Journal of Paleontology, 92(3), 2018, p. 506–522 Copyright © 2018, The Paleontological Society 0022-3360/18/0088-0906 doi: 10.1017/jpa.2017.144
Systematics and paleobiogeography of Sardolagus obscurus n. gen. n. sp. (Leporidae, Lagomorpha) from the early Pleistocene of Sardinia
Chiara Angelone,1,2 Stanislav Čermák,3* Blanca Moncunill-Solé,1 Josep Quintana,1,4 Caterinella Tuveri,5 Marisa Arca,5 and Tassos Kotsakis2
1Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Edifici Z ICTA−ICP, Carrer de les Columnes s/n, Campus de la Universitat Autònoma
de Barcelona, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain ⟨
chiara.angelone@icp.cat⟩, ⟨
blanca.moncunill@
icp.cat⟩ 2Dipartimento di Scienze, Università Roma Tre, Largo S. L. Murialdo, 1, 00146 Roma, Italy 3Institute of Geology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Rozvojová 269, 165 00 Prague 6, Czech Republic ⟨
cermaks@gli.cas.cz⟩ 4C/ Gustau Mas 79 1r, 07760 Ciutadella de Menorca, Menorca, Spain ⟨
picoguevo@hotmail.com⟩ 5Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio per le prov. di Sassari, Olbia-Tempio e Nuoro, Via G. Asproni, 8, 08100 Nuoro, Italy ⟨
caterinella.tuveri@beniculturali.it⟩, ⟨
marisa.arca@
beniculturali.it⟩
Abstract.—The extreme rareness of Sardinian fossil sites older than Middle and Late Pleistocene makes the Monte
Tuttavista karst complex (E Sardinia, Italy) very important. Remarkable lagomorph material, recovered from several fissure infillings of Monte Tuttavista referable to the Capo Figari/Orosei 1 and Orosei 2 faunal sub-complexes (early Pleistocene, ~2.1/1.9–1.1 Ma), allowed us to describe a new endemic insular leporid, Sardolagus obscurus n. gen. n. sp. The new taxon is characterized by a peculiar combination of an advanced p3 (Lepus-type) and a primitive P2 lacking deep flexa. The origin of such discrepancy, unprecedented among continental and insular endemic European leporids, is unclear. It could be the result of: (1) an independent evolution of p3 from an ancestor bearing the primitive P2/p3 (e.g., Alilepus, Hypolagus), or (2) a selective reversal morphocline from an Oryctolagus/Lepus-like leporine. The lack of data about the phylogenetic origin of the new taxon makes any inference about its possible arrival to Sardinia problematic. Crossing the European leporid records and evidence of migrations to Sardinia, we hypothesize three possible ages in which the ancestor of Sardolagus obscurus could have arrived in Sardinia, restric- ted to the late Miocene–early/late Pliocene (~8–3.6 Ma). The phylogenetic relationship between Sardolagus obscurus n. gen. n. sp. and the oldest Sardinian leporid, recorded from Capo Mannu D1 and dated at the early/late Pliocene boundary (~3.6 Ma), is unclear at present, however it is quite likely that they pertain to the same lineage.
UUID:
http://zoobank.org/ca8e0023-7c9d-4b00-a294-d166c37c5c71 Introduction
The first overviews of the Monte Tuttavista fossiliferous karst complex date back to the early years of the twenty-first century (Rook et al., 2003; Abbazzi et al., 2004). Discovery of the Monte Tuttavista karst complex (E Sardinia, Italy) (Fig. 1) was extremely important for understanding the paleobiological history of Sardinia because of the extreme abundance of verte- brate fossil material, a very high taxonomical diversity, but mainly the time span covered (early Pleistocene to Holocene). Actually, fossil sites older than Late Pleistocene are rare in Sardinia and Corsica. Discovery of the Monte Tuttavista fossil assemblages provides a remarkably deeper insight of the Qua- ternary fauna of Sardinia. Several species noted in the Monte Tuttavista fissure fillings have been reported for the first time in Sardinia. As far as lagomorphs are concerned, the Monte Tut- tavista quarries provided remarkable material for the study of insular endemic Sardinian ochotonids (Angelone et al., 2008), and led to the discovery of the remains of a new early
* corresponding author
Pleistocene leporid. This leporid was first reported and preliminarily classified in Rook et al. (2003) and Abbazzi et al. (2004) as Oryctolagus aff. O. lacosti. Detailed studies of the original material and of recent findings allowed us to erect a new leporid taxon, Sardolagus obscurus n. gen. n. sp., here descri- bed in the framework of coeval peri-Mediterranean leporids.
Materials and methods
Dental terminology, metrics, and morphotype classification used to describe teeth follow Sych (1965), Palacios and López Martínez (1980), Fladerer (1987), Fladerer and Reiner (1996), and Čermák et al. (2015). The original scheme of P2 morpho- types by Fladerer and Reiner (1996), originally used for Hypo- lagus, was extended here by adding the BMR-morphotype “C” (characterized by very long hypoflexus) in order to be applicable also to advanced/modern taxa of Leporidae. For a quantification of degree of P2 complexity, we assigned to the morphological classes I→II→III→IV→V→VI of the LL-morphotype and to the classes 0→A→B→C of the BMR-morphotype the nominal values 1–2–3–4–5–6 and 1–2–3–4, respectively,
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