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.





  

Some fragmentary remains of spines and endoskeletal elements, referred here to as ctenacanthid like elasmobranchs, are recorded in the Middle Devonian of Bolivia. These specimens, and some others from the Eodevonian of Brasil represent the only  Devonian fish remains hitherto known from South America and indicate that further discoveries may be made in their original localities respectively.
  

A new Propalaeotherium species, clearly distinct from the genus Eurohippus, is described. It is characterized by having a similar size as P. voigti from the German Geiseltal localities (MP 11 to MP 13 reference-level), but differs in several features suggesting a slighty more derived morphology. It presents indeed less brachyodont crowns with less prominent and less elevated cingula, slightly larger relative surface of premolars, and a more marked metaconid splitting on cheek teeth. This new species is unknown from other European localities except the nearby Saint-Martin de Londres locality which has been considered older than the MP 13 level. 

The discovery of new hippopotamid material from the late Miocene Baynunah Formation (Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates) has prompted the revision of the existing material of this as yet unnamed fossil taxon. The Baynunah hippopotamid appears to be distinct from all other contemporary and later species in having a relatively more elongate symphysis, a feature similar to the earlier (and more primitive) Kenyapotamus. Yet, the Baynunah hippopotamid presents a dentition typical of the Hippopotaminae. It is therefore a distinct species attributed to the later subfamily, described and named in this contribution. This species provides further evidence for a ca. 8 Ma evolutionary event (termed “Hippopotamine Event”) that initiated the spread and ecological significance of the Hippopotaminae into wet habitats across Africa and Eurasia. The morphological affinities of the new species from Abu Dhabi suggest that the Arabian Peninsula was not a dispersal route from Africa toward southern Asia for the Hippopotamidae at ca. 7.5 Ma to 6.5 Ma. 

The study of endocasts, or casts of the endocranial space, have played an important role in shaping understanding of mammalian, and particularly primate, brain evolution. Recently, the reconstructions of three-dimensional virtual endocasts from high-resolution computed tomography images have allowed for the visualization and quantification of endocasts in several Paleocene and Eocene primate species. Here we present the virtual endocast of MaPhQ 289 (informally known as the Montauban 9 skull), a specimen of Necrolemur antiquus Filhol 1873, a middle to late Eocene European primate of the family Microchoeridae. The virtual endocast of MaPhQ 289 reveals a lissencephalic surface morphology with expanded temporal poles and minimal overlap of the cerebellum or olfactory bulb by the cerebrum, which closely resembles the morphology of the endocast of its contemporary relative, Microchoerus erinaceus (Primates, Microchoeridae). MaPhQ 289 yields an endocranial volume (ECV) of 2.36 cm3, about 60% smaller than the volume of the most commonly cited ECV of N. antiquus. Thus, the size of the brain of N. antiquus relative to its body size is likely to be smaller than has been reported in previous literature, highlighting the importance of corroborating older ECV estimates with new evidence using 3-D imaging techniques. 

A new example of parallelism in the dental pattern ofthe Theridomyidae is illustrated by the description ofa new species: Theridomys Iudensis from the standard level of Antoingt (middle Oligocene). Considering the occurence ofthis parallelism phenomenon. the use of numerous qualitative and quantitative criteria is essential to characterize the different stages ofthe different evolutive lineages. Thus, a new simple parameter is proposed (CHY = H+l/0,5 L) to estimate hypsodonty of the medium hypsodont Rodentia. 

The two species of Sandgrouse from Quercy, Pterocles validus MILNE-EDWARDS and P. larvatus MILNE-EDWARDS, are ascribed to the genus Archaeoganga MOURER-CI-IAUVIRÉ 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, Lepzoganga. 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 subfamilies Murinae and "Dendromurinae" both include 4 species at Chorora. Among the former, while Preacomys nov. gen. seems to be a forerunner of Acomys, the affinities of the remaining, poorly known taxa, are more difficult to evaluate. The bulk of the fauna, remarkably, consists of Dendromurines. Their similarities with those of Ngorora tends to pull the site back in time, but the large size and diversity of Murines fit better an age more recent than the very beginning of the Late Miocene.

