A late Pleistocene deposit of 60 species of vertebrates and 12 of invertebrates is described from Robinson Cave, Overton County, Tennessee, U.S.A. Forty-eight species of mammals are represented by at least 2,483 individuals; 10 % are extinct, 10 % occur in the state only as boreal relicts in the Great Smoky Mountains; 23 % no longer occur as far south as Tennessee; 57 % occur at or near the site today. Nínety-one percent of the Recent mammal species can be found living today in the Minnesota-Wisconsin area, approximately 10 degrees farther north. Fluorine analysis suggests a long period of accumulation. The following 10 mammalian species are recorded from Tennessee for the first time. Sorex arcticus, Microsorex hoyi, Citellus tridecemlineatus, Clethrionomys gapperi, Microtus pennsylvanicus, Synaptomys cooperi, Synaptomys borealis, Zapus nudsonius, Napaeozapus insignis, Martes americana. Six additional species are present as boreal relicts in the Great Smoky Mountains of eastern Tennessee but not at the site today : Sorex cinereus, Sorex dispar, Sorex palustris, Parascalops breweri, Glaucomys sabrinus, Mustela nivalis. Six forms are extinct: Canis dirus, Ursus americanus amplidens, Sangamona furtiva, Dasypus bellus, Mammut americanus,Megalonyx jeffersoni. Twenty-six additional species of mammals, all of the snails, birds, reptiles, and amphibians recovered from the fauna still inhabit the area today: The fauna is indicative of a cold-temperate climatic episode associated with the Wisconsin glaciation, but may be chronologically mixed. 

Stratigraphic studies in the Aktau Mountains bordering the Dzhungarian Alatau Range in southeastern Kazakhstan have included mapping of Tertiary lithostratigraphic units, documentation of fossiliferous deposits, correlation of sections, etc. These investigations have led in turn to revised interpretation of the Tertiary geology of the area. The Tertiary sequence in the Aktau Mountains is represented by three lithostratigraphic units (in ascending order): (1) the middle Eocene Akbulak Formation; (2) the Oligocene Aktau Formation with a lower member including white quartz sands that contain fossil mammals, and an upper member including red-colored clays and sandstones, brick red clays, an anhydrite and gypsum clayey horizon, and bright brown-red clays; and (3) the upper Oligocene-Miocene Chul'adyr Formation with a lower member of greenish and yellowish conglomerates and gritstones, a middle member including grayish and yellowish sands and gritstones, and an upper member including brown and red clays and carbonate- and anhydrite-rich clays. The Aktau and Chul”adyr Formations represent separate cycles of sedimentation. Mammalian biostratigraphy and biochronology of the three vertebrate faunas in Aktau Mountains are reviewed. The mammalian fauna from white sands of the lower Aktau Formation is small but includes Ardynia and is thought to be early Oligocene in age. The mammalian fauna from conglomerates and gritstones of the lower member of the Chul”adyr Formation is also small but includes Paraceratherium and is thought to be late Oligocene in age. The mammalian fauna from sands of the middle member of the Chul'adyr Formation is extensive, with micro- and macrofauna attributed to Neogene mammal zones MN4 to MN 6, indicating a latest early Miocene to earliest middle Miocene age (Orleanian-Astaracian). Most genera of middle Chul”adyr mammals are known from the middle Miocene Shanwang faunas of China and from the Castelnau-d”Arbieu faunal assemblage (MN4-MN6) of southwestern France. 

The discovery in the Turolian (Late Miocene) of Dytiko 3 (Macedonia, Greece) of a complete skull with mandibles and cervical vertebrae, atlas and epistropheus, is a very important contribution to the knowledge of the subfarnily Chalicotheríinae. After the description, the comparison with other specimens of Miocene chalicotheres permits the revival of the generic name Macrotherium with a new species M. macedonicum. This genus is mainly characterized by a short snout and an inflated cerebral skull. It coexists during the Miocene with Chalicotherium. A cladistic analysis leads to conclusion that the species which has been described from the Early Middle Miocene of Rusinga must be identified as the type-species of a new genus: Butleria.





