Abstract

Shrews of the tribe Nectogalini rank among the rarest items of the late Cenozoic fossil record, and their interpretation is traditionally accompanied by numerous controversies. Here, the data from the Czech Republic and Slovakia covering in total 83 MNI from 45 Pliocene and Quaternary (MN 15 – Q 4 biozones) community samples of 25 sites are reported. A detailed biometric analysis of both Asoriculus spp. (MN 15 – Q 1) and Neomys spp. (Q 1 – Recent) was undertaken to reveal patterns of phenotype variation in particular samples, and their relations to extant mid-European species Neomys fodiens and N. milleri. For that purpose, we examined the variation pattern of 239 dental, rostral and mandibular variables in a large set of extant species (n = 135), quantified their discrimination capacity and by forward selection established a set of criteria applicable for identification and comparative analyses of fragmentary fossil specimens.
We found that both extant species occurred in Central Europe with roughly equal number of records both in the Last Glacial and since the beginning of the Holocene.
The late Biharian and early Toringian samples exhibited statistical homogeneity and differences from extant N. milleri – they are reported here as N. newtoni. Tentatively, we proposed a separate status also for the items of the latest Villanyian – early Biharian age (as Asoriculus castellarini). Compared to both extant Neomys sp. and MN 15–17 Asoriculus gibberodon, the above-mentioned samples seem to be characterized by a broad phenotype variation, particularly in the characters associated with assumed Asoriculus-Neomys transition (mandibular unicuspids, distal mandibular structures). Contrary to the hypothesis on parallel appearance of both genera in the Early Pleistocene and the extinction of Asoriculus by the end of the Early Biharian, we consider the Early Pleistocene diversity of the clade as a stage of a broad gradual transition subsequently driven by adaptive advances of Neomys constitution.
In any case, the morphometric comparisons with the non-European representatives of Nectogalini confirmed close relations between both the European genera and distant divergence of the European clade from the extant Oriental clades.

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Abstract

In memory of Oldřich Fejfar

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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