The early to middle Selandian fossiliferous Orp Sand Member of the Heers Formation in Belgium has regularly been excavated at its type-locality Maret for its rich and diversified selachian fauna. Among the abundant vertebrate remains, extremely rare mammal specimens have been found. Three isolated teeth have been published previously, all with uncertain affinities. The purpose of this study is to present new specimens from the same deposits, including a small well-preserved dentary of an adapisoriculid attributable to “Afrodon” germanicus, a fragmentary upper molar, referred to Berrulestes sp., and a premolar of a large arctocyonid. Among the previous specimens we identified Arctocyonides cf. weigelti. The adapisoriculid dentary offers new clues that allow transferring “Afrodon” germanicus to the genus Bustylus. The five mammal taxa from Maret indicate an age intermediate between reference-levels MP1-5 of Hainin, Belgium and MP6 of Cernay, France and present the greatest correlation with the rich Walbeck fauna in Germany. The deposits from Walbeck were usually thought to be slightly older than the late Thanetian deposits of Cernay. We infer here that the age of Walbeck is likely to be Selandian. The strong differences observed between Hainin on the one hand, and Walbeck and Cernay on the other hand, document a dispersal event from North America to Europe around the Danian-Selandian boundary.
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RBINS Staff Publications
New material of the small raoellid artiodactyl Metkatius kashmiriensis is reported from the middle Eocene of the Upper Subathu Formation in the Kalakot area, Jammu and Kashmir, northwest Himalaya, India. The fossil material consists of numerous mandibular and maxillary fragments and isolated teeth, mainly belonging to juvenile specimens. It documents the poorly known dental morphology of M. kashmiriensis and provides an overview of its intraspecific variation, allowing to redefine its diagnosis. M. kashmiriensis is characterized by a particularly small size compared with other raoellid species, and by bunodont molars with moderately marked transverse lophs. The M/1–2 are much longer than wide and display characters similar to those of Rajouria gunnelli, such as the presence of a small paraconid and a mesial mesiostylid. The P/4 bears distally a small hypoconid, which appears to be unique in Raoellidae. The description of the new material also allows to document the poorly known morphology of the deciduous teeth of raoellids. The DP2/ is reported for the first time, and the DP/4 of M. kashmiriensis shows a morphology different from that of Indohyus, with the absence of mesial basin anterior to the paraconid and the primoconid. Contrary to what has recently been proposed, these results confirm that M. kashmiriensis is a valid species and not a synonym of Indohyus indirae, and highlight the great morphological diversity present within the Raoellidae during the middle Eocene in the Indian subcontinent.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2024 OA