  

The two species of Sandgrouse from Quercy, Pterocles validus MILNE-EDWARDS and P. larvatus MILNE-EDWARDS, are ascribed to the genus Archaeoganga MOURER-CHAUVIRÉ which includes a third, very large species, A. pinguis. The Sandgrouse of Saint-Gérand-le-Puy, Pterocles sepultus MILNE-EDWARDS, is ascribed to a new genus, Leptoganga. This form appears in the Upper Oligocene of Quercy, in Pech Desse and Pech du Fraysse localities, and is still present in the Lower Miocene of Saint-Gérand-le-Puy and Paulhiac. Recent Sandgrouse live in semidesert or desert areas. The indications provided by mammal and bird faunas in the localities where sandgrouse were found, confirm that the paleoenvironment was open and arid. The morphological study of these fossils indicates that, in the Upper Eocene, the Pteroclidae were already completely individualized with respect to Charadriiformes. 

The stapes is the last of the middle ear ossicle chain and the smallest bone of the mammalian skeleton. Because it rests on the membrane of the fenestra vestibuli during life, the stapes may often fall within the bony labyrinth cavity when soft structures decay after death. In this work, we highlight the unexpected role that the bony labyrinth plays in the preservation of the stapes. Systematic investigation of the bony labyrinth of 50 petrosal bones of extinct and extant artiodactyls led to the discovery of eight cases of “intralabyrinthine” stapes. Three dimensional reconstructions of these stapes allow documenting stapes morphology of four extinct artiodactyl taxa: Microstonyx erymanthius (Suidae), Elomeryx borbonicus (Hippopotamoidea), ?Helohyus plicodon (Helohyidae), and an undetermined Cainotheriidae; and four extant ones Choeropsis and Hippopotamus (Hippopotamidae), and Tayassu and Phacochoerus (Suoidea). ?Helohyus plicodon from the Middle Eocene documents the oldest stapes known for the order Artiodactyla. Morphological study and metric analyses of our sample of artiodactylan stapes show that stapes are likely to carry relevant phylogenetic characters/signal within artiodactyls, and a potential Euungulata signature. 

The rodent-fauna (Cricetidae and Gliridae) recently found at Castell de Barbera (Spain) is similar to those from the other locslities of the Valles - Penedes - Can Ponsic 1 and Can Llobateres - : same composition and similar evolutionary level of the different species. On the other hand this fauna is different from those of Upper Vindobonian and Vallesian localities of the Calatayud - Teruel area. Castell de Barbera has an intermediate chronological position between the localities of Anwil (Switzerland) and Can Ponsic 1. It is still not possible to validate or invalidate the initial attribution based on absence of Hipparion of Castell de Barbera to the Upper Vindobonian. 

The new fauna of Collet Redon (Bouches-du-Rhône, France) is dated by three rodents: Megacricetodon aff. bavaricus, Democricetodon affinis mutilus and Peridyromys cf. hamadryas. They correlate this locality with Oggenhof and Ohningen in Bavaria (Western Germany). As the radiometric age of Ohningen is estimated between 14 and 13 M.Y., these three localities are of Serravallian age. This datation brings a complete readjusment of the stratigraphy of the section of Collet Redon formerly described by Collot and Combaluzier. The marine deposits with underly the continental formation with the mammal fauna, are Burdigalian. The angular unconformity between the marine and the continental deposits gives evidence of an episode of emersion on the margin of a sedimentary basin, with deformation and erosion. Owing to the newly discovered fauna, this geodynamical event is clearly settled within the regional geographical and chronological context. Lacustrine and continental deposits of such an age were up to now unsuspected in this area. 

Three new fossiliferous localities, two of karstic origin, Castelnou 3 and Font Estramar, respectively Late Upper Miocene and Lower Pliocene, and one of lacustrine origin, Thuir, Lower Pliocene, add data about the transition between Miocene and Pliocene faunas of rodents in southern France. An unexpected association of taxa was present in the late Upper Miocene, including between others, Myocricetodon, Hispanomys, Ruscinomys, Cricetus barrierei, Promimomys and a new species of Stephanomys, S. dubari nov. sp. Myocricetodon is still known in the Lower Pliocene. It is shown that the large field-mice known since the Late Upper Miocene belong to two different lineages, on one side, A. jeanteti, on the other side, A. gudrunae followed by A. gorafensis. Biochronological and biogeographical implications are discussed. 

