2019, Pages 139-153
Annales de Paléontologie

Original article
Aubenas-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

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annpal.2019.03.001Get rights and content

Abstract

The study of the new material from Aubenas-les-Alpes makes it possible to add to the faunal list taxa hitherto unknown in this locality (Neurogymnurus cayluxi, Issiodoromys minor, Eomys minor, Pseudocricetodon cf. hausi, Pseudocricetodon aff. philippi). New specimens of the shrew Srinitium marteli increase our knowledge of this rare insectivore. The characteristics of the theridomorph I. minor confirm, as does the whole rodent fauna, the correlation with the MP25 level (Late Rupelian). The assemblage of Aubenas-les-Alpes indicates a rather open and dry environment, in accordance with the Early Oligocene climatic context, but some differences compared to other localities of the same age are also noticed. Finally the mammalian assemblage suggests an ongoing biogeographic differentiation at European scale during the Late Rupelian.

Résumé

L’étude du nouveau matériel issu d’Aubenas-les-Alpes permet de compléter la liste faunique par des taxa jusqu’alors inconnus dans cette localité (Neurogymnurus cayluxi, Issiodoromys minor, Eomys minor, Pseudocricetodon cf. hausi, Pseudocricetodon aff. philippi). Les nouveaux spécimens de la musaraigne Srinitium marteli améliorent notre connaissance de ce rare insectivore. Les caractéristiques du théridomorphe I. minor confirment, de même que l’ensemble de la faune de rongeurs, la corrélation avec le niveau MP25 (Rupélien supérieur). L’assemblage d’Aubenas-les-Alpes indique un environnement plutôt sec et ouvert, en accord avec le contexte climatique du début de l’Oligocène, mais quelques différences sont également notées par comparaison aux autres localités du même âge. Finalement l’assemblage mammalien suggère la mise en place d’une différentiation biogéographique à l’échelle européenne au cours du Rupélien supérieur.

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

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