Resumen de Miocene carnivorans from the Vallès-Penedès Basin (NE Iberian Peninsula)
Josep María Robles Giménez
This doctoral dissertation provides an updated review of the fossil carnivorans (Mammalia: Carnivora) from the Miocene of the Vallès-Penedès Basin. Situated in NE Iberian Peninsula, this basin is characterized by a rich fossiliferous record of terrestrial vertebrates. While some groups, such as primates, have been thoroughly studied, the fossil record of carnivorans had not been studied in detail for several decades. After three introductory chapters devoted to carnivoran phylogeny and anatomy, the general methods employed in the dissertation, and the geological and biostratigraphic framework of the Vallès-Penedès Basin, the main body of the dissertation is composed of five chapters devoted to the biostratigraphy of Western Eurasia (with emphasis on the Vallès-Penedès Basin) as well as to the taxonomy and phylogeny of selected groups of carnivorans. In particular, these chapters provide emended diagnoses and cladistic analyses of various taxa¿Trocharion albanense (Mustelidae: Leptarctinae) and Albanosmilus jourdani (Barbourofelidae)¿based on previously unpublished remains from this basin. These chapters further describe new remains of various felids from the genera Styriofelis (Felidae: Felinae), Pseudaelurus (Felidae: Felinae) and Machairodus (Felidae: Machairodontinae), and on their basis they review their chronostratigraphic distribution in the Vallès-Penedès Basin. Significant taxonomic contributions are also done in the appendices of the work. In one of them, a new genus, Kretzoiarctos (Ursidae: Ailuropodinae)¿representing the earliest recorded member of the giant panda lineage¿is described, and their implications for ursid evolution are discussed. In the other appendix, the whole carnivoran record of the Miocene from the Vallès-Penedès Basin is reviewed and updated based on the revision of the available fossil remains. The results of the dissertation are integrated and summarized in the discussion and conclusions, which provide a summary review of the evolutionary history of the Carnivora in the Vallès-Penedès Basin. Overal, this dissertation provides an update of the known fossil record of carnivorans in this basin, mostly from a taxonomic and phylogenetic viewpoint, but further exploring its paleobiogeographic and biostratigraphic implications. It is concluded that 55 carnivoran species, belonging to 11 families, are currently recorded in the Miocene of the Vallès-Penedès Basin. Changes in carnivoran paleobiodiversity through time in this basin are further discussed. Besides the contributions to the knowledge of carnivoran evolution in general, and of the vertebrate fossil record of the Vallès-Penedès Basin in particular, this dissertaion further highlights the need to perform detailed taxonomic studies before using paleontological data published long ago for performing studies of diversity dynamics.