  

The study of all the available skulls allows us to review the systematic relationships of the longirostrine Steneosaurus from the Middle Jurassic of western Europe. Up to now, Aalenian and Bajocian deposits have not yielded any significant Steneosaurus remain. In the Bathonian, the only valid longirostrine species, S. megistorhynchus, is known in the Britain-Normandy Basin, the Poitou and the Lorraine. In the Callovian, most of the longirostrine Steneosaurus remains can be attributed to the species S. leedsi. Nevertheless, some remains from the Middle Callovian of Poitou (France) show important differences with S. leedsi. A new Steneosaurus species, only known in Poitou, is created and named S. pictaviensis. The specific characters are carried by the skull (preorbital pit well marked, orbit and ptetygoid fossae shapes), by the mandible (symphysis shape) and by the teeth (ornamentation). S. megistorhynchus is probably situated near the stem of the Callovian species but remains from the Bathonian and Lower Callovian are very scarce and it is very difficult to precise the phylogenetic relationships between the longirostrine species of the Middle Jurassic.
  

Le présent volume traite des lagomorphes, carnivores, artiodactyles, périssodactyles et proboscidiens de la faune de Montredon (Hérault). Il clôt la monographie de ce célèbre gisement d'âge miocène supérieur du Languedoc, dont la première partie, relative aux rongeurs, insectivores et chiroptères, fut publiée en 1982.
[...] 

Le présent volume est l'aboutissement d'un projet né il y a presque cinq ans. En décembre 1991, l'un d'entre nous (MG) prenait des contacts en vue de proposer un symposium sur les mammifères fossiles, dédié à D.E. Russell, dans le programme du 4e Congrès de la European Society for Evolutionary Biology. Ce congrès, baptisé "Evolution 93", devait se tenir à Montpellier en août 1993. Son Comité d'Organisation, animé par F. Catzeflis, recherchait des organisateurs de symposiums. L'idée fut acceptée avec enthousiasme par le second d'entre nous (PDG), et le titre de notre Symposium fut précisé: " Palaeobiology and Evolution of Early Cenozoic Mammals - A Symposium in Honor of D.E. Russell". Le projet fut formellement accepté par le Comité d'Organisation en avril 1992. 

Near "la Lieude", in the Lodève basin, more than a thousand of footprints are distributed in a twenty of trackways which amounts to 220 m length. They have been found on calcareous siltstone level in the B site named also "Réserve Naturelle Volontaire". This last is located in the Saxonian summit dated Upper Permian. "La Lieude" tracks are described by using statistical methods then they are compared with others from the world Permian. What allows to distinguish 4 following ichnotaxa: Lunaepes ollierorum nov.ichnosp., Merifontichnus thalerius nov. ichnogen. and nov. ichnosp., Planipes brachydactylus nov.ichnosp. and Brontopus circagiganteus nov. ichnosp. All these traces are attributed with possibility or probability to Therapsida or to Therosauria, except Brontopus circagiganteus nov. ichnosp. that could be due to Caseamorpha. All these animals whose sizes have been estimated between l and 5 m lived probably in a playa environment.The biological and sedimentological data from "la Lieude" footprints levels compared with informations provided by the tracks orientations, suggest the following scenario. Animals coming from the North have crossed a sandy channel bank with plants zones by directing to the South for the majority. Maybe, they were going to the lacustrine part of the playa, close to "la Lieude" footprints that they have just trampled on. 

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. 

Messiphoca mauretanica nov. gen., nov. sp. représente le premier Phocidae fossile recensé en Afrique du Nord. Provenant du gisement sahélien (Miocène supérieur) de Raz-el-Aïn (Algérie), il est connu par quelques os du membre antérieur (humérus, radius, ulna), quelques vertèbres dorsales et un crâne très fragmentaire. La description de cette forme nouvelle amène à considérer Messiphoca mauretanica comme un Monachinae archaïque proche de l'origine du groupe Pliophoca - Monachus. L'incidence de cette interprétation d'un Phocidae «pré-Messinien ›› sur la crise de salinité du Messinien est aussi envisagée. 

Deux types de remaniements post mortem me paraissent caractéristiques de l'état de conservation des dents de mammifères fossiles dans les Phosphorites du Quercy :

1) Des destructions localisées d'origine biologique, sous forme de galeries de morphologie très variable creusées dans la dentine et le cément, et impliquant sans doute la participation de différents types de micro-organismes. Ces altérations se sont développées peu de temps après la mort, avant la fossilísation proprement dite et se sont rapidement arrêtées après l'enfouissement dans le sédiment phosphaté.

