Abstract

The first abundant vertebrate and mollusc fauna from a travertine complex Dreveník (northern Slovakia) is preliminarily reported. The greatly diversified community of small mammals (580 MNI, 38 spp.) is characterized by the simultaneous appearance of elements otherwise restricted to the earliest Biharian stage (such as Petenyia, Pitymimomys pitymyoides), those related to the late Biharian clades (Mimomys savini, Cricetus c. runtonenesis), and the typical elements of the late early Biharian (such as Pliomys episcopalis, Mimomys pusillus, Pliomys hollitzeri, including a derived form of Pliomys coronensis). A rich assemblage of early Microtus (s. l.) clade exhibiting an extreme phenotype diversity covering a broad spectrum of diverse transitional morphotypes is compared with the situation in other European sites of assumed age along the early/late Biharian transition. The common biostratigraphic characteristics of these sites and the stratigraphic setting of the transitional period between the early and late Biharian (Q 1 and Q 2 zones in terms of Horáček and Ložek 1988) are discussed. The record of non-mammalian vertebrates and particularly the molluscs assemblage (2,452 MNI, 51 spp.), supposedly the richest reported for that stage in Europe, further supplement the report with detailed paleoenvironmental reconstructions.

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Abstract

A new species, Myotis gerhardstorchi sp. n., supposedly close to M. sicarius and M. frater group, is described from MN 15 site Beremend 26 (Hungary). M. frater group, now restricted to vicariant ranges in E Asia, Siberia and Central Asia, is further reported from three Pliocene and two Early Pleistocene mass bat assemblages from the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia. The odontological diagnosis of the group is presented, together with comparisons of the fossil material with extant species of the group, and W Palearctic taxa of the genus, both fossil and Recent. Molecular phylogenetics reveals that the above-mentioned Asiatic taxa, together with the European species M. daubentonii and M. bechsteinii, the index fossil of the W Palearctic Late Cenozoic bat communities, compose a distinct phylogenetic entity called Myotis Clade III. Here we argue that the history of Clade III in the W Palearctics was contributed also by clades close to its stem line, and those related to the Asiatic forms that later disappeared from that region. Finally, a list of taxa, both fossil and Recent, composing the Myotis Clade III is provided.

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