Veratalpa

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Veratalpa
Temporal range: Early or Middle Miocene
Astragalus seen in several views
Astragalus of Veratalpa, seen from above (a), the back (e), and below (i)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Mammalia
Infraclass:
Placentalia
Magnorder:
Boreoeutheria
Order:
incertae sedis
Genus:
Veratalpa

Ameghino, 1905
Species:
V. lugdunensiana
Binomial name
Veratalpa lugdunensiana
Ameghino, 1905

Veratalpa lugdunensiana is a

head
oriented farther from the axis of the foot than in talpids.

Taxonomy

Argentine naturalist

ankle joint. He listed several species of the family Talpidae (moles and related species) from Vieux Collonges, including "espèce C" ("species C"), which he named as a new genus and species, Veratalpa lugdunensiana, in a footnote.[1] In a 1906 review of Ameghino's paper, Édouard Louis Trouessart affirmed that Veratalpa probably represented a new genus of mole, but noted that the specific name lugdunensiana would have been more correctly written "lugdunensis". According to Trouessart, the suffix -ana is appropriate for names that reference persons, but not for those that refer to places, such as this name, which is derived from Lugdunum (the Latin name for Lyon).[2]

In a 1974 review of Miocene European talpids, John Howard Hutchison wrote that the astragalus of Veratalpa lacked any features that would ally it with talpids and commented that it was most likely a rodent.[3] In their 1997 Classification of Mammals, Malcolm McKenna and Susan Bell listed Veratalpa as a member of Placentalia of uncertain affinities.[4]

Description

The astragalus of Veratalpa is the largest among those from Vieux Collonges that Ameghino assigned to Talpidae. Although at 4.5 mm it is about as long as his "species A", it is broader,

articulates with the tibia (lower leg bone)—is not large and pulley-like, as in talpids.[3] There is a small perforation on the lower side of the body. This perforation is larger in Ameghino's other supposed talpids, and Trouessart suggested on the basis of this feature that the internal parts of the toes were reduced in Veratalpa.[2]

Distribution

Veratalpa is known only from the locality of Vieux Collonges near

MN zonation).[7] As Veratalpa is known from a single astragalus, Ameghino considered it to be rare.[1] He distinguished six talpid species among the astragali,[8] but according to Hutchison only Ameghino's species F (which was assigned to Talpidae with a query) is really a talpid.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Ameghino, 1905, p. 53
  2. ^ a b Trouessart, 1906, p. 17
  3. ^ a b c d Hutchison, 1974, p. 237
  4. ^ McKenna and Bell, 1997, p. 81
  5. ^ Ameghino, 1905, pp. 41, 53; Ivanov, 2000, p. 560
  6. ^ Mein and Freudenthal, 1981, pp. 9–10
  7. ^ Ivanov, 2000, p. 560; McKenna and Bell, 1997, fig. 1
  8. ^ Ameghino, 1905, pp. 51–56
  9. ^ Hutchison, 1974, p. 237; Ameghino, 1905, pp. 55–56

Literature cited

  • Ameghino, F. (1905.) La perforation astragalienne sur quelques mammifères du Miocène moyen de France. Anales del Museo Nacional de Buenos Aires, series 3, 8:41–58.
  • Trouessart, E. (1906.) Mammiféres. Revue critique de paléozoologie 1:8–17.
  • Hutchison, J. H. (1974.) Notes on type specimens of European Miocene Talpidae and a tentative classification of old world Tertiary Talpidae (Insectivora: Mammalia) (subscription required). Geobios 7(3):211–256.
  • Mein, P. and Freudenthal, M. (1981.) Les Cricetidae (Mammalia, Rodentia) du Néogène Moyen de Vieux-Collonges. Partie 2: Cricetodontinae incertae sedis, Melissiodontinae, Platacanthomyinae, et Anomalomyinae. Scripta Geologica 60:1–11.
  • McKenna, M. C. and Bell, S. K. (1997.) Classification of Mammals: Above the species level. New York: Columbia University Press, 631 pp.
    ISBN 978-0-231-11013-6
  • Ivanov M. (2000.) Snakes of the lower/middle Miocene transition at Vieux Collonges (Rhône, France), with comments on the colonisation of western Europe by colubroids. Geodiversitas 22(4):559–588.

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