Mygalinia, Schreuder, 1940

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 : 6

Genus MYGALINIA Schreuder, 1940 cf. Mygalinia hungarica ( Kormos, 1913)

Figure 3.1

Material. Verkhnya Krynitsa 2 ( MN 11/ MN 12), left m2. MNI = 1. Catalogue number 29/2/2.

Description. The tooth ( Figure 3.1 ) is more massive than mole teeth of the subfamily Talpinae . Its trigonid and talonid are more or less of the same size, the oblique cristid reaches the tip of the metaconid and the re-entrant valley is deep. The cingulid is protruded and surrounds the anterior, buccal and posterior sides of the tooth. The lingual cingulid is absent, the parastylid and entostylid are present.

Measurements. See Table 2.

Systematic Position and Distribution. The combination of such characters as massiveness, the presence of protruded cingulids, a large trigonid, parastylid and entostylid indicate that the tooth represents the second lower molar (m2) belonging to the subfamily Desmaninae , and its small size suggests the genus Mygalinia Schreuder, 1940 . The teeth of small Storchia Dahlmann, 2001 known from Germany (MN11–MN15) have much more narrow lower molars and those of Ruemkelia (even the smallest species) are larger (see Table 2).

The genus Mygalinia is represented only by one species M. hungarica ( Kormos, 1913) . It was described as Galemys hungaricus Kormos, 1913 from Polgárdi 2 and 4 in Hungary (MN 13) and listed later by Guerin and Mein (1971) in several localities of France (Soblay [MN10], Mollon [MN11], Lobrieu [MN11], Lissieu [MN13], Hauterives [MN14], Hautimagnes [MN14]). As the studied material is very scarce (one tooth) and the description of the typical specimens ( Kormos, 1913) is limited, the m2 from Verkhnya Krynitsa 2 is tentatively identified as cf. M. hungarica .

Figures

FIGURE 3. 1, cf. Mygalinia hungarica from Verkhnya Krynitsa 2, left m2, occlusal view (c.n. 29/2/2/1); 2, Ruemkelia sp. from Verkhnya Krynitsa 2, fragment of left m2, occlusal view (c.n. 29/2/3/1).