2) Des perturbations dans les structures de la dentine liées aux variations locales de minéralisation, provoquées par une imprégnation diffuse des zones les moins calcifiées par divers minéraux et probablement surtout de l`apatite. 

The Las Águilas site near Porvenir de Jalpa, Coahuila, Mexico, is extremely rich in tetrapod remains comprising both bones and trackways of several dinosaur taxa of late Campanian age. Within a 50 m thick section we identified at least nine layers with dinosaur bone assemblages. In one of these the dinosaur bones are associated with remnants of eusuchian crocodilians, turtles, plesiosaurs, pterosaurs, tyrannosaurids, dromaeosaurids, parksosaurid, hadrosaurids, ceratopsids, and ankylosaurs. This layer is also rich in coprolites of turtles, crocodilians and likely theropods, thus providing evidence for the wealth of Late Cretaceous vertebrate life in the area. 

Two new Squalicorax species, S. benguerirensis nov. sp. and S. microserratus nov. sp. are described from the Lower Maastrichtian of the Benguérir phosphate open mine, Ganntour deposit, Morocco. The species S. benguerirensis nov. sp. was classically assigned to S. yangaensis since Arambourg (1952) and has been also recognized in coeval deposits from eastern USA to Mid-East. The species S. microserratus nov. sp. correspond to the lateral teeth of S. kaupi as reported by Arambourg (1952) and which is now referred in fact to S. bassanii. The comparison of these two new species with other Anacoracids, known in Moroccan or elsewhere, allows highlighting the great taxonomic and ecological diversities of this family during the Cretaceous.
  

The rodents (Cricetidae, Gliridae, Sciuridae) found in lacustrine, brackish marine and karstic sediments of Miocene age in Languedoc, assign the position of the different localities in the scale of "niveaux repères" used by mammalogists. Some detailed stratigraphical studies bring several correlations between this continental biochronological scale and the marine scale ; the most important results are the Aquitanian age of the "niveaux repères" of Coderet and Paulhiac, the Burdigalian age of Laugnac, Estrepouy, Vieux-Collonges, La Romieu and Sansan and the Langhian or Lower Serravallian age of La Grive M. The correlations between the Tethys and the Central Paratethys for the Lower Neogene profit also of these results, since the locality of Neudorf Spalte 1, 2 (Czechoslovakia) is shown to be younger than Sansan (France). The paleontological study has also several geological inferences for the Miocene of Languedoc ; with the calibration of this Miocene, we know quite precisely that the Lower Miocene is chiefly a time lacustrine sedimentation, and also that the marine Miocene sedimentation ends early in the Miocene Period, in Langhian or lower Serravallian times. 

Study of pantolestid mammals from the late Ypresian locality of Prémontré (reference level MP 10) allows the recognition of three genera: Palaeosinopa. Pantolestes and Premontrelestes n. gen. Pantolestes, up to now only recorded from North America, is represented by P. sabatieri n. sp. Premontrelestes n. gen., represented by the type species P. duchaussoisi n. sp., is compared with Pantolestes and Buxolestes. The latter, known from middle Eocene sites in Europe, has not been recognized at Prémontré. Two other taxa, the first of which is close to Pantolestes and the second of Premontrelestes n. gen. are left in open nomenclature.    

A short review of the genera and species of snakes from the Quercy's phosphorites described by former authors is followed by the study of specimens recently collected. Most of these latter specimens belong to the Aniliidae, Boidae, Colubridae and to the Scolecophidia; the precise systematic position of some of them is not defined yet. The following genera and species are described: Eonilius europae nov. gen. and nov. sp., Platyspondylia lepta nov. gen. and nov. sp., Coluber cadurci nov. sp. and Dunnophis cadurcensis nov.  sp.; a species described by de Rochebrune (Palaeopython filholi) is revised. One of the most important conclusions of this study is that the Colubridae appear as early as the Upper Eocene. The stratigraphic repartition of these snakes shows that the rich Upper Eocene fauna is followed by the very reduced fauna of the Lower Oligocene; then the oligocene «Grande Coupure» corresponds to a very important faunistic renewal. The fauna remains poor and little diversified during the beginning of the Middle Oligocene after which there is a new faunistic explosion.