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The early Turolian (late Miocene) Cervidae (Artiodactyla, Mammalia) from the fossil site of Dorn-Dürkheim 1 (Germany) and implications on the origin of crown cervids

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Abstract

Dental and cranial appendage remains of Cervidae from the fossil site of Dorn-Dürkheim are studied in detail. The material mainly includes isolated teeth, isolated pedicles and antler pieces. Neither tooth rows nor complete appendages are recorded. Comparative morphology and statistics of morphometrics (principal component analysis and discriminant analysis) allow for the classification of small and large dentitions, small cranial appendages, two morphotypes of large pedicles and two morphotypes of large antlers. Possible combinations of the classified units document the sympatric occurrence of three species, namely, Procapreolus sp., Muntiacinae gen. and sp. indet., cf. Cervavitulus mimus, but the fragmentary condition of the material leads to ambiguity regarding their composition and, consequently, to a certain extent regarding the taxonomic identification. However, these remains indicate the contemporaneous occurrence of early Turolian members of the crown cervids Muntiacinae and Capreolinae and close a previous spatiotemporal gap in the European cervid record. In addition, their presence proves the progressive turnover from dichotomous-antlered muntiacines to early monopodial-antlered crown cervids from NE to SW Europe in the late Miocene. The taxonomical assignment challenges the recent hypothesis on the origin of crown Cervidae around the middle/late Miocene border since Dorn-Dürkheim cervids provide further evidence for the successive achievement of derived characters in cranial appendages of crown cervids (mediopostorbital position and backwards orientation of pedicles, coronet development, shaft development/elongation, beam development and increase in number of antler tines) in the lineage of crown cervids, which originated during the middle Miocene.

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Acknowledgements

BA and GER are very grateful to J.L. Franzen, who invited us to study the Dorn-Dürkheim deer. GER is indebted to O. Kullmer E. Pantak-Wein, C. Hemm (all Senckenberg Forschungsinstitut und Naturmuseum Frankfurt a. M.) for access to and help with the material. László Kordos helped with photos of Csákvár cervid specimens. Inessa Vislobokova, Roman Croitor provided access to literature. We also acknowledge reviewers Roman Croitor and Alan Gentry, whose comments essentially improved the manuscript. This work has been partly founded by the Spanish Government Ministry of Science and Innovation research projects CGL2010-19116/BOS and CGL2011-25754 and is included in the EO5 Aragon research group.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Area de Paleontología, Departamento de Ciencias de la Tierra, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Zaragoza, Pedro Cerbuna, 12, 50009, Zaragoza, Spain

    Beatriz Azanza

  2. SNSB Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie, Department für Geo- und Umweltwissenschaften & GeoBio-Center der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Richard-Wagner-Strasse 10, 80333, Munich, Germany

    Gertrud E. Rössner

  3. Laboratorio de Sistemática y Biología Evolutiva (LASBE), Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Paseo del Bosque S/Nº, B1900FWA, La Plata, Argentina

    Edgardo Ortiz-Jaureguizar

  4. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Edgardo Ortiz-Jaureguizar

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  1. Beatriz Azanza
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  2. Gertrud E. Rössner
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  3. Edgardo Ortiz-Jaureguizar
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Correspondence to Beatriz Azanza.

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This article is a contribution to the special issue "Dorn-Dürkheim 1, Germany: A highly diverse Turolian fauna from mid-latitude Europe".

Electronic supplementary materials

The biometrical analysis of the isolated teeth consists of bivariate plots of occlusal width versus occlusallength of each jugal tooth.

OR1

Upper premolars (PDF 183 kb)

OR2

Upper molars (PDF 319 kb)

OR3

Lower premolars (PDF 201 kb)

OR4

Lower molars (PDF 421 kb)

Appendix

Appendix

Table 1 Early Turolian cervids recorded in European localities
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Table 2 Antler measurements of the studied specimens collected at Dorn-Dürkheim
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Table 3 Upper teeth measurements of Dorn-Dürkheim specimens studied
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Table 4 Lower teeth measurements of Dorn-Dürkheim specimens studied.
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Azanza, B., Rössner, G.E. & Ortiz-Jaureguizar, E. The early Turolian (late Miocene) Cervidae (Artiodactyla, Mammalia) from the fossil site of Dorn-Dürkheim 1 (Germany) and implications on the origin of crown cervids. Palaeobio Palaeoenv 93, 217–258 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12549-013-0118-8

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