This paper presents a preliminary list of insectivores from the Vallesian beds at Montredon (France). The associated rodent fauna has established a Vallesian age for the fauna. Eleven species belonging to the Soricidae, Talpidae, Erinaceidae, and Dimylidae are identified of which four only are referred with certainty to forms already named. 

A new Tertiary megadermatid is described from Rackham's Roost Site, a Pliocene limestone cave deposit on Riversleigh Station, northwestern Queensland, Australia. It appears to represent the first Australian record of Megaderma GEOFFROY, 1810, a genus otherwise known from Tertiary African and European taxa and the living Asian species M. spasma (LINNAEUS, 1758) and M. (Lyroderma) lyra PETERS, 1872. Megademza richardsi n. sp. is one of the smallest megademiatids known. It exhibits a mixture of plesiomorphic and autapomorphic features, the latter appearing to exclude it from being ancestral to any living megadermatid. The new species is one of eight megadermatids identified from the Australian fossil record, most of which are referable to Macroderma MILLER, 1906. 

Editorial for celebrating the publication of the volume 20.

La revue PALEOVERTEBRATA a été fondée en 1967 par Louis THALER, à une époque où il n'existait, au plan international, que deux périodiques uniquement consacrés aux vertébrés fossiles. Actuellement ce nombre n'est que de quatre. A l'origine la revue fut essentiellement créée pour diffuser les résultats des chercheurs du Laboratoire de Paléontologie de l'Université de Montpellier, alors en début d'expansion et plusieurs thèses et de nombreux travaux directement liés à des thèses y furent publiés ce qui n'excluait déjà pas la publication d'articles d'auteurs étrangers.
[...] 

Les Carnivores Fissipèdes de Sainte-Néboule appartiennent tous au genre Cynodictis et semblent constituer une population homogène. Celle-ci se distingue suffisamment des espèces déjà décrites pour constituer un taxon particulier : Cynodictis lacustris neboulensis n. s. sp. . L'étude des variations à l'intérieur de cette population nous a conduit à reconsidérer les critères utilisés pour définir les espèces existantes et à regrouper certaines d'entre elles. Il semble qu'il demeure cependant trois lignées distinctes dans le genre Cynodictis mais le matériel nous paraît encore insuffisant pour traduire cette remarque en termes de systématique. 

Two steps can be distinguished in the history of the first invasion of western and south western Europe by the arvicolines. The first step corresponds to the installation of these rodents with the immigration of Promimonys inxuliferus Kowalski, then of Mimomys stehlini Kormos and of Mimomys gracilis (Kretzoi). The second is characterized by the establishment of a geographic differentiation in the arvicoline fauna between the south of France and Spain, from where are described new species of Mimomys (Mimamys cappettai, Mimomys septimanus, Mimonys medasensis), and the rest of France, where are found only elements already known from central Europe or England (Mimomys polonicus Kowalski, Mimomys pliocaenicus F. Major, Mimomys reidi Hinton, or forms very close to the latter). This geographic differentiation, which is very certainly the consequence of the division of Europe into distinct climatic provinces, one of them being the southern province comprising at least Spain and southern France, could result from a cladogenetic evolution of Mimomys stehlini and Mimomys gracilis after their immigration. The present work is also a contribution to the search for correlations between the diverse micromammal localities of the latest Pliocene (or early Villafranchian) and of the early Quaternary of Europe. 

Abstract not available 

The ventral face of the Paulchoffatiinae skull (Multituberculata, Lower Kimmeridgian, Portugal) is new reconstructed. Some details hitherto unknown are added, as the presence of jugals, the structure of the palatine and the extension of the pterygoids. The situation of the m2/ is discussed. Kielanodon hopsoni n. g., n. sp. is erected, known by its upper p3-5/. From Guimarotodon leiriensis the mandible with its dentition is made known. New informations concerning the milk-dentition and the replacement of teeth are also added. 

Micro-CT imaging is an increasingly popular method in paleontology giving access to internal structures with a high resolution and without destroying precious specimens. However, its potential for the study of hypoplasia defects has only recently been investigated. Here, we propose a preliminary study to test whether hypoplastic defects can be detected with micro-CT (μCT) scan and we assess the costs and benefits of using this method instead of naked eye. To do so, we studied 13 fossil rhinocerotid teeth bearing hypoplasia from Béon 1 (late early Miocene, Southwestern France) as positive control and 11 teeth of the amynodontid Cadurcotherium (Oligocene, Phosphorites du Quercy, Southwestern France), for which enamel was partly or totally obscured by cement. We showed that all macroscopically-spotted defects were retrieved on 3D reconstructions and selected virtual slices. We also detected additional defects using μCT scan compared to naked eye identification. The number of defects detected using μCT was greater in the Cadurcotherium dataset (paired-sample Wilcoxon test, p-value = 0.02724) but not for our control sample (paired-sample Wilcoxon test, p-value = 0.1171). Moreover, it allowed for measuring width and depth of the defects on virtual slices (sometimes linked to stress duration and severity, respectively), which we could not do macroscopically. As μCT imaging is both expensive and time consuming while not drastically improving the results, we recommend a moderate and thoughtful use of this method for hypoplasia investigations, restricted for instance to teeth for which enamel surface is obscured (presence of cement, uncomplete preparation, or unerupted germs). 

