Neomysorex alpinoides ( Kowalski, 1956 )

Rzebik-Kowalska, Barbara & Rekovets, Leonid I., 2016, New data on Eulipotyphla (Insectivora, Mammalia) from the Late Miocene to the Middle Pleistocene of Ukraine, Palaeontologia Electronica 12 (1), pp. 1-31 : 18-21

Neomysorex alpinoides ( Kowalski, 1956)

Figure 9.3

Material. Verkhnya Krynitsa 2 ( MN 11/ MN 12), two right fragments of mandible with p4–m3, without processes. MNI = 2. Catalogue number 29/2/10.

Description. The typically soricine p4 is doublecusped with the postero-lingual basin and the buccal overhang over the root. Its buccal and lingual cingulids are wide. The lower molars have high entoconid crests, their lingual border shows strong convexity (boat-shaped), and wide cingulids are lingually less developed and protruding than buccally. The talonid of m3 is unreduced ( Figure 9.3 ). The mental foramen is placed underneath the re-entrant valley of m1.

Measurements. See Table 8.

Systematic Position and Distribution. The small size and the morphology of the lower molars, especially the navicular shape of their lower lingual border, rare in Soricinae species (present only in very small Paenelimnoecus and larger Hemisorex ), as well as the posterior position of the mental foramen suggest their affiliation to Neomysorex . This genus was described from the younger (MN14) locality Podlesice in Poland ( Rzebik-Kowalska, 1981) and was also listed from another Polish locality Zalesiaki 1B (MN14/15?; Rzebik-Kowalska, 1994).

It was previously found in older (MN11) Ukrainian localities Frunzovka 2 and Mikhailovka 2 ( Rzebik-Kowalska and Nesin, 2010) and also mentioned by Nesin and Nadachowski (2001) from the Late Ruscinian (beginning of MN15).

Figures

FIGURE 9. (1-2) cf. Asoriculus sp. from Popovo 3: 1, fragment of right mandible with coronoid process, buccal view (c.n. 29/III/9/1). 2, fragment of right mandible with m2-m3, lingual view (c.n. 29/III/9/2). (3) Neomysorex alpinoides from Verkhnya Krynitsa 2, fragment of right mandible with p4–m3, lingual view (c.n. 29/2/10/1), (4-6) Neomys newtoni from Medzhybozh: 4, left condyloid process, posterior view (c.n. 29/4/11/2); fragment of left mandible with m1–m2, in 5, lingual, and 6, occlusal view (c.n. 29/4/11/1).