The genus Pachynolophus, one of the poorest known of the Palaeotheriidae, includes the brachyodont forms with reduced and non-molariform premolars and with upper molars lacking a mesostyle. Quantitative characters (divers surface indications and elongation of the teeth), while demonstrating a close relationship to Hyracotherium, permit a better differentiation of the genus, confirm its specific splitting, and permit the distinction of three lineages. The skull from Memerlein is taken as the type of a new species, P. Iavocati, of which the dentition is extremely characterized by its lophiodonty, the strong reduction of the premolars and the reduction of the cingula. This characterization testifies to a late age which extends the existence of the genus quite near to the Eocene-Oligocene limit. Compared with the only two skulls known of related species (Hyracotheríum vulpiceps and Pachynolophus Iivinierensis), that from Memerlein is distinguished by progressive characters affecting diferent regions but most particularly the braincase; it is not possible, however, to isolate within this evolution the part which leads to a systematic differentiation. Modernization is translated by a considerable increase in size of the braincase, principally in the frontal region, a development of the facial region with anterior displacement of the dental series and a greater specialization of the masticatory apparatus. This evolution parallels the history of the Equidae of the North American early Tertiary, but certain particularities, the form of the alisphenoid, the presence of an anterior frontal foramen, and the structure of the paroccipital apophysis, testifies to the independance of the European forms. 

Fossils of the Trionychidae, Bataguridae or Emydidae, Palaeophis and Crocodylia from Chattahoochee, NW Florida, USA, represent the first report of an Eocene reptile fauna from Florida. 

The earliest cetaceans are found in the early Eocene of Indo-Pakistan. By the late middle to late Eocene, the group colonized most oceans of the planet. This late Eocene worldwide distribution clearly indicates that their dispersal took place during the middle Eocene (Lutetian). We report here the first discovery of a protocetid fossil from middle Eocene deposits of Senegal (West Africa). The Lutetian cetacean specimen from Senegal is a partial left innominate. Its overall form and proportions, particularly the well-formed lunate surface with a deep and narrow acetabular notch, and the complete absence of pachyostosis and osteosclerosis, mark it as a probable middle Eocene protocetid cetacean. Its size corresponds to the newly described Togocetus traversei from the Lutetian deposits of Togo. However, no innominate is known for the Togolese protocetid, which precludes any direct comparison between the two West African sites. The Senegalese innominate documents a new early occurrence of this marine group in West Africa and supports an early dispersal of these aquatic mammals by the middle Eocene.
  

A new European rodent from the middle Eocene of Spain, Zamoramys extraneus n. gen., n. sp., appears to be closely related to the middle Eocene chapattimyid rodents of Indo-Pakistan. This contradicts the generally accepted paleobiogeographic hypothesis of a Tethyian barrier between Europe and Asia isolating Europe during the middle Eocene. Because of this barrier, some authors have proposed that European and Asian rodents were not closely related, their similarity being the result of morphological convergence. Here monophyly has been tested, using the parsimony criterion, based on an analysis of dental characters (including discussing of homology and the validity of some characteristics). Our results indicate a phylogenetic relationship among the Asiatic Ctenodactyloidea, Zamoramys from Spain, and the European endemic Theridomyoidea. We also conclude from our analysis that theridomyoids and European ischyromyoids are probably not closely related phylogenetically. 

HGL50 is a latest Early-early Middle Eocene vertebrate-bearing locality located in Western Algeria. It has produced the richest and most diverse fauna of amphibians and squamate reptiles reported from the Palaeogene of Africa. Moreover, it is one of the rare faunas including amphibians and squamates known from the period of isolation of Africa. The assemblage comprises 17 to 20 taxa (one gymnophionan, one probable caudate, three to six anurans, seven ‘lizards’, and five snakes). Two new taxa were recovered: the anuran Rocekophryne ornata gen. et sp. nov. and the snake Afrotortrix draaensis gen. et sp. nov. The locality has also yielded the first confirmed anilioid snake, the first Palaeogene gymnophionan, and probably the first caudate from the Palaeogene (and possibly from the Tertiary) of Africa. The presence of a caudate at that time in Africa would be of particular interest; unfortunately, the available material does not permit a definitive identification. The fauna comprises Gondwanan and more specifically West Gondwanan vicariants, probably autochthonous groups and a Eurasian immigrant (assuming that the identification of the caudate is accurate). The fauna from HGL50 is clearly distinguished from the few other Eocene assemblages of Africa. However, if this results largely from differences in geological ages, geographic positions of the localities and mainly differences in environments took a part in the composition of the faunas. 