Abstract not available 

Carolocoutoia ferigoloi gen. et sp. nov. is the largest of protodidelphid marsupials, known from Middle Paleocene levels at Itaboraí Formation, southeastern Brazil. It differs from other members of this family in having molars with low cusps which are basally inflated, rounded crests without cutting edges, and a thick enamel layer which is wrinkled, specially at the labial half. A comparative analysis among representatives of this family led us to recognize only three genera undoubtely assignable to it:  Protodidelphis PAULA COUTO, 1952, Robertbutleria MARSHALL, 1987, and Carolocoutoia gen. nov. Protodidelphids lack the basic derived features diagnostic of Polydolopimorphian marsupials, while most of its derived features agree with its belonging to the Didelphimorphia. Protodidelphids comprise a specialized clade of opossum-like marsupials adapted to frugivorous or frugivore-omnivorous feeding habits. They differ from other didelphimorphians in having very large, spire-like entoconids, reduced and antero-posteriorly compressed paraconids, absence of stylar cusp C and of para- and metaconules, large stylar cusps B and D which are proximate to each other, short postmetacristae, eccentric protocones, and molars that increase rapidly in size from M/ml to M/m3.
  

Besides Dendromurids and Murids, the Chorora Rodents include 7 taxa, two of which are new. Afaromys nov. gen. is a Cricetodontine with very complicated lower molars, certainly isolated for a long time from Eurasian species. A Paraphiomys, with tetralophodont upper molars, is also quite different from other East African species, and its roots should probably he searched in the middle Miocene. Other taxa are less original, and more similar to the South Asiatic ones. 

The Arvicolid evolution results in an increase of the dental structure complexity. The M3/ differenciation seems to characterise the tribe subdivisions, that of M/1 being variable from one to another lineage. The phyletic relationships of fossil lineages are discussed from a paleogeographic point of view. 

The eggshell of Nicobar scrubfowl (Megapodius nicobariensis) is described for the first time. Its egg porosity is calculated and discussed with data from several taxa (another megapode, some extant and fossil reptiles including a titanosaur group) in order to compare incubation types with eggshell structure. Eggshell microstructure reflects first phylogenetic traits and does not seem to have developed major adaptative features due to the incubation conditions, except for the pore canals. 

ATLAS OF MESOZOIC AND CENOZOIC COASTLINES, par Alan G. SMITH, David G. SMITH & Brian M. FUNNELL, 1995. Cambridge University Press, 99 p., 31 cartes, 3 tab!., 2 fig. ISBN 0-521-45155-8.

L' "Atlas of Mesozoic and Cenozoic coastlines" succède avec bonheur aux "Mesozoic and Cenozoic paleocontinental maps" de Smith & Briden, publié en 1977. 

An unpublished mandible of the large hyracoid Titanohyrax andrewsi from the early Oligocene Jebel Qatrani Formation, Fayum Depression, Egypt is described. This specimen has a twofold importance. Firstly, it opens an unexpected window on early paleontological research in the Fayum because it was discovered as early as 1904 by the French paleontologist René Fourtau during an expedition to the Fayum organized by the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris (MNHN). This expedition has remarkably never been mentioned in the literature. Secondly, the mandible documents the best-preserved specimen of T. andrewsi, permitting a revision of one of the very rare Paleogene hyracoids. Interestingly, the new mandible was discovered two years before the first report of the species by Charles W. Andrews. The hypodigm of T. andrewsi is reviewed and the dentition as a whole is compared in detail, notably with other Titanohyrax species from the Fayum. The validity of the large Titanohyrax “schlosseri” species is discussed, but a pronounced sexual size dimorphism for T. andrewsi is favoured. 

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. 

Two species lineages of North American late Paleocene Plesiadapis exhibit a pattern of size divergence from a common ancestral lineage. Time series of fossils in each of these lineages are analyzed to test the idea that size divergence represents competitive character displacement. The critical factor in a test of character divergence is showing that divergent lineages evolved directionally rather than randomly (multifactorially). Analysis of evolutionary rates and their temporal scaling in Plesiadapis shows that both divergent species lineages have the scaling slope expected for lineages evolving randomly rather than directionally, and size divergence in Plesíadapis does not represent character displacement. Rates of evolution commonly observed on a per-generation time scale are high enough to produce character displacement within a few generations. Thus character displacement is not likely to be visible on scales of time that can be studied in the fossil record. 

A sample of 231 isolated teeth of lagomorphs from the upper Miocene of Montredon (southern France), identified as the ochotonid Prolagus crusafonii DOPEZ, 1975, is studied, comparing it with other populations of the same species as well as with its closest species P. oeningensis (KÖNIG, 1825).
The maintenance dining 5 m.y. of a high morphological variability in a group of non-selected features is interpreted as an evolutionary response. This may be related with the heterogeneity and probably too with the regression of the environment. 

Voici une centaine d'années débutait sur les Causses du Quercy l'exploitation des phosphorites qui devait permettre d'amasser des collections de Vertébrés fossiles uniques au monde. Ces fossiles firent l'objet de nombreuses publications et les noms de Filhol, Gaudry, Schlosser, Stehlin, Teilhard de Chardin sont attachés à ces premières études.

Après quelques années de prospection, les fouilles dans le Quercy ont repris en 1965, organisées par les laboratoires montpelliérains et parisiens. Ces premières recherches ont été aidées par le Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique qui a organisé une « table ronde» pour faire le point des premiers résultats obtenus. Ceux-ci ont été jugés suffisamment prometteurs pour que le C.N.R.S, ait décidé de poursuivre son effort par l'intermédiaire d'une Recherche Coopérative sur Programme.



  

The Caudata are known by two Salamandridae ; one of them is attributed to the genus Megalotriton. The Pelobatidae form the major part of the Anura ; a few bones indicate also the presence of Neobatrachia.