Late Miocene remains from Venta del Moro (Iberian Peninsula) provide further insights on the dispersal of crocodiles across the late Miocene Tethys

Abstract

The dispersal of Crocodylus from Africa to Europe during the Miocene is not well understood. A small collection of cranial fragments and postcranial elements from the latest Miocene (6.2 Ma) site of Venta del Moro (Valencia, Spain) have previously been referred to Crocodylus cf. C. checchiai Maccagno, 1947 without accompanying descriptions. Here we describe and figure for the first time the crocodylian remains from Venta del Moro, which represent at least two individuals. Our comparisons indicate that this material clearly does not belong to Diplocynodon or Tomistoma—the only two other crocodylians described so far for the European late Miocene. The material is only tentatively referred to cf. Crocodylus sp. because the apomorphies of this genus are not preserved and a referral to C. checchiai cannot be supported on a morphological basis. However, it is likely that this late Miocene species, originally described from Libya (As Sahabi) and later identified also in Kenya, could have dispersed across the Mediterranean Basin multiple times and colonized the southern areas of Mediterranean Europe, as evidenced by several Crocodylus or Crocodylus-like remains described during the past years.

Phylogenetic analysis of a new morphological dataset elucidates the evolutionary history of Crocodylia and resolves the long-standing gharial problem

“…Regardless of their biogeographic stock, Crocodyloidea appears to have gone extinct in North America in the late Eocene, with no unambiguous occurrences until the appearance of Crocodylus in the late Pliocene (Miller, 1980), although the clade might have returned as early as the late Miocene (Carbot-Chanona, 2017). A similar pattern characterises Europe, with crocodyloids absent from the late Eocene until the appearance of Crocodylus (or close relatives) in the late Miocene (Delfino, Böhme & Rook, 2007;Delfino et al, 2021;Delfino & Rook, 2008;Delfino & Rossi, 2013). By contrast, at least one crocodyloid (Astorgosuchus bugtiensis) has been recognised from the Oligocene of Asia (Martin et al, 2019a).…”

“…Gatesy et al, 2003;Schmitz et al, 2003;Willis, 2009;Oaks, 2011;Man et al, 2011;Lee & Yates, 2018;Pan et al, 2021;Hekkala et al, 2021); and (5) the species interrelationships of the crown genus Crocodylus, as well as the resulting biogeographic implications (e.g. Meganathan et al, 2010;Meredith et al, 2011;Oaks, 2011;Nicolaï & Matzke, 2019;Delfino et al, 2020Delfino et al, , 2021.…”

“…Late Miocene Crocodylus comprises C. palaeindicus in Indo-Pakistan (Lydekker, 1886;Mook, 1933), C. checchiai from north and east Africa (Maccagno, 1947;Delfino, 2008;Brochu & Storrs, 2012;Delfino et al, 2020), C. niloticus in sub-Saharan Africa (Storrs, 2003;Brochu & Storrs, 2012) and possibly in the northwest of the continent too (e.g. Zouhri et al, 2012), and indeterminate occurrences that extend the distribution of the genus into southern Europe (Kotsakis, Delfino & Piras, 2004;Delfino, Böhme & Rook, 2007;Delfino et al, 2021;Delfino & Rook, 2008;Delfino & Rossi, 2013) and possibly even Central America (Carbot-Chanona, 2017) (Fig. 37).…”

“…However, less fragmentary European specimens are required to test this hypothesis. A European route for the second dispersal event is harder to envisage given the complete absence of crocodylian fossils from Europe from the earliest Pliocene, which likely reflects a regional extinction (Kotsakis, Delfino & Piras, 2004;Delfino, Böhme & Rook, 2007;Delfino et al, 2021;Delfino & Rossi, 2013). Although the number of recognised extant species in Africa has increased in the last two decades (e.g.…”

First remains of Diplocynodon cf. ratelii from the early Miocene sites of Ahníkov (Most Basin, Czech Republic)

“…However, the records of cf. Crocodylus in the central Mediterranean at 9 Ma (Delfino & Rossi 2013, Delfino et al 2021 together with the records of Diplo cynodon sp. from several late Miocene European localities (Böhme & Ilg 2003) do not rule out a possibility of a short coexistence of both genera (see also Delfino & Rook 2008, Martin & Gross 2011.…”