New faunal and stratigraphical data on the vertebrates localities from the early Paleogene of the Ouarzazate Basin (Adrar Mgorn 1, Adrar Mgorn 1 bis et N'Tagourt 2), Morocco, are presented. A magnetostratigraphical study, the first for such early Paleogene Arabo-African mammal localities, and the discovery of probable remains of the nannofossil Discoaster support the Thanetian age of the Adrar Mgorn 1 site. The magnetostratigraphy suggests a slightly later age than was thought for the Paleogene formations of the local series of Tinerhir and for the vertebrate localities: late or latest Thanetian for Adrar Mgorn 1 and Adrar Mgorn 1 bis, middle Ypresian for N'Tagourt 2. It also indicates a lower position of the KT boundary in the series. Two tons of matrix recovered in the vertebrate sites have vielded new data on the micromammals. A damaged lower molar from N'Tagourt 2 is referable to Khamsaconus bulbosus  and supports the proboscidean affinities of this species and especially possible relationships with bunolophodont taxa such as elephantiforms. A lower molar from Adrar Mgorn 1 bis belongs to a new form which can be identified as a plesiadapiform or an euprimate close to Altiatlasius koulchii though significantly larger. A new material from Adrar Mgorn 1 illustrates a new dilambdodont adapisoriculid species which is referable to Garatherium : ?Garatherium todrae n. sp. Another species referred to Garatherium is known in the locality (?Garatherium n. sp.). Garatherium is a new lineage from the Ouarzazate basin which crosses the Paleocene-Eocene boundary together with Palaeoryctes, Didelphodontinae gen. and sp. 2, Todralestes, and Afrodon, and it is the first Paleocene-Eocene lineage identified outside of this basin (Garatheríum is based on a species from El Kohol, Algeria). Among the Paleocene-Eocene lineages from the Ouarzazate basin, it should be also mentioned a new possible carnassial form (carnivoran or creodont; Adrar Mgorn 1), and an upper molar of Cimolestes cf. incisus (Adrar Mgorn 1 bis). The upper molar THR 168 previously reported as from an indeterminate didelphodontine is here identified as the M1/ of Afrodon chleuhi. The micromammal faunas from the Ouarzazate basin are positioned in the global chronological framework of the mammal localities from the Paleogene of the Arabo-African domain. 

The mammalian fauna of the Tagai locality of Olhon Island in Lake Baikal contains six artiodactyls:
Amphitragulus boulangeri, Lagomeryx parvulus, Stephanocemas sp., Palaeomeryx kaupi, Orygotherium aff. escheri, and Brachyodus intermedius. They are reported from Eastern Siberia for the first time. A description of teeth and limb-bones are given. An analysis of the systematic composition of the Tagai fauna allows it to be correlated with European faunas of the second part of the Early Miocene (Orleanian, MN 3-4) and permit suggestion of the existance of a united European-Siberian zoogeographical sub-area in the middle latitudes of Eurasia at that time. 

The revision of the Rhombodontidae from the Maastrichtian of Morocco led us to the description of a new species: Rhombodus andriesi.

The biometrical study of populations of R. binkhorsti and R. microdon, species sometimes considered as synonymous, supports the conclusion that they represent two distinct species and not young and adult specimens of a single species. The stratigraphical range of these two species confirms this
result.

The reexarnination of type-series studied by C. Ararnbourg led us to revise the generic status of Rhombodus bondoni which is now ranged, because his dental features, in the new genus Dasyrhombodus showing a less derived dentition than Rhombodus. The stratigraphical range of each species is clarified within the phosphatic series. 

Comparison of various measurements of taxonomic evolution using stratigraphic range data for orders, families and genera of land mammals indicates several means by which deficiencies of the South American fossil record (e.g., presence of hiatuses, unequal temporal and geographic representation of ages, unequal systematic treatment) may be normalized, thus permitting a less distorted appreciation of diversity pattern and trend. Initial radiation of native taxa resulted in a relative equilibrium by early Eocene time. Subsequent increases in absolute diversity were apparently induced by immigration at the family level and by environmental factors at the generic level. Miocene through Pleistocene phases of faunal stability, herein characterized as chronofaunas, are punctuated by rapid turnover events resulting from a complex of factors, including adaptive radiation of immigrant taxa into unoccupied eco-space; environmental and concomitant habitat change induced by orogenic events of the Andes; and biotic interactions between native and immigrant taxa, including competition and prey naivete. The first two factors account for major faunal transitions in the South American middle and late Tertiary; immigration-induced turnover may have been of greater importance in shaping the character of the fauna upon the Great American Interchange and the arrival of man in the Neotropics 

