New Melissiodontinae (Mammalia, Rodentia) from the Paleogene of south-east Serbia

Abstract

Isolated teeth of Melissiodontinae from two Eocene and four Oligocene localities in southeastern Serbia are described. One new genus and two new species are named. The study of the derived morphology of the cheek teeth and of the contrastingly primordial microstructure of the tooth enamel of this diverse material provides a glimpse into the early history of the subfamily. The supposedly Asian murid ancestor of the Melissiodontinae seems to have reached the Serbian-Macedonian land area during the early or middle Eocene, which is shortly after the split up of the Muridae and Dipodidae and before the 'Grande Coupure' of central and Western Europe. We interpret the rapid consequent specialisation of the morphology of the chewing apparatus of the Melissiodontinae as an adaptation to feeding on small invertebrates on the floor of the Eocene forest.

Deperetomys (Rodentia, Muridae) from the Oligocene of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina

“…During the course of our studies of the Paleogene rodents from the Balkans, it became clear that these assemblages contain numerous Asian components (de Bruijn et al 2018;Marković et al 2018b;Wessels et al 2018). This circumstance led to the comparison of our material with genera from all over Eurasia containing large species with a double anterocone in the M1 and a deep forward directed sinus in the M3.…”

New data on the earliest European ruminant (Mammalia, Artiodactyla): A revision of the fossil mandible from Rusce in the Pčinja basin (late Eocene, Southeastern Serbia)

“…33 Mya. Similarly to Bachitheriidae and Tragulidae, the oldest occurrence of Melissiodontinae in Western Europe is during the early Oligocene, at MP23 (Wessels et al, 2018). Pseudocricetodon and Paracricetodon may appear at MP22 in Germany at Herrlingen I (Baciu and Hartenberger, 2001).…”

Pseudocricetodontinae (Mammalia, Rodentia) from the Paleogene of south-east Serbia

“…The geological setting and composition of these faunas (consisting mainly of rodents) have been described by Four rodent groups have been studied and published in print resp. online so far: the Diatomyidae (Marković et al 2018), the Melissiodontinae (Wessels et al 2018), the Paracricetodontinae (van and the Pappocricetodontinae (de Bruijn et al in press), while the publication on the Dipodidae is accepted, but not yet published (Wessels et al in prep. ).…”