Middle miocene rodents from Paşalar, Anatolia, Turkey

Abstract

Despite the importance of the Paşalar fauna for the evolution and biogeography of Miocene mammals, few studies on its rodents have been published. In this paper a taxonomic analysis of the Paşalar rodents and the possible correlation that can be based on them are presented. Several rodent taxa, previously unknown from Paşalar are described. These include the cricetids Megacricetodon andrewsi sp. nov. and Democricetodon brevis (Schaub, 1925), the sciurids Spermophilinus bredai (Meyer, 1848) and Sciurinae indet., and the glirid Peridyromys lavocati sp. nov. The taxa previously described from Paşalar are: the ctenodactylid Sayimys cf. intermedius (Sen and Thomas, 1979), the cricetid Cricetodon pasalarensis (Tobien, 1978), the spalacid Pliospalax marmarensis Ünay, 1990 and the castorid cf. Chalicomys jaegeri Kaup,1832. These determinations represent a reduction of the number of taxa recorded from the locality, as previous papers listed up to five sciurids. Only two sciurids and two glirids are recognized in this study. Mainly on the basis of the new cricetid records, it is possible to correlate the Paşalar fauna to late MN6.