Saturnin Garimond (1914-1987), naturaliste autodidacte né à Fons-outre-Gardon dans le Gard, a marqué la paléontologie et l'archéologie régionale par sa passion précoce pour les sciences naturelles. Quittant l'école à 10 ans, il s'instruit seul et explore inlassablement la garrigue, découvrant des sites préhistoriques dès 1930. Collaborant avec Camille Hugues, il fouille de nombreux gisements, dont la grotte de la Verrerie à Montmirat, révélant un outillage moustérien et des restes de néandertaliens. En 1961, il rejoint le Laboratoire de Paléontologie de Montpellier dirigé par Louis Thaler, contribuant à des fouilles majeures comme celle du gisement de Fons 4. En 1965, il permet la découverte du premier mammifère mésozoïque de France au gisement de Champ-Garimond. Membre de la Société Géologique de France, son érudition et sa collaboration ont enrichi de nombreuses recherches. Homme simple et affable, il a marqué tous ceux qui l'ont connu par son enthousiasme et ses connaissances encyclopédiques. 

The exploitation of new early Eocene localities in the Paris Basin has resulted in the collecting of  numerous mammalian remains, among which are about 300 isolated teeth representing the rodents. They belong, for the most part, to the paramyid group. Only the latest level of the early Eocene has yielded rodents belonging to the pseudosciurid group. The paramyids, the object of this study, are represented by at least 5 genera and 10 species; they are distributed among 4 clearly dilferentiated subfamilies : Paramyinae Simpson 1945, Pseudoparamyinae Michaux 1964, Ailuraviínae n. subf., Microparamyinae Wood1962.
It results from this study that the principal types of rodents in the middle and late Eocene of Europe are clearly related to the forms described here: Plesiarctomys Bravard 1850 is related to Pseudoparamys Michaux 1964, Ailuravus Rütimeyer1891 to Meldimys n. gen., Gliravus hammeli Thaler 1966 to Microparamys nanus (Theilard1927), and some Masillamys Tobien 1954 to Microparamys russelli Michaux 1964 and to M. sp. 1. Gliravus and Masillamys are the oldest representatives of the Gliridae and the Pseudosciurídae, respectively, families which will progressively replace the Paramyidae in the course of the middle and late Eocene.
Two stages can be recognized in the history of te European Paramyidae fauna during the course of the early Eocene: the older is characterized by the Mutigny fauna, the younger by the Cuis fauna.
The Mutigny fauna appears already rather diversified and does not completely correspond, point by point, to the homologous fauna of North America. A geographic differentiation seems to have been manifested rapidly, unless the fauna established in Europe was already a little different from that which established itself in North America. 

In recent years, the techniques of chemical preparing have permitted a rich paleontologic material to be obtained from the phosporitic sediment of Bouzigues (Hérault, France). The fauna of this locality is comprised of quite varied microvertebrates, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals. Twenty five species of the latter, belonging to seven orders, are today known from the site. Among them, the numerous rodents have allowed L. Thaler to chronologically situate this fauna in the Zone of Laugnac (<< late Aquitanian ›> of some authors).
The chiropterans are, with the rodents, the best represented of the locality's mammals. Three families comprise the bat fauna, with nearly complete dominance by one of them (Hippoxideridae) over the two others (Megadermatidae and Vespertílionidae)
Six forms are described, of which three are new species and one a new sub-genus.
Megaderma braillomi n. sp., an animal of rather large size, shows like the Miocene megaderms several evolved dental characters, translating the adaptation of these animals to a partially carnivorous regime. The Bouzigues species seems, however, to represent a particular lineage.
Hipposideros (Brachipposideros n. subgen.) dechaseauxi n. sp. and Hípposideros (Brachipposideros) cf. collongenris Depéret, small sized forms, belong to a group rather well represented in the late Oligocene and early Miocene of Europe, and not distinguished until now within the genus Hipposideros.
Hipposideros (Pseudorhinolophus) bouziguensis n. sp., is the most abundant mammal in the locality and, occuring at the Oligocene-Miocene limit, the last representative known of the subgenus Pseudorhínolophus, common in Europe from the middle Eocene.
However, beyond Neogene and Quaternary times, certain among the numerous living species of Hipposideros are close to Pseudorhinolophus and others to Brachipposíderos. 'This fact would in the future justify a global revision of the genus, on the basis of comparative anatomy of the squeleton and of the teeth.
The bat fauna of Bouzigues is completed by two small Vespertilionidae, rare forms, Myoris sp. I and sp. II.