Topic
Nesiotites
About: Nesiotites is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 4 publications have been published within this topic receiving 42 citations.
Papers
TL;DR: A new species of shrew is described from a fossiliferous bone breccia near to Calo den Rafelino (Mallorca, Spain) dated to the earliest Early Pliocene, arguably the earliest representative of the Nesiotites known to date.
Abstract: This paper describes a new species of shrew from a fossiliferous bone breccia near to Calo den Rafelino (Mallorca, Spain). The site is stratigraphically and palaeontologically dated to the earliest Early Pliocene (MN13-14). Nesiotites rafelinensis sp. nov. (Mammalia, Soricidae) is arguably the earliest representative of the Nesiotites known to date, a clade restricted to the Balearic Islands. The new species combines primitive dental traits with a relatively large size. The primitive features relate N. rafelinensis more with Asoriculus gibberodon, the possible ancestor of Nesiotites, than any other representative of the genus. The large size interrupts a, otherwise, regular trend of increase of size from the comparatively small A. gibberodon to the recent very large N. hidalgo. The faunal assemblage of Calo den Rafelino represents the earliest evidence of the fauna that arrived to the Mallorca Island during the Messinian Salinity Crisis.
20 citations
TL;DR: A thorough inspection of large collections of different species of Nesiotites from the Balearic Islands reveals wide intraspecific morphological variation within these Plio-Pleistocene shrews, and it is concluded that no traits sufficiently support the definition of a new species.
Abstract: The earliest representative of Nesiotites from Caló d’en Rafelino (Mallorca) has been recently described as a new species (Nesiotites rafelinensis) based on a single hemimandible with p4-m3. A thorough inspection of large collections of different species of Nesiotites from the Balearic Islands reveals wide intraspecific morphological variation within these Plio-Pleistocene shrews. Six out of seven diagnostic characters of N. rafelinensis fall within the variability of the oldest species previously known, N. ponsi. We thus conclude that no traits sufficiently support the definition of a new species, and in our opinion this material should be better referred to N. ponsi or to a closely related form (N. aff. ponsi / N. cf. ponsi). Marc Furió . Institut Català de Paleontologia M. Crusafont, Edifici ICP, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, 08193, Barcelona, Spain. marc.furio@icp.cat Guillem Pons-Monjo. Institut Català de Paleontologia M. Crusafont, Edifici ICP, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, 08193, Barcelona, Spain. guillem.pons@icp.cat
10 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, several biometrical and morphological characters of abundant fossil populations from both islands have been studied and the results indicate that Early Pleistocene populations in Mallorca and Menorca are rather indistinguishable.
9 citations
TL;DR: A near complete mitochondrial genome of N. hidalgo was obtained, allowing the first molecular phylogenetic analysis of this species, and a combined analysis using molecular and morphological data confirmed that N.hidalgo and Asoriculus gibberodon are sister-taxa with S. nigrescens as the immediate outgroup.
6 citations
Related Topics (5)
Performance Metrics
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2018 | 1 |
| 2013 | 1 |
| 2012 | 2 |