New finds of rodents and insectivores from the Upper Miocene at Plakias (Crete, Greece)

Abstract

This paper provides new information on the Late Miocene small mammal assemblage from Plakias, which includes a re-evaluation of the rodents described in De Bruijn and Meulenkamp (Proceedings Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, Series B, 75(1), 54–60, 1972) and a description of the rodents and insectivores collected in 2011. Combined, they show a quite diverse fauna, dominated by the eomyid Eomyops cf. catalaunicus. The new collection yielded a hitherto unknown genus of murid (Cricetinae gen. et sp. indet), which brings, combined with Eumyarion leemanni and Cricetulodon cretensis, the number of murids on three. The previous identifications of the scuirids and glirids have been revised. Insectivores, not know from the original collection, are represented by Erinaceinae gen. et sp. indet, Lantanotherium sanmigueli and Paenelimnoecus sp. The assemblage is tentatively correlated to the lower part of MN 9, with an estimated age of *9.9 Ma.