Deinogalerix

Abstract: In the second half of the past century two important Tertiary land-vertebrate fossil sites were discovered in Southern Italy, the first located in Western Gargano near Apricena and the second situated in Abruzzi in the outskirts of Scontrone. The vertebrate fossil assemblages of the two sites, which are characterized by the same remarkable endemic attributes, include small and large land mammals, a lutrine carnivore, testudines, crocodiles and birds of prey. The Scontrone bonebeds have a Tortonian age. The Gargano fossil vertebrates, which are contained in karstic fissure fillings, have been attributed to a time interval spanning from the Tortonian to the Messinian-early Pliocene, but their exact age remains still undefined. The characters of the faunal assemblage of both sites, showing no affinity with West-European or African Neo-gene faunas, suggest a possible provenance from the Balkan region. This paper is aimed at providing information on the migration path followed by the forerunners of the Gargano and Scontrone land mammals when they spread over Apulia. Our results are mostly based on the seismostratigraphic analysis of more than 6000 kilometers of reflection seismic profiles from the Adriatic offshore, tied to several tens of deep wells. The conclusion of this study is that, moving from the Balkan region, the terrestrial vertebrates crossed the present Central Adriatic Sea during the Oligocene (most likely around the early/late Oligocene boundary, i.e. around 29-30 Ma), when a severe sea-level fall exposed a landbridge connecting Dalmatia and Gargano via the Tremiti Islands. The seismostratigraphic investigation clearly indicates that the Dalmatia-Gargano landbridge was set up owing to three favourable circumstances: - the growth of prominent structural highs in the Central Adriatic area, mostly related to salt tectonics, which interrupted the continuity of the middle Liassic basinal domain. Vertical movements peaked between the late Liassic and the early Cretaceous, but the tectonics has continued, though less intense, until the Quaternary; - the occurrence of an important sea-level fall around the end of the early Paleocene, which caused in the whole Central Adriatic area a generalized absence of lower Paleocene deposits, as well as a widespread seaward progradation of upper Paleocene/Eocene shallow-marine carbonates over older deeper-marine deposits. Consequently, a wide shallow-water plateau spread between Gargano and the Dalmatian Islands, separating a Northern Adriatic Basin from a Southern Adriatic Basin; - the occurrence, finally, of a further particularly strong sea-level fall in Oligocene times (likely coincident with the well-known mid-Oligocene global sea-level fall), which caused a generalized exposure of the Central Adriatic area. The results of this study suggest a possible common origin of the giant insectivore Deinogalerix, recovered both at Scontrone and Gargano, and mainland counterparts distributed in the Balkan region during the second half of the Oligocene.

Abstract: Deinogalerix is a typical component of the late Miocene insular fauna of Gargano (south-eastern Italy). Remains of this taxon had also been found over the last 20 years at the early Tortonian site of Scontrone (Abruzzo, central Italy), but they had never been described in detail. Two new species are introduced. One of them, D. samniticus sp. nov., is larger sized and better documented, and received a formal description. The other entity is clearly distinct from D. samniticus sp. nov., but it is merely represented by a single mandible. It is therefore presented here as a different, but undetermined species, Deinogalerix sp. Comparative analyses show that the new species have exclusive dental proportions that distinguish them from all the other species of Deinogalerix and seem to exclude them from the direct ancestry of the Gargano clade. Consistent with its early stratigraphic age, D. samniticus sp. nov. bears a suite of primitive characters of the genus. Besides these, however, it also bears the autapomorphic relative proportion between p3 and p4. The analysis of the erinaceids from Scontrone supports the assumption that Deinogalerix presumably descended from a hypothetical early – middle Miocene ‘Parasorex-like’ galericine. On the other hand, it seems to rule out the supposed common ancestry of the giant Deinogalerix and the small gymnure Apulogalerix from Gargano. Because the presumed ancestor of Deinogalerix dates back to the early – middle Miocene, the study corroborates the asynchronous colonization of the Apulia Platform. Andrea Savorelli. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Florence, via La Pira 4, Florence 50121, Italy; andrea_savorelli@yahoo.it Federico Masini. Department of Earth and Marine Sciences (DISTEM), University of Palermo, Via Archirafi 22, Palermo 90123, Italy; federico.masini@unipa.it Paul P. A. Mazza. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Florence, via La Pira 4, Florence 50121, Italy; paul.mazza@unifi.it Maria Adelaide Rossi. Archaeological Superintendency of Abruzzo, via degli Agostiniani 14, Chieti 66100, Italy; mariaadelaide.rossi@beniculturali.it Silvano Agostini. Archaeological Superintendency of Abruzzo, via degli Agostiniani 14, Chieti 66100, Italy; silvano.agostini@beniculturali.it http://zoobank.org/D8F74203-4822-422E-8CFF-4D339722145A Savorelli, Andrea, Masini, Federico, Mazza, Paul P. A., Rossi, Maria Adelaide, and Agostini, Silvano. 2017. New species of Deinogalerix (Mammalia, Eulipotyphla) from the late Miocene of Scontrone (Abruzzo, central Italy). Palaeontologia Electronica

Abstract: During the Miocene the Abruzzo/Apulia region (Italy), isolated from the continent, was the theatre of the evolution of a vertebrate ecosystem in insular context. At the late Miocene the protagonists of this ecosystem called “Mikrotia fauna” show a high endemic speciation level with spectacular giant and dwarf species of mammals and birds. Most of the remains of this peculiar fauna are found exclusively in the “Terre rosse” of Gargano, except for the oldest genus: Deinogalerix and Hoplitomeryx, also found at Scontrone. Deinogalerix is one of the most uncommon forms of the “Mikrotia fauna”. It’s the largest Erinaceidea ever lived. Deinogalerix was described for the first by Freudenthal (1972) then by Butler (1980). Today the five species yet described are under discussion cause of the high intraspecific variations in an insular evolution context. In this study we valuated the information that could bring the new discoveries of Deinogalerix remains. The work was divided into three main parts: the preparation of the material, the drawing reconstructions and the anatomical description. The most important specimen was the second sub-complet skeleton ever found. We gave the most objective anatomical description for futures comparison with the first skeleton from a different specie. We put the finger on new juvenile features and on the relation between the growth of Deinogalerix and his feeding behaviours. We also isolate some problematic specimens at this time never described. In the future this new material will help us in the understanding of the evolution history of this giant Hedgehog.