Tragulidae and pecoran ruminants from the latest Middle Miocene (Sarmatian, late Astaracian) of Austria.

Abstract

One of the richest and most complete European terrestrial vertebrate faunas of late Middle Miocene age (12.2¿12.0 Ma; Gross et al., in press) was found near Gratkorn, at the northeastern realm of the Styrian Basin (Austria). It is one of the rare localities from the Sarmatian sensu stricto (late Serravallian) in the Central Paratethys area with a vertebrate fauna, both high in quality as well as rich in quantity. So far, 62 taxa are recorded, including Euprox furcatus, Micromeryx flourensianus and Dorcatherium naui. This is one of the rare records of Dorcatherium naui older than Vallesian and the oldest finding of the species from the Paratethys realm so far. Up to now, Dorcatherium naui of pre-Vallesian ages have only been described from Przeworno (Poland; Glazek et al., 1971), and Abocador de Can Mata (Spain; Alba et al., 2011), which are of latest Middle Miocene age like Gratkorn. Therefore the latter does not only represent one of the oldest records of Dorcatherium naui but also supports the wide distribution of the taxon already at the latest Middle Miocene. In contrast to the site of Abocador de Can Mata, where Dorcatherium naui is an infrequent element (Alba et al., 2011), the species is abundant at the locality of Gratkorn. Apart from this the larger mammal fauna of Abocadar de Can Mata and Gratkorn is quite similar, except of proboscidean and bovid taxa. While in Abocador de Can Mata Gomphotherium, Deinotherium and bovids are present (Alba et al., 2009), in Gratkorn only Deinotherium giganteum was found until now. Bovids were found in contemporaneous sediments in the eastern Styrian Basin (Gross et al., in press), though. With the material of Gratkorn previous ideas on ecological adaptations in Dorcatherium (Rössner, 2004) are supported and the understanding of the ecological niche of the ¿forest-dweller¿ Dorcatherium is specified. Besides new ideas on dispersal, evolution and ecology of Dorcatherium the locality of Gratkorn also enables an in-depth evaluation of its species separation. The specimens from Gratkorn demonstrate, in comparison with other Material from the Paratethys area, a clear distinction between Dorcatherium crassum and Dorcatherium naui and underline the taxonomic separation of both species as accepted by several authors (e.g. Alba et al., 2011). REFERENCES Alba, D.M. et al. (2009). Middle Miocene vertebrate localities from Abocador de Can Mata (els Hostalets de Pierola, Vallès Penedès Basin, Catalonia, Spain): An update after the 2006-2008 field campaigns. Paleolusitana, 1, 59¿73. Alba, D.M. et al. (2011). Middle Miocene tragulid remains from Abocador de Can Mata: the earliest record of Dorcatherium naui from Western Europe. Geobios, 44, 135-150. Glazek, J. et al. (1971). Miocene vertebrate faunas from Przeworno (Lower Silesia) and their geological setting. Acta Geologica Polonica, 21(3), 473-516. Gross, M. et al. (in press). Gratkorn ¿ A benchmark locality for the continental Sarmatian s. str. of the Central Paratethys. International Journal of Earth Sciences, doi: 10.1007/s00531-010-0615-1. Rössner, G.E. (2004). Community structure and regional patterns in late Early to Middle Miocene Ruminantia of Central Europe. Courier Forschungs-Institut Senckenberg, 249: 